The data protection system must be regarded as a 'mission critical' element of any modern data center. The design of any data protection system must, as far as possible, eliminate single points of failure so that data can be recovered to an acceptable state and point in time in the event of data, server or site loss.

This paper looks at the components of a data protection system based on NetBackup and outlines a number of different configurations and solutions aimed at both reducing the risk of failure within a particular site and recovering from the loss of the site.

Although this paper has been written for NetBackup 6.5 GA and NetBackup 6.5.1 many of the concepts described here can also be applied to NetBackup 6.0. It uses a "good"/"better"/"best" classification in certain areas to indicate the merits of one solution over another. In general these classifications may be regarded as follows:

• Good - provides an adequate solution in smaller environments and environments where data is less critical.
• Better - provides a more robust solution, generally at increased cost or complexity.
• Best - provides the best currently available solution but often at significant cost.