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Chapter 1. Storage Agent Overview
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Storage Area Networks is a feature of Tivoli
Storage Manager that enables LAN-free client data movement.
This feature allows the client system to directly write data to, or read data from,
storage devices attached to a storage area network (SAN), instead of passing or
receiving the information over the network. Data movement is thereby off-loaded
from the LAN and from the Tivoli Storage Manager server, making network
bandwidth available for other uses. For instance, using the SAN for client data
movement decreases the load on the Tivoli Storage Manager server and allows it to
support a greater number of concurrent client connections. See Figure 1 on page 2.
The storage agent, a component of the feature, makes LAN-free data movement
possible.
The storage agent can support several clients while installed on only one of the
clients. You can install the storage agent on a client machine that shares storage
resources with the Tivoli Storage Manager server (Figure 1 on page 2) or on a
client machine that does not share storage resources but is connected to a client
machine that does share storage resources with the Tivoli Storage Manager server.
Figure 2 on page 2shows multiple clients connected to a client machine that
contains the storage agent. You must specify the LANFREECOMMMETHOD
option in the client system options file (dsm.sys) to allow the client machine (that
shares storage resources) to communicate with the storage agent. A Tivoli Storage
Manager server, acting as a library manager, controls the storage devices. This
server may be the server working in conjunction with the storage agent or another
Tivoli Storage Manager server in the enterprise. The Tivoli Storage Manager server
keeps track of the metadata that the client has stored. The metadata, such as policy
information and file name and size, is passed over the LAN connection between
the storage agent and server.
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