The Symantec Backup Exec for Windows Servers - Central Admin Server Option (CASO) is installed as a separate, add-on component of Backup Exec for Windows Servers. If your organization includes more than one Backup Exec media server, you can benefit from using CASO.

When CASO is installed in a Backup Exec environment, one media server, known as the central administration server, delegates jobs to managed media servers across the network. Job delegation is the automatic load balancing of jobs across available managed media servers in the CASO environment.

The following graphic shows a local area network (LAN) environment with a central administration server and several managed media servers.

The same communications that occur over a LAN between the central administration server and the managed media servers take place over a WAN.

The following graphic shows CASO installed in a Backup Exec SAN Shared Storage Network environment.

All backup information in the CASO environment can be centralized on the central administration server. You can filter this information to display it for each managed media server, or to display it by media server pools (groups of managed media servers).

The managed media servers are managed by the central administration server. They perform the actual processing of backup and restore jobs. You create jobs on the central administration server by associating policies and selection lists. Then, you target the jobs to run on a managed media server or in a media server pool. The jobs are delegated, or load-balanced, across the available storage devices on the managed media server or media server pool. Centralized restore jobs can also be delegated to managed media servers.

Additionally, the central administration server can function as a managed media server and process delegated jobs. A managed media server can also run jobs that are created locally at its local Administration Console.