The ADAMM database and the database server are important components of the SAN Shared Storage Option. To protect against possible loss of the ADAMM and catalog databases, you should run frequent backup jobs of the entire Backup Exec directory tree on the shared database server.

When scheduling backups of the database server's Backup Exec directory, base the frequency of these backup jobs on the rate at which backup sets are being created and the number of tapes affected by all of the media servers on the SAN. All backup sets and tapes affected since the last shared database/catalog server backup would have to be recataloged if all information on the database server was lost.

Create a special media set just for backing up the Backup Exec directory tree and the Windows operating system on the database server. This will reduce the number of tapes that must be cataloged to find the files for restoring the ADAMM database and catalogs.

If the database server is not operational, Backup Exec is unusable on all of the servers on the SAN. The Intelligent Disaster Recovery Option is strongly recommended for protecting the database server. Should this entire system be lost, you can use IDR to quickly recover this system.

If you deem the Backup Exec functions to have a high availability requirement, you should consider setting up one of the other media servers on the storage network as a standby primary server.