NetWorker Backup Terminology

This article provides an overview of NetWorker backup terms.

To understand the backup process, you need to understand these backup terms associated with the NetWorker product.

The save program runs on the NetWorker client and is used to back up a save set.

A save set is one or more files, directories, and/or file systems, or application-generated data, residing on a NetWorker client, that is backed up as a unit to a NetWorker storage node and written to a volume.

A save stream is a single save set in the process of being backed up or recovered.

A volume is a physical piece of storage media, such as a magnetic tape or a file system directory, to which backup data is written.

A pool is a NetWorker resource that represents a collection of NetWorker-labeled volumes. Pools are configured with attributes that match save set characteristics, allowing the NetWorker server to determine which set of volumes a save set should be written to during a backup.

A resource is any configurable NetWorker component such as a client, backup device, or group.

A group is a resource to which one or more clients are assigned. Groups specify the time of day that the set of clients start backing up, or, with probe-based groups, the time of day when probing occurs. With a probe-based group, the backup is triggered by successful execution of one or more user-defined client probes.

A schedule is a NetWorker resource that specifies the level of client backup to perform on any given day.