Dell EMC Avamar for Windows Servers 19.7 User Guide

How Avamar works in a Windows Server 2019, 2016, or 2012 cluster with SOFS or SMB

Avamar uses a proxy architecture to back up and restore file system data on shared storage in a Windows Server 2019, 2016, or 2012 for SOFS or SMB cluster. The shared storage can be a Scale-Out File Server (SOFS) or a clustered file server for general use, or Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0 file shares on a file server.

The following figure illustrates a Windows Server for SOFS or SMB cluster environment with Avamar.

You install the Avamar Client for Windows and the Windows Cluster File Server plug-in on a single node in the cluster. Then you run the Avamar Cluster Configuration Tool to configure the Avamar proxy cluster client on the node.

When you back up or restore file system data on shared storage, you select the Avamar proxy cluster client as the client to back up or restore from. You use the Windows Cluster File Server plug-in to perform the backup or restore.

The Avamar server communicates with the proxy cluster client on the proxy node to back up and restore file system data on shared storage in the cluster, regardless of which node is managing the data.

When you back up data with the Windows Cluster File Server plug-in, you can restore the data either with the Windows Cluster File Server plug-in or the Windows File System plug-in.