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The B100 node provides accelerations with NDMP two-way backups. The NDMP two-way backup is also known as the local or direct NDMP backup. The backup moves the backup data directly from the PowerScale cluster to the tape devices without moving to the backup server over the network. This backup model is the most efficient model and usually provides the best performance.
To perform NDMP two-way backups, you can connect the PowerScale cluster to a B100 node. The B100 node is synonymous with a Fibre Attached Storage node without adding primary storage and offloads NDMP workloads from the primary storage nodes. You can then connect supported tape devices directly to the Fibre Channel ports on the B100 node. Alternatively, you can connect Fibre Channel switches to the Fibre Channel ports that connect tape devices to the B100 accelerator node.
The B100 accelerator node benefits backup operations through: