These are some terms we use quite liberally – both in this document, and in our user interface. So here’s a short description of what each of them means.

StoreGrid General Terminology:

StoreGrid Server:

A StoreGrid Server receives (and stores) backup data from StoreGrid Clients.
The backed up data is stored in the machine which runs the StoreGrid Server – a PC can run StoreGrid server if you plan to store data on that PC.
If you wish, the same machine can run StoreGrid Server and StoreGrid Client. This would be the case in a true P2P deployment, or if you have a backup server that will in turn be backed up, as well.

StoreGrid Client:

A machine that has data it wants to back up has to run StoreGrid Client.
The StoreGrid Client backs up its data on to a machine running StoreGrid Server.
If you wish, the same machine can run StoreGrid Server and StoreGrid Client. This would be the case in a true P2P deployment, or if you have a backup server that will in turn be backed up, as well

StoreGrid ID:

This is the unique ID each installation of StoreGrid is identified with. StoreGrid will prompt you to give an ID during the installation. It will automatically take the machine name as the StoreGrid ID by default.

(anyone who purchases a paid license of Vembu StoreGrid is also a StoreGrid client )

Client-Server:

A Client-Server architecture is a concept in which many clients are served by a single or multiple servers. In the context of Vembu StoreGrid, multiple clients (Desktops) can backup to a single Backup Server or multiple Backup Servers.
The Backup Servers are generally dedicated to a particular purpose, in this case, to store the backed up data.

Replication:

Term used for the process where a backup server sends its backup data to a replication server to create a redundant copy of the backup data.

StoreGrid Replication Server:

A machine that receives replication data from a backup server. In case the backup server crashes, it can be restored from the replicated data in the replication server. A backup server can replicate to only one replication server. A replication server can accept replication from more than one backup servers.

StoreGrid Web Console:

This is the browser based StoreGrid user interface from which the backup, restore and administration of StoreGrid servers and clients are done.
Since the user interface is browser based, any StoreGrid Client or Server can be configured and administered from any location.

Peer-to-Peer (P2P):

In P2P, individual entities like Desktops (Peers) exchange information with each other without the help of a central server. In a true P2P architecture, all peers are equal and participate in some form of network activity. In the case of Vembu StoreGrid, which can be deployed in a P2P fashion, the Peers (Desktops) use each others free disk space to backup data between each other. In the case of a true P2P deployment both the StoreGrid Server and the StoreGrid Client will run in the same machine as a single process.

Remote / Online Backups :

The same as client-server (see above), except that the ‘server’ is outside the clients’ network.