The Client Agent utilizes Push technology to help perform backup and compare jobs. You should think of the Push Agent as a remote processing agent. The Push Agent runs on a remote client enabling communications between the ARCserveIT host server and the remote client. All the filtering of files and directories is done on the client machine prior to pushing the data to the ARCserveIT host server (the server running ARCserveIT) for back up or compare.
Push technology minimizes the transfer of data to the ARCserveIT host, because the Client Agent sends only the data that is needed for backup, thereby reducing the load on your communications network and speeding up the backup. The host server can operate more efficiently since it no longer has to filter the data for the backup job.
Specifically, backups of a remote client without the Push Agent operate on the basis of a series of "per file" requests. This mode is an essentially passive one as far as the remote client is concerned. The host server has to request files from the remote client one file at a time.
In contrast, the Push Agent operates on the basis of a "per job" request. In this mode, the host server sends an entire list of files to the remote client at one time. The Push Agent then enables the remote client to take an active role in the process by "pushing" all the requested files to the host server (instead of having them "pulled" one at a time by the host server).
In this way, use of the Push Agent results in considerable savings in both network traffic and time, because it eliminates the series of "request/acknowledge" packets that otherwise have to be transmitted for each file. The Push Agent also reduces the host server's processing load by taking over the file processing task.
To take full advantage of ARCserveIT's backup capabilities, the Push Agent must be installed on each client that you want to include in your backup schedule.