The Arkeia media server is a node which controls data storage devices, such as tape drives.
A backup job copies data to be backed up from a client to a media server. The media server uses an attached storage device to write the backup data to the storage media. A restoration job requests the restoration data from the media server, which reads it from the storage media using an attached storage device.
Media servers, and the flow of data between client and storage media, are controlled by the backup server in both jobs. In a single-node installation, the backup server and the media server are the same machine.
There are two types of media server in Arkeia Network Backup: