You can combine individual backup mediums to form parallel mediums. When parallel mediums are used for backup, the MaxDB database passes two or more named pipes to NetBackup for SAP. NetBackup for SAP starts as many backup streams as there are named pipes. It processes each named pipe independently from the rest of the named pipes in the backup job. If the policy and the storage unit are configured for multiplexing, the streams can be interleaved on the same tape.

Even if a backup is done in parallel, you can perform a restore of that data in either the parallel or sequential mode. In other words, parallel backups do not require parallel restores.

When the MaxDB database requests a parallel restore by listing multiple named pipes in an input file, NetBackup for SAP processes each pipe independently from the rest of the named pipes. Note that the MaxDB database requires that the number of media in a group of parallel media equal the number of media used during backup.