Patent ID: 8352434

Claim:
A method, comprising: associating backup data sets on at least one machine in a network with a backup node; associating a plurality of agent nodes in the network with the backup node, wherein the agent nodes comprise machines in the network capable of backing up the backup data sets associated with the backup node; processing a schedule indicating a scheduled backup to backup scheduled data sets associated with the backup node; contacting at least one of the agent nodes to determine whether the agent node is available to perform the scheduled backup; assigning the scheduled backup to the contacted agent node in response to determining that the agent node is available to perform the scheduled backup; and contacting the at least one of the agent nodes assigned the scheduled backup over the network to request the at least one contacted agent node assigned the scheduled backup to perform the scheduled backup and backup the scheduled data sets, wherein the at least one contacted agent node assigned the scheduled backup performs the scheduled backup to backup the scheduled backup sets.