US Patent 7437388 Protecting data for distributed applications using cooperative backup agents

A method and mechanism for performing backup and restore operations in a computing system. A computing system includes a first agent on a first host, a second agent on a second host, a plurality of data sources, and a backup server. The backup server sends a first request to the first agent for a logical backup data set that is distributed on the plurality of data sources. The first agent, in response to the first request, conveys a first portion of the logical backup data set from a first data source to the backup server and sends a second request for backup data to the second agent. The second agent conveys a second portion of the logical backup data set from a second data source to the first agent in response to the second request.