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Kingston's avatar
Kingston
Level 4
13 years ago

Agent for Apps & DB - mandatory?

Hello,

We have some SQL servers and a Sharepoint server.

Using BE 2012 .

Wondering whether having the Agent for Apps & DBs is required to perform a successful backup of our SQL and Sharepoint Servers? Note, we don't need granular restore. We are happy to restore the entire VM for the SQL and Sharepoint servers. But I can't seem to figure out whether a usable backup will be performed if the Agent for Apps and DBs is not installed.

(Basically trying to save on licensing costs, because I believe that an Agent for Apps and DB license is required for each & every SQL database..!)

Thanks,

Nev

 

2012
Agents
Backing Up
Backup and Recovery
Backup Exec
  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    13 years ago

    Since you are willing to restore the entire VM, then there is no need for the agent for DB and apps licence.  If you decide later on that you need granular restore, then you can add in the licence.  When you back up the VM, you can still restore single file/folder when you install the remote agent in the VM, but not applications or DB.  With the AVVI/AMHV licence, you are entitled to install remote agents in any number of VM's on the physical host which is licenced.

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  • CraigV's avatar
    CraigV
    Moderator
    13 years ago

    Hi,

     

    If you want to do live restores into an SQL DB, then the agent will help with this.

    If not, you can do a backup of the entire VM (you need RAWS to do file-level restores), but you might not get backups of the *.mdf files etc. BE has Active File Exclusion which would exclude those files during a normal backup.

    In this case, schedule a backup of the SQL DBs using SQL's backup utility.

    THe thing to consider is whether or not you'd ever need to restore into SQL/Sharepoint, and weigh up the cost of getting the DB agent vs. doing it 2 or 3 times longer with multiple steps.

    If you have the cash available, get the agents...

    Thanks!

  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    Moderator
    13 years ago

    Since you are willing to restore the entire VM, then there is no need for the agent for DB and apps licence.  If you decide later on that you need granular restore, then you can add in the licence.  When you back up the VM, you can still restore single file/folder when you install the remote agent in the VM, but not applications or DB.  With the AVVI/AMHV licence, you are entitled to install remote agents in any number of VM's on the physical host which is licenced.

  • Kingston's avatar
    Kingston
    Level 4
    13 years ago

    Thanks CragigV and pkh for your responses. Very useful.

    pkh, you mentioned that "With the AVVI/AMHV licence, you are entitled to install remote agents in any number of VM's on the physical host which is licenced."

    Do you know where I can find some written licensing documentation from Symantec that confirms this statement?

    (Also, when you say remote agents, I assume you are talking about RAWS? Just making sure I haven't misunderstood.)

    What I'm planning on doing is using the SQL back product called "SQLBackupAndFTP" to backup the SQL databases to disk in the VM. Then I can use RAWS to backup the data. This will end up being significantly cheaper.

     

     

  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    Moderator
    13 years ago

    Yes. By remote agent, I mean RAWS/RALUS.  I don't have any documentation, but in the past, Symantec employees have stated this in the forum.  You can confirm this with Symantec Licencing as they are the final authority on licencing matters.

    What you save by buying the other product may be out-weighed by the increased complexity in your backup and restore procedures and the extra manpower required.

  • Kingston's avatar
    Kingston
    Level 4
    13 years ago

    Thanks pkh,

    What you save by buying the other product may be out-weighed by the increased complexity in your backup and restore procedures and the extra manpower required.

    Absolutely. There isn't too much complexity in this case. SQLBackupandFTP saves SQL backups to disk on a scheduled basis, it is all quite automatic, and sends any backup alerts via email. A license for lifetime upgrade costs a once-off $179 per server. Contrast this to an Symantec Agent for Apps and DBs - around $300 for just ONE database per YEAR!!

    Thanks for your replies pkh, I'll contact Symantec to confirm the licensing. I have to say though, it's annoying that it is not written anywhere. How are people supposed to be compliant when the rules aren't told. Nothing at all is mentioned in the Symantec Backup Exec 2012 Licensing Guide. It is mentioned in this guide for SBE 2010 though, they need an updated guide for SBE 2012. 

    (see page 12, q. 2)..

    http://eval.symantec.com/mktginfo/enterprise/other_resources/b-backup_exec_2010_r2_agent_for_ms_hyper_v_FAQ.en-us.pdf

  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    Moderator
    13 years ago

    The licence for DB and apps is per server, not per database and what you are paying every year is the maintenance/support.  The licence itself is perpetual.

  • Kingston's avatar
    Kingston
    Level 4
    13 years ago

    Yes, but if we don't pay for the maint/support we aren't entitled to new versions. I still think that $300 per database per year is very expensive for this.