Forum Discussion

viper77's avatar
viper77
Level 2
10 years ago

What exactly is included in Backup Exec V-Ray Edition 2014?

Hello all

I've read so many technical articels, blogs, white papers about the licensing from BE V-Ray 2014 but my confusion grows and grows...
Even a sales employee from Symantec has given me information which has not made this topic clearer.

So, let me explain:
We've bought Backup Exec V-Ray Edition 2014 for a customer of us. As it is licensed per socket we've bought enough licenses for 3 ESXi Servers.
We only need the Media Server, the Exchange Agent for GRT and 10 RAWS.
Our internal sales departement then bought the V-Ray Licenses because they've read information about unlimited agent installation on virtual machines.

So, my main question is, can I install as many RAWS I like?
Every time I install a RAWS on a virtual server I see the other day a message in the log which explains, that v-ray edition does not cover installation on physical servers...

I've read also that with V-Ray Edition I should make Image Based Backups and not usual backups with RAWS.
But for image based backup we are using another tool, not Backup Exec.

Do we have bought the wrong license for our requirements?

If you need additional information to help me, let me know.

Thanks for any input!

 

Regards, Pascal

2014
Backup and Recovery
Backup Exec
Licensing
Not Applicable
Virtualization
  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    10 years ago
    When you backup the entire VM with BE, you can restore individual files/folders from this same backup. This is GRT. You can also restore individual Exchange items from this backup. You don't need to redirect the files or Exchange items during a restore. They can go back to the original location. I don't know why you need another product to backup the entire VM. This is the purpose of having the BE VMWare agent license. An unlimited Agent for Application and Databases licenses is included in the V-Ray edition, but you need to buy them if you only buy the VMWare agent license. The VMWare agent license only includes unlimited AWS/RALUS license. If your customer is on a current maintenance contract then he could have upgraded all the licenses for free and only need to buy the VMWare agent licenses. He would have saved a bundle. I hope your customer is not looking at this forum

6 Replies

Sort By
  • CraigV's avatar
    CraigV
    Moderator
    10 years ago

    Hi,

     

    THe blog by Kate Lewis on the link below will explain it all for you:

    https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs/whats-included-backup-exec-v-ray-edition

    While written for BE 2012, the concepts and licensing are the same for BE 2014.

    THanks!

  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    Moderator
    10 years ago
    When you licensed a host with a hypervisor agent, be it VMware or Hyper-V, you are entitled to install any number of AWS/RALUS into the VM's hosted on the licensed host. You don't need the V-Ray edition for this, just the hypervisor agent. If you did not buy the V-Ray edition, you would need to buy the core BE license, an Agent for Applications and Databases license for Exchange and 3xVmware agent licenses. The V-Ray edition is good for people who needs a lot of Agents for Applications and Databases licenses. I don't know what you have in mind when you say image based backup. With a hypervisor license, you can backup the entire VM and restore the entire VM, something like backing up the vmdk and restoring it
  • viper77's avatar
    viper77
    Level 2
    10 years ago

    Hello pkh

    Thanks for your answer.

    So, when I read your comment, then I think we bought the wrong Edition...
    The customer has only one exchange server, all other servers are file servers.

    With image based backup i mean what you write: backing up the whole VM and restore the whole VM.
    But the customer wants to backup and restore single files within the VM, like on a physical server. And he wants to restore files to the same location as the files were before.
    For backing up the whole VMs we have another product in use, not Backup Exec.

    And with the hypervisor agent, correct me if I wrong, I can only backup the whole VM and restore the whole VM. I've read, that I can do single file restores but I have to redirect the files to another location. That's not what our customer wants.
    And another topic I've read is that with the agent for applications and databases the agent for windows servers is already included???

    At the moment our customer has a backup exec 12.5 installation in use (yes, very old).
    He has the core license for the Backup server itself, the exchange license for GRT and 11 remote agents for windows servers. This is exactly what I need for Backup Exec 2014.
    But as I wrote in my first comment, our sales peoples bought V-Ray edition, because they had in mind with the V-Ray edition you can install as many remote agents for windows servers if you like.

    Thanks for your answer.

    Pascal

  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    Moderator
    10 years ago
    When you backup the entire VM with BE, you can restore individual files/folders from this same backup. This is GRT. You can also restore individual Exchange items from this backup. You don't need to redirect the files or Exchange items during a restore. They can go back to the original location. I don't know why you need another product to backup the entire VM. This is the purpose of having the BE VMWare agent license. An unlimited Agent for Application and Databases licenses is included in the V-Ray edition, but you need to buy them if you only buy the VMWare agent license. The VMWare agent license only includes unlimited AWS/RALUS license. If your customer is on a current maintenance contract then he could have upgraded all the licenses for free and only need to buy the VMWare agent licenses. He would have saved a bundle. I hope your customer is not looking at this forum
  • viper77's avatar
    viper77
    Level 2
    10 years ago

    Hello pkh

    Thank you so much for your information.
    You are the first person who gives helpful information to me.

    It's a different story, why we use another product to backup the entire VM.
    I will handle that internal at our company, also the situation with our customer.

    The main facts for me are:
    With the VMware agent I'am allowed to install unlimited RAWS and RALUS on the virtual infrastructure.
    With the Agent for Application and Databases I'm allowed to backup as many Exchange, Sharepoint, SQL Servers I like.

    My final question is:
    The Backup Server itself is physical (Windows Server 2012 R2). Do I need to buy a AWS to backup the server itself or is it included?

    Thanks for your answer.

    Best regards
    Pascal

     

    Also I found the following information on a whitepaper:

    Virtual Machine Backup Methods
    When protecting VMware or Hyper-V virtual environments with Backup Exec 2012 SP2 and the Agent for 
    VMware and Hyper-V, users have the option to protect virtual machines using any of the following methods:
    • Image-level backups - capture entire snapshots of virtual machines associated with the virtual host, 
    which enables full virtual machine recovery and granular file and folder recovery.
    • Agent-assisted image-level backups (recommended) - a form of image-level backup that includes 
    additional application protection and recovery functionality, including full application recovery and 
    granular application recovery. This is enabled by the Agent for Windows being installed into the virtual 
    machine; an agent-assisted backup is not an agent-based backup—backups are still image-level.
    • Agent-based backups – legacy backup method; backups are captured by a local agent installed to a 
    virtual machine; essentially treats the virtual machine as if it were a standalone physical server. This is 
    recommended only in situations where image-level backups are not optimal, such as when protecting 
    virtual machines configured with Physical Compatibility Mode RDM disks

  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    Moderator
    10 years ago
    BE comes with an AWS license to backup the media server itself. You need 1 Agent for Applications And Databases agent license for each application/database on each virtual/real machine. For example, you have Exchange and SQL Server on 1 machine, then you will need 2 Agent for Application and Databases licenses to back these up. The Agent for Application and Databases license does not allow you to backup unlimited applications/databases If you are buying a hypervisor agent license just to install unlimited AWS/RALUS, then you are wasting your customer's money