HOWTO - How to manage a server from another domain on your CASO server

[CraigV]

Our work environment consists of multiple domains, with all the sites running Backup Exec 12.5. Normally we’d have to have licenses for 2 CASO servers (1 in each of our site domains). However, it is possible to manage a server in another domain using your CASO server centrally.
The question to ask is why you would want to do this, and answer would be to have 1 central location to manage all backups, and respond to any alerts. It also means 1 server from which to report.

In order to manage a server in another domain, you need to ensure the following:

1. Trust between both domains needs to exist. 2-way trust works best. If this doesn’t exist, then this method probably won’t work. You need to add in service account details between domains.
2. Service account in each domain with administrator credentials. The service account running Backup Exec will work.

The following section sets out how I configure my servers to point to a single CASO server. I am currently doing this on 2 child domains, which point to my CASO server in another domain.

1. On your CASO server, do a search for, and open the hosts file.
2. Put in the IP and server name (FQDN) of the server in your other domain. Ie: 192.168.0.2 SERVER1.domain
3. Save the hosts file.
4. Make sure you can now ping the IP address of the server, and that it resolves to that server name.
5. On your Local Admins group, put in the service account of the other domain (remote domain). This only needs to be done once on the CASO server, unless you have multiple domains.
6. Open up Backup Exec on the CASO server, and go too: Network
   > Logon Accounts
   > New
7. Put in the details of your other domain’s service account:
     Domain\Account
     Password
     Password (verify)
     Description (not necessary, but it keeps it understandable when you see what the account is for)
8. Log onto your remote server you want to manage on the CASO server with the service account for that domain.
9. Open the hosts file on the server, and put in the IP address and name (FQDN) of the CASO server.
10. Save the hosts file, and make sure you can ping the IP address of the CASO server, and that it resolves the name correctly.
11. Perform steps 6 and 7 above to create a new user account, but use the service account of the CASO server’s domain.
12. On your Local Admins group on the server, add in the service account running in the CASO server’s domain.
13. On the CASO server, and on the server in the remote domain, change the Media Server you are looking at, and make sure you can connect to the server you are trying to monitor from the CASO server, and vice versa. This will verify that you can access using the usernames you have created on each.
14. I perform these steps as an addition to the above:
    a. Rename the backup device to: SiteName_HP1
    b. Rename the media sets to: SiteName Daily Media Set eg. Site 1 Daily Media Set.
    c. Rename the job/GFS policy to: SiteName Job Name
    
    The reason I make these changes is simply to distinguish between the jobs and backup hardware on each server. If I don’t, it shows all server jobs going through to Daily Media etc. Which will end up being confusing for someone trying to see where their jobs are running too, or to which media.
15. Add the server to the CASO environment. I do this last after making the changes above, as it’s quicker to do this as a local change, rather than a change that must replicate out to the CASO server.

Due to the speed of the links on some of the sites (Africa and Asia), I generally keep the catalogs and job information local on each server. They simply report their job, media, and hardware status in to the CASO server, where our service desk checks on a daily basis.

Using this method, I can now manage my servers in 3 domains, from 1 console, needing only 1 CASO license.