11d to 12 - any DFS changes ?

[Dennis_Thornton]

Has there been any improvements in the backup of DFS shares?  The current method of disabling DFS to do the backups is awkward and too prone to failure.

Message Edited by Dennis Thornton on 03-10-2008 09:23 AM

[RahulM]

The issues with DFS backups were resolved in BEWS 11 itself.

[Dennis_Thornton]

So I can back up a DFS share directly and I can redirect the restore in 11d and 12?  I don't have to turn off the DFS service and back up the data from one of the servers it resides on?

[Dennis_Thornton]

bump

[Ken_Putnam]

Do  the following TechNotes address your questions

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/299300.htm

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/299487.htm

[Dennis_Thornton]

Can the restore be redirected?  Those links don't say it can (neither do they say it can't).  The issue I'm familiar with in 11d is:

You cannot back up a DFS share (if you do the job shows as successfull, but only folder structures are backed up).  You must back up the data on the root directly (I.E. D:\UserShares instead of \\domain\dfsshare\usershares).  Restores cannot be redirected.

If you turn off the DFS service you can then back up the data directly and restores can be redirected.  This requires a pre and post job.  DFS is compromised during the backup as no replication can occur while the service is disabled.  Any sessions that are connected to the data on the DFS server the service is stopped on can experience program crashes and/or loss of data.  A failure of the backup job or a failure of the post job could leave the DFS service disabled and could result in chaos (slow response for users)

I really wish they would fix the logon issue with these forums. 

[Ken_Putnam]

'Fraid you're gonna have to wait for a response from Symantec on this, sorry 

What logon issue? 

[Dennis_Thornton]

Every time I want to post (if I've been away for a while) I have to log in again, unlike every other forum on the internet (Symantec, are you listening?).

[Dennis_Thornton]

RahulM,

Any comments?  Can you expand on your post?

[RahulM]

The DFS uses MESH replication technology and for backing up the DFS data you need to do it using the DFS writers provided by Microsoft (a component of VSS).Since this is a snaphot backup it cannot be reditected as that is a limitation of the snapshot technology.

[RahulM]

As for having to login again to post,unfortunately even I have to do the same as the session eexpires after a certain period of inactivity.I will pass this on to the concerned team to see if we can make any changes.

[Dennis_Thornton]

I opened a thread in the "forum feedback" section.  Nothing has come of it.  Apparently someone (or a group) in that team just don't get it.  All we need is a checkbox in our profile that allows us to stay logged on, or not.  Not allowing this to a group of IT professionals (that fully understand security issues) is plan dumb.

So basically v12 has the same DFS considerations as 11d and will require the same "work arounds".

[Dennis_Thornton]

See my post here:

https://forums.symantec.com/syment/board/message?board.id=be12_general&message.id=186&jump=true#M186

[Vijay_S_Mishra]

With BEWS 12 ,  redirected restore of DFS data is possible .

[RahulM]

I take my earlier post back.

We have  tested a redirected restore of DFS data and it works fine.

Please follow the article below to backup the DFS data.

How to backup the Windows Distributed File System (DFS) and File Replication Server (FRS) Data with Backup Exec for Windows Servers version 10d and above

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/296168.htm