BE 2010 R3: How to back things up (Exchange, VM's et c.)

[MIXIT]

Hi all.  I'm just trying to get a handle on the conceptual side of how to properly use BE 2010 R3 to back up my server setup.  To be specific, I have:

1 physical server, 2008 R2 Ent.

On it are 4 VM's (Hyper-V):  VM1 = AD, VM2 = File storage, VM3 = Exchange 2010 Std., VM4 = not used yet but will host SharePoint eventually

This version of BE2010 has all Agents & Options enabled because it's a copy for NPO's. 

I'm trying to grasp how the bacxkups would work.  For example, if we did a full backup in BE of each VM, in theory, everythign is covered.  But then if I want any granular restore options, I also need to use the specific agents involved. most notably I can think of the Exchange agent, but my understanding (which is likely incomplete or wrontg) is that this only backs up mailbox databases which is great if I needed to restore just the db or an individual email for example but doesn't address the org config, the connectors, etc etc.  I don't want to have to manually re-create my Exchange environment and only be able to restore a mbx db...

But in disasster planning, I"m looking at this stuff and realizing I have no idae how to set things up so restorials are easy.  If the server died (hardware failure), how would I get 1 physicla host plus 4 VM's with all their relevant services and functions back to exactly the state they were in up to the backup?  Do I create an old school full file system/system state backup of the physical host OS, plus do VM babckups using the VM agent for BE, plus do the Exchange backup via the agent for that, and who knows what else?  it seems there's overlap in the data that gets backed up, and I just know that during a restore situation I'll be completely lost as to how to proceed.  For example would I manually install 2008 R2 on the physical machine, install BE, then do restores but in what sequence, etc. etc. 

I hope the confusion is apparent here :) Please advise! and thank you. 

PS:  I have a choice of going to BE 2012 - should I do that first before getting into all this? 

[GHoranJR]

I am pretty new to all of this as well and would love to have an overview of what you are talking about.

[CraigV]

Hi,

The Exchange agent covers everything. There would be no point backing up just the data if you have to redo everything else related to Exchange.

If you have disk space, then the suggestion is always to run a VM backup to disk first, and then stream off to tape using a duplicate job once done. You have the benefits of taking data offsite, and fast restores as it is already on disk.

If a server dies, you'd bring the Hyper-V server back up to OS level, and then install Backup Exec (or the RAWS agent), and then simply restore the VMs to Hyper-V.

If you don't have the disk space, then split your backups up between data/System State/AN Other in 1 job, and DBs (Exchange/SQL etc) in another. Use AOFO with the data backup, and don't use AOFO when running DB Backups.

Read my article in the Articles section on how to do this.

Best thing then is to check the links below for further advice:

Dedupe:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO21767

Exchange:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO21796

Hyper-V

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO21770

SharePoint:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO21789

AD:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO21776

Backup-to-Disk:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH164267

Thanks!

[MIXIT]

I'll review those links and formulate any questions from that point but one thing I am wanting to ask now is, I read somewhere in the BE2012 marketing that it handles VM's better.  This raises the question of what does it not do well enough in BE 2010 for Symantec to say it's better in 2012? Anyway, I will review all those links plus I'll look for the article you mentioned you'd written. 

Thanks and I'm sure I will reply again soon. 

[pkh]

To recover your machine, do the following

1) install the OS

2) install BE

3) restore the entire machine

5) restore your VM's as a whole.  You don't have to restore what is inside your VM's separately.

You can use IDR (BE 20100 or SDR (BE 2012) to automate the restore of the physical host.

[CraigV]

...it's got to do with BE 2012 V-Ray Edition...check it out below:

http://eval.symantec.com/mktginfo/enterprise/fact_sheets/b-symc_backup_exec_2012_vray_edition_overvi...

Thanks!

[MIXIT]

I am about to review CraigV's stuff, but pkh, when you say to install the OS, would that also include all Windows Updates?  I assume the goal would be to have the host OS as close to what it was prior to the failure requiring the restore, yet, does the backup perhaps overlay a base OS install (without updates applied yet) with the entire host OS as it was prior?  Just that downloading/installing windows Updates from scratch can take an hour or two at times - would be nice to know that the restore from tape would avoid the need to patch the OS upon the initial recovery install. 

[CraigV]

...if you have the System State and a full backup of the server in question, it would restore everything to the point-in-time of the backup, including patches etc.

[pkh]

There is no need to install any OS updates because to recover the server, you restore the entire C: drive and then the system state.  This should bring the server to the state that is was when the backup was taken.

[MIXIT]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies again.  I haven't had time yet to review all this but will do so.  I'll revisit this thread in a few weeks after some other projects are done with.