BE 2012 and Hyper-V backup best practices

[gmunyadzwe]

I am having issues, more into how best to do it... Here's how my environment is setup:

1. I have 2 sites, one primary and the other secondary and ofcourse for fail over
2. The site hosts a hyper-v environment
3. The hardware comprises of IBM HS22V blades as hosts and the VM's boot from a V7000 storage device (both sites)
4. The VM's are distributed among the blade farm
5. OS - 2008 R2 Data centre (VM hosts), 2008 Enterprise R2 for the VM's

In this environment hosts for the following VM's;

• Exchange 2010 DAG
• SQL 2008 cluster
• System center 2012 with VMM, SCOM, SCCM
• File and Print
• AD
• Forefront threat manageent gateway
• Symantec (BE2012, EV10, SEP 12)

...all totalling 60 servers. Using BE2012, what will be the best backup method to use...? I have all Symantec BE agents available; hyper-v, win servers, apps, dedup, etc. I am backing up the into free space from the same V7000 where im hosting the VM's...thats what the client wanted.

My issues....

• Im told the V7000 is enterprise class storage and there are very little or no performance issues into booting from and backing up into the device...how true? with my little knowledge, even the smallest read write will make a difference
• For now i am backing up the DAG only (but will be adding other servers soon), which spans a whooping 1.6TB. Without using dedup option, the backup takes welll over 48hrs...is this normal? Thought the B2D would be quicker...
• The dedup is now on day 3 and the size is slightly above 1.45TB, thought it would be smaller with a bit of compression
• I have heard of backing up CSV's and also the VSS option. Are they likely to add any value in my backup, in terms of speed, recoverability, space efficiency, etc

My solution is to have the best backups that would increase levels of recoverability.

Any advise is highly appreciated

[Jaydeep_S · Accepted solution]

Hyper V option would be the right choice in this senario as BE is CSV aware and can backup VMs even incase of failures on the host. Using Hyper-V option you would have the ability to restore the entire VM as such and also some GRT data from the VM (File and supported applications)

Having said that there are a few limitations to this -

1. BE will not be able to perform App GRT enabled backups of distributed applitions on VMs like Exchange DAG, SQL Cluster, dstributedSharePoint. These setups would need to be backed up using a traditional method (Remote Agent)

2. Assuming the BE server is virtual machine, then it also can't be backed up using the HyperV agent and would have to be backed up using a traditional method (Remote Agent)

3. Ideally it would be better to backup to a different storage in case there is no redundency on the V7000 for obvious reasons.

4. It is not recomended to hv a virtual Backup Exec Server for the main reason of compatibility issues backing up to a Tape device.

Here are some important links to get videos and training materials -

Hyper-V backup using Symantec Backup Exec 2012 - top articles, videos, guides
http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO79567

Backup Exec 2012 - where to find manuals, videos and trainings.
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/backup-exec-2012-where-find-manuals-videos-and-traini...

[gmunyadzwe]

Thanks Jaydeep for the advise.

I have an additional blade that i can use as a BE server. Whats the best quick win into achieving this, just uninstall the backup exec and agents and do a fresh installation on the blade, or is there a way i can migrate the stuff from the VM into the blade?

Note that the only backup running from the server currently is the DAG, other servers have agents and are not being backed up for now. I will be backin them up very soon as they are almost complete.

Best regards