BE2012 - GRT on Exchange2010 VM

[Steve_Kratz]

Platform ESXi vSphere 5.0. Exchange 2010 has a 560gb private info store on it. When I back up the VM via the VMWare module, it completes successfully, but I get a warning that GRT restores are not possible because VSS was unabe to retrieve application-level settings from the server. (Exchange is the most important of my VM servers, but a couple of machines that had SQL on them failed in a similar manner.)

Ideas?  The KB article from Symantec isn't very helpful on this particlar situation.

[VJware]

Are you able to backup GRT Exchange using the RAWS agent ?

[Steve_Kratz]

I'm actually in the process of running one of those right now to test... (All credential tests for the VM AND info stores pass by the way)

[Steve_Kratz]

Do the VMs need to have the VSS Writer driver installed via VMWare Tools?  I'm finding that the default install of VMWare tools do NOT have this selected...

[VJware]

Based on few issues which I have encountered, I would suggest do not install VMware VSS driver, rather install the RAWS in the VM...

[pdalte · Accepted solution]

Hi.

I agree, you should install the Backup Exec Remote agent in the VM (it is licensed for every VM if you purchased the agent for the VMware ESXi Server).

This will enable you to use the Backup Exec VSS Provider, which is required for granular backups. This agent should be installed after VMware Tools, and may have to be reinstalled after upgrading VMware Tools in the future. Another option is to run the post-thaw-script.bat. You can read about this here:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH129724

According to that document, the VMware Snapshot provider is automatically uninstalled and replaced by the BE VSS Provider, when installing Backup Exec Remote agent.

Regards, Pedro.