BE2012 and virtual machines

[GoldenTait]

I am looking for confirmation that customers able to backup ESXi-hosted virtual machines with Backup Exec 2012 without needing vCenter. Would they be able to backup and restore virtual machines (including hard drive data) from Backup Exec 2012 directly from an ESXi host without needing vCenter?

[Ben_L_]

Yes, you should be able to backup and restore virtual machines directly from the ESXi host as long as there is a license for the vStorage API's on the ESXi host.

[Steve_Kratz]

Fulls are working for me from the free ESXi box I have... (Incrementals are not going so well - every job for SQL/Exchange proclaims it wasn't backed up with the same program.)

[GoldenTait]

Ok the customer also wants to setup the following scenario -

Since the Symantec option aligns with what we are already doing I have more questions for you, actually more of a verification of how we want set this up and have it work.

 We have 2 existing physical Windows 2008 R2 machines that we use as our Backup Exec servers.

 The setup/scenarios we would like to have your expert confirm will work is:

 1. Upgrade BE to 2012 on both of these machines to keep our cross city DRP capability in place

 2. Re-add the Windows server 2010 agent license so we can continue to back up our existing Windows Storage Server 2003 information to tape.

 2. Add the new VM backup agent licenses to both servers (3 for Edmonton, 1 for Calgary) so we can use BE 2012 to back up to the physical server's local disk (or locally attached external disk) select live VMs (ie. they can continue running) from various free edition ESXi 4.1 hosts in our Edmonton or Calgary office

 3. Create an external disk rotation or copy process so these direct to disk VM backups can get offsite

 4. If an ESXi host goes down, restore the VM backup from the appropriate physical machine running BE 2012

 5. If the Edmonton building burns, reinstall BE 2012 on a DRP server and restore critical VMs from external hard drive

Can you verify if this is correct?

[Ben_L_]

2. Add the new VM backup agent licenses to both servers (3 for Edmonton, 1 for Calgary) so we can use BE 2012 to back up to the physical server's local disk (or locally attached external disk) select live VMs (ie. they can continue running) from various free edition ESXi 4.1 hosts in our Edmonton or Calgary office

The VMware Agent will not work with the Free addition.  You have to have a license for the vStorage API's. This is a paid option from VMware. You can backup those VM's via the standard windows / linux remote agents though.