11-15-2012 07:49 AM
11-15-2012 07:51 AM
Backup Exec Media server on a VM is not a recommended configuration, you may face issues
if the VM does not detect physical media (USB drives or tape drives)
11-15-2012 08:15 AM
Thanks for the reply,
Yes that is exactly the concern we have. Is there any official documentation that confirms that it is not "supported" that you could provide.
Would be much appreciated.
11-15-2012 08:22 AM
I don't have any official documentation but you may refer to the below forum threads
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/backup-exec-media-server-vmware-virtual-machine-itself
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/backup-exec-2012-media-server-vm-machine
11-16-2012 03:23 PM
In Hyper-V you cannot pass through SCSI/SAS Tape drive support into a VM as Microsoft does not provide a way to do it. Whilst USB can be passed through (either for disks or I guess tape devices) Symantec does no testing of such a configuration and as such cannot certify the configuration as a supported solution.
If you installed the Backup Exec media server on the Hyper-V host it would be supported.
With VMware despite some form of passthough being possible we know that there can be problems from customer reports and again we do no official testing of tape drives (on any connection technology) or USB drives used as target devices.
As such if there are any problems experienced with such a configuration, you would have to prove to us that the same problem would exist on a physical media server using the same hardware.
There is no specific documentation for Hyper-V. However the terminology for "Alternative Configuration" is discussed in the SCL and defines our response to untested scenarios.
11-18-2012 01:46 PM
Last time i checked, i don't think you can pass through USB Drives in Hyper V either.
If it supports passing through PCI devices, you may be able to install a decided USB PCI card and pass that through.
11-20-2012 08:17 AM
To clarify further, this is the exact method we are trying to implement.
11-20-2012 09:10 AM
As stated - if Backup Exec is not on a physical operating system but is running inside a VM then access to USB (or tape devcies) is not officially supported. Backup Exec would need to be either on a separate physical media server or running on the Hyper-V host, but as your host appears to be running Core, I am not sure you can install a media server directly on Core
The USB disk rotation is supported on physical hardware, although some customers have had problems which need investigation on a case-by-case basis.
11-20-2012 06:18 PM
The SCL states that you cannot install the media server in a Core edition. I guess it is because of the lack of a GUI.
11-21-2012 04:50 AM
Use VMWare ESXi as your hypervisor instead. It supports pass through of USB/PCI devices which will make it work the way you want it to :p Thats that way I do it.
I have tried one of these before
http://www.belkin.com/networkusbhub/
The only problem is the auto mount feature requires you to be logged on, and since there is no console session in Windows 2008 or greater it doesn't work unattended.
I have also tried what your doing in regards to sharing the USB drives but didn't find it reliable. It would have the same share name but just wouldn't read it properly.
Unfortunately It doesn't sound like you have many options. I guess you could either a) install the full version not the Core and then have the media server on the Hyper-V Host, or b) purchase some sort of NAS and then somehow copy the data from the NAS to the USB drives for offsite backup.
11-21-2012 04:56 AM
Thanks for your input guys. What you are reporting pretty much confirms that we are not alone in the issues encounterd. If anyone has any further comments please feel free to contribute.
11-21-2012 04:59 AM
One would have thought that Microsoft would have implemented some of these features in Hyper-V 2012, but after playing with it, the software still lacks basic functionality features that VMWare have had for years.