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Backing up and restoring a virtual machine

dosrules
Level 3

Hello everyone,

I have recently installed a trial version Backup Exec 2014 for testing in my environment since my old version doesn't handle virtual machines very well. Now it feels like I'm doing something wrong or the 2014 version isn't handling them all that well either. I have updated the installation with SP1 and a hotfix that seemed relevant to another problem I had.

I have a Windows Server 2012 (let's call this machine A) with Backup Exec installed on it. Machine A also hosts a couple of virtual machines, one of which is an older Windows Server 2003 (let's call this machine B). Machine B is a DC as well as our Exchange 2007 machine (yeah, I know, cost savings people) and it has the Backup Exec Remote Agent installed on it.

Both machines, A and B, show up in Backup Exec's "All Servers" group. As I figure I have two options of backing up machine B:

1, Select B from the servers list, choose "Backup" and run the job.

- or -

2, Select A from the list of servers, choose "Backup" and run the job. The default selection includes virtual machines and GRT enabled for the virtual machines.

When I use solution 1 I get a message box saying "... The recommended way to back up a virtual machine is to select it from the virtual host view. ...". I interpret this message as I am not supposed to choose solution 1 and instead use solution 2.

Now to my problem, if I do as this message says and run a backup job of B created using solution 2 the backup completes successfully (no errors or exceptions). But when I try to create a restore job I do not get an option to restore the Exchange database. Not on a mailbox level, not even the complete database, the option is not there. If run a backup job of machine B using the not recommended solution 1 the job also completes successfully (no errors or exceptions) and when I try to create a restore job I get the option to restore Exchange, down to individual e-mails. What is going on here? I hope I am doing something wrong, I really want this to work so I don't have to go looking for another backup solution. Can I get the GRT to work correctly with solution 2? Or can I just ignore the message box?

//Måns

 

7 REPLIES 7

CraigV
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited

Hi,

 

You need the RAWS agent installed on the VM and the Exchange agent licensed on the media server in order to restore Exchange like this.

Read the best practices on VMware/Hyper-V below (you never mentioned which hypervisor you're using):

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO74626

Thanks!

dosrules
Level 3

Hi,

Thanks for your answer. The RAWS agent is installed on the VM (I just double-checked) and as far as I can tell the media server is licensed since it is a trial. At least for another 41 days.. :) I installed everything I could during installation so I'll know what I need to buy when I get it to work.

But then the best practices says to run Exchange jobs separately, perhaps first a backup of the VM using solution 2 and then a separate backup of the Exchange store using solution 1 would work. I'll give that a try. That will probably still throw up that message box, though.

By the way, you're right, I missed the hypervisor, sorry. It's Hyper-V.

//Måns

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified
1. Make sure you have enabled GRT in your backup job (option 2) 2. See my article below to take individual items https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/restoring-individual-filesfolders-vm-backup

dosrules
Level 3

Hi,

Thank you for your answer. I double checked again, GRT is enabled. I also created another backup job which includes another Windows Server 2008 machine which has SQL Server installed on it. When I select that machine and create a restore job I get to choose indivdual SQL items to restore. But the Exchange machine backed up in the same job still only gives me the option to restore individual files and folders, not mailboxes or the Exchange store.

//Måns

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified
What is the version of Exchange that you are trying to backup? Is the Exchange server clustered or part of a DAG? Have you tried just backing up Exchange and restoring something?

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified
No. There is no need to backup Exchange separately. You only need to backup the VM

dosrules
Level 3

It is an Exchange 2007 (8.2). It is not clustered or part of a DAG. It's just the single installation on one machine.

If I use the recommended way to back up the VM and select it through the Hyper-V host I don't get the option to restore any Exchange items. If I select the server directly and ignore the message box telling me this is the wrong way to do it I get the option to restore Exchange. I have not actually tried restoring anything in the second case since it says it's not the recommended way. I'll run a job and do a test.

I just noticed something else. There is also an SQL Express installation on the VM. If I select the VM through the host I don't get the option to restore the SQL database either. But with the exact same settings on another VM I get the option to restore the databases it has installed. I'm thinking it might not necessarily Exchange related, but something seems to be disabling GRT on that one VM when it is selected through the host.

Perhaps I should just reinstall the VM and see if that helps..