Backup 2012 Beta

[stanger18]

I just tested Backup Exec 2012 and have discovered that the software has changed drastically from any other version of BE i've used. I'm concerned that the software will no longer accomodate our company's needs. I have a list of issues that i'd like to discuss.

First off it's probably best if I explain how we backup data at my company, and boy do we backup data. We backup around 25 Terebytes a day. Our backup scheme differs from most companies in that only 10% of our backups are conventional windows and exchange backups of entire servers for disaster recovery. The other 90% of backups are simply one time backups of data that is only stored on our servers for a limited amount of time then purged. We backup different data across different servers (Mostly NDMP NetApp's) on a daily bases and store those tapes offsite. We log what tapes have what data and input that into a database. When we need to retrive the data we know the tape id and the folder to restore, we don't know what server the data came from and we simply do not care. We put the tape in click restore and select the folders contained on that tape. With that said the below is a list of questions I have about BE 2012.

1) It appears BE is now looking more and more like netbackup in that it's now server centric as opposed to data centric which means we now need to know what server a data set came from in order to restore it. I could not simply find a way to right click on a tape after it's been cataloged and select restore. It appears I need to find out what server this data came from in order to proceed. Has this feature gone away, it makes restoring multiple folders on a single tape very tedious having to hunt down each server it came from.

2) We have over 34 NDMP NetApp servers, 24 of which we backup regularly. All 24 NDMP devices and the Windows Backup Exec server all share the same Fibre Tape Library through a fibre switch. When the 24 NDMP devices are setup and installed and the services are restared it takes well over 1 and a half hours for the drives to become online. The server sits for hours discoverying devices. This also happens in Backup Exec 2012 R3, I understand what it's doing. For each NDMP device it needs to map out the correct fibre paths to the library. So 24 devices mapping to 18 of the same drives each, that's 432 paths it needs to map each time the services are started. I see adding more and more NetApp's and removing more and more windows servers, do you have a fix for this kind of behavior. is there a way to cache the fibre paths in a config file and only change them when a user inputs a change in the fibre topology.

3) There doesn't seem to be a way to select multiple NDMP servers for a single one time backup. When you select multiple NDMP devices and select backup, and use the edit selection feature in the backup job window, it only lets you select the top level volume of each NDMP device for backup, you cannot browse sub directories as you can with a single NDMP One-Time backup. We histroically will setup a backup that spans multiple NDMP devices on a daily basis. We cannot simply select the root volume and work backwards and exclude everything we don't want, this would be very time consumiung for each NDMP device has about 30TB volumes and we plan on backing up little 400GB chunks here and there. Will this feature be available in BE 2012

4) The job mointor window now appears to only be related to servers with active backups running. I cannot seem to find a way to simply monitor all my one time backup jobs in one window. Along those same lines the old job monitor window would show every single active job, from cataloging to restores. Now it seems you have to go digging through each server or each tape drive to see what is activly running on it. It was easier when we could look in one place and see we have 4 catalogs running, 2 restores, 1 inventory, and 1 backup running. Is there an active way to see that other than running it in a report?

5) Subtle things like adding an NDMP storage device used to take 3 steps and took about 30 seconds a server, now adding an NDMP stroage devices takes 6 steps and over 2 minutes per server. That is costly when you have over 34 NDMP servers.

6) Setting up One-Time backup jobs. It appears to take a considerable amount of time setting up a single One-Time backup job. Historically you select backup and the the job settings all appear, you select the device, select the data, give it a name and hit go. Now it launches the backup properties window and appears to Poll all the NDMP servers that were chosen and you cannot do anything until all the NDMP devices are selectable.

Any help would be appreciated.

[ZeRoC00L]

Are you running on the beta version of BE 2012 ?
Then you should post your questions in the symbeta section (symbeta.symantec.com).

[James_McKey]

The Beta is closed, so @stranger18 is likely using the gold build as part of the First Availability, but I'll let him/her reply here to verify if that is the case.

@stranger18,
As for the various concerns brought up, due to the unusual nature of the setup and depth of some of the questions, I'm going to research and reply later all at once rather than piecemealing several responses over time. However, I do want to first hear back as to what version of Backup Exec 2012 is in use.

Also, if you message me directly I may be able to gather some additional detail that I would not ask in a public forum (things that could compromise security, etc.) in order to provide a more accurate and consolidated response.