Backup Exec 12.5 for Windows - backup /restore question

[PerfectNZ]

Hi there,  we run Backup Exec 12.5 on a Windows 2008 STD server.   We backup a number of systems,  the question I have relates to our VMware ESXi4 server.

Backup Exec backs up the (4) client hosts on this VMware machine every night to DLT tape.   The 4 VM's are Windows 2008 DC, Windows 2008 Exchange 2007, Windows 2003 and one is Windows 2008 running SQL 2005.

Now to my question:

I need to increase the RAID5 array on the VMware server and want to ensure that I can recover should something horrible go wrong.   I wouldn't like to have to re-install and rebuild the VMware server,  load four Windows operating systems and then start restoring data from Backup Exec.

What are my options please? - Image the VMserver ?  Is this possible and to where?

If someone could recommend a product or advise how I may use Backup Exec to achieve this I would appreciate it.

regards

Chris

[CraigV]

Hi,

You might want to look into Symantec System Recovery for imaging of the ESX host server.

That said, if you're not using the AVVI agent for ESX you're backing the servers up via the RAWS agent. This means you'll have to look at rebuilding the VMs again before restoring the data.

I think Symantec System Recovery can image the VMs too, but AVVI will allow you to back up those VMs completely. the AVVI agent allows you to backup up x-amount of VMs on that host so it might be more cost effective.

Here are the links for what you should be looking at:

http://www.symantec.com/en/uk/business/system-recovery-virtual-edition

http://www.symantec.com/en/uk/business/products/agents_options.jsp?pcid=pcat_business_cont&pvid=57_1

Thanks!

[pkh]

With your present configuration, if you buy an AVVI licence then you can backup all your VM's by backing up their vmdk's.  This means that you just need one job to backup the entire physical host.

Since you have the Exchange and SQL Server licences, you can then use GRT to restore individual files/folders, mailboxes and SQL databases from the vmdk backup.  To rebuild your VM's, all you need to do is to restore the entire vmdk. 

[Colin_Weaver]

IMPORTANT EDIT: Upgrade to Backup Exec 2010 R3 with latest Hotfixes before following the advice below (just spotted you are on 12.5)

I would use the Backup Exec VMware license (with the appropriate ESX license from VMWare to enable VStorage which the free ESXi version does not give you) to perform agent for VMware backups (you don't really need GRT if the intention is to recover the whole VM - although you can leave this enabled just in case you need 1 file back.)

Once the backups  have been done, I would then test by redirecting the restore of a VM to a different VM name and possibly datastore to confirm the restore (note only start the restored VM if you have disabled the netwok on it as otherwise it will conflict with the production one you backed up that will still be running.)

I would even consider testing the restore of more than one of the VM if I intended to completely destroy the storage as it looks like you are and possibly even run more than one backup of each VM as well just in case.

Only when I am happy that I can restore would I destroy the existing environment.

Note the above tests obviously need more disk space so you might have to add a temporary datastore to the current environment just for testing if you do not have enough to restore at least one VM at a time.

Oh and one final point don't write your backups to the array you are planning to destroy and recreate as it would be a tad of a waste of time to verify your restores will work with tests and then destroy the data you need for the restore when it comes to the actual upgrade work. (Common sense I know but amazingly we have seen customer do similar things in the past)