Backup Exec 2010 - Backing up VMware server

[panaretos]

hi,
Currently we do not have any VM agents to back up our VMware servers.  Is it worth gettting those agents for any reason?  Does the vm agent allow me to back up vm snapshots of the virtual partitions?

[tech29]

Hi,

What version of Backup exec are you currently using?

Here is the link for FAQ for agent for virtual machine backup exec 12.5:

http://eval.symantec.com/mktginfo/enterprise/other_resources/b-other_resources_be_12_5_amvs_faq_10...


Regards,
tech29

[panaretos]

im using Backup Exec 2010.
I'll read the article, thank you.

[tech29]

Hi again,

These are some new features in Backup Exec 2010:

Enhanced VMware vSphere 4.0 Support

Integrated backup and deduplication support for both online and offline VMware ESX 3.5 Update 2 and vSphere 4.0 - plus new first-to-market virtual application protection for Microsoft Exchange, SQL, and Active Directory. Now from a single-pass backup, administrators will also experience automated Log Truncation of a virtual machine applications. From that single backup, administrators can then easily recover either the virtual machine or granular application data such as Exchange mailboxes, messages, calendar items or individual Active Directory user accounts or objects

• First-to-market granular recovery for applications
• Rapid Exchange and Active Directory backup and recovery
• Eliminate redundant backups and recover data in minutes
• Protect the latest VMware vSphere environments
• Deduplicate virtual server backupsReduce and consolidate storage

Enhanced Microsoft Hyper-V 2008 R2 Support

Integrated backup and deduplication support for both online and offline Microsoft Hyper-V 2008 and Hyper-V 2008 R2 environments - plus new first-to-market virtual application protection for Microsoft Exchange, SQL, and Active Directory. Now from a single-pass backup, administrators will experience automated Log Truncation of a virtual machine applications. From that single backup, administrators can then easily recover either the virtual machine or granular application data such as Exchange mailboxes, messages, calendar items, and individual Active Directory user accounts or objects.

• First-to-market granular recovery for applications
• Rapid Exchange and Active Directory backup and recovery
• Eliminate redundant backups and recover data in minutes
• Protect the latest Hyper-V and Hyper-V R2 environments including LiveMigration
• Deduplicate guest machine backups
• Reduce and consolidate storage

You may also go through the ADMIN GUIDE for Backup exec 2010 for more details:

Here is the link for the same:

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/338514.htm

Regards,
tech29

[teiva-boy · Accepted solution]

If you have more than 3 virtual guests, and are running ESX (or higher) or hyper-V, you should get the virtual agent.

It's not only cheaper in the long run, but it gives you some operational benefits such as snapshot based backups.

[tech29]

Follwoing documents show the software compantibility list for Backup Exec 2010.

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/329254.htm

regards,
tech29