Backup Exec 2010 VMWare Agent

[Ron_Floyd]

I need to be able to backup VMWare VSphere 4.1's VMDK files plus allow granular restore from the single file backup.

Where do i install Backup Exec?  Do I have to create a VM with Windows server and install Backup Exec there?

If so, what is the restore procedure of the VM if you are backing up to tape?  If I had a server failure and had to recover from backup, would I first have to boot to VMWare (flash drive) and create a new VM, install Windows server and Backup Exec to be able to restore?

Or do I install backup exec from a PC with the VMWare client connected to the host?

Where can I obain technical detail on the installation and requirements for the installation?  Either way its installed, I need to know how to setup the VM for this installation and operation.

I currently have Backup Exec loaded on Window server in one of the VM guests.  It performs the backup nicely and very fast, to tape.  Like a physical environment.  I use the remote agent on the other VM (windows server) and back it up.

Thanks for any direction or input.

[SaurabhK]

Hello,

You may install Backup Exec 2010 R2 on the host  or any of the guests, it can be entirely separate physical box too. You need to install the VM WARE agent license which is called AVVI and then install the Remote Agent for Windows on all the guests.

In a single backup, you will be able to backup the VMDK for the corresponding guests, and be able to file/folder lever granular restores, this is called as GRT.

Please look at the Admin Guide given below.

http://ftp.support.veritas.com/pub/support/products/Backup_Exec_for_WindowsNT/358200.pdf

Read the section on the VM WARE backup, it is the most detailed and perfect explanation of how the backup and restore works, and how it should be setup.

Take a look at the best practices on the below link.

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO21769

If you are new to backup exec, I suggest you read through the admin guide relevant section and other documentation, and open a support case so that an engineer could walk you through configuring the backups and also help understand authentication and requisites along with the restore procedure.

This should suffice as preliminary information.

Pleas mark as solved if this satisfies your query.

[Colin_Weaver]

If you are intending to backup to tape then it is highly recommended that you install Backup Exec on a Physical server not in a VM, Backup Exec only supports Adpatec SCSI cards for VMware pass through for tape devices - hence it is easier to avoid issues by using a physical server. NOTE: If you have tape hardware issues with BE in a VM, then the support teams are likely to ask you to prove that the same error exists outside of a VM for us to continue troubleshooting.

One other point though if you want to backup the VMDK files but still have the ability to restore files (or even Exchange e-mails) diectly from inside that VMDK backup (GRT) then we recommend you do backups to disk (with either separate backup to tape or duplication to tape for off-site storage). This is because the process to recover specific data from inside a vmdk for restore is more efficient from a B2D location, and even from tape you would need some disk space for that particular process to work.

[Ron_Floyd]

Thanks for the replies.

Most of my clients are small business but VMWare allows me to give them options that they normally could not afford, like two physical servers, one mail/file/print plus another terminal server for remote access.  So adding a separate server for just backups sorta puts them out of price range for a solution.

I will read the guides and have already checked out the how to article.

I am not new to backup exec as I have used it for my clients going way back to the veritas days.  I would not really recommend anything else.  Just trying to get my hands on backing up the VM's and doing the granular restore.

What solutions for BD2 would you guys recommend that are not too expensive?  Tape drives, LTO3 and LTO4 units are running about $1500 and the tapes for a full GFS rotation add about $500 to that price.  I could offer a disk backup like from SonicWall and push it to the cloud, too.

I guess bottom line is that I am looking to be able to backup to VMDK files and then do the GRT restore from there.  I don't have many total failures so being able to granular restore is very important. 

And I almost always use Adaptec SCSI controller.

If I install to the host, I assume i need to give the "datastore" more room to handle that install and assume I run it through the VM Client.  I will read the article, too.

Thanks again.

[SaurabhK · Accepted solution]

Hello,

You have pretty sorted out there, any standard B2D solution works, remember that since you will be doing GRT, you will need good disks that support sparse files and reparse points, you can go for anything that can handle GRT, and is well within the client budget.

Please mark as solution if this answers your queries.

[Ron_Floyd]

I spoke with Symantec on this issue.  They too recommended, atleast the engineer I spoke with, a separate physical server.  This is too expensive for the small business sector.  Plus the cost of the agent they ballparked at $1800.  That's more than the tape drive.

I will have to read the VMWare stance on backing up their guest VMs more deeply and see how they recommend doing it.

Thanks for all the replies.