Backup Exec 2012 SP3 AVVI backups of Windows server 2012 r2 VMs on vSphere 5.1

[DunFraggin]

Can anybody tell me if backing up a Windows 2012 R2 VM running on vSphere 5.1-u1c with BE 2012 SP3 using the AVVI agent would be supported or not? 

We are looking to deploy a new solution which will be running Windows 2012 R2 onto our virtual infrastructure and currently we use BE2012 AVVI backups for tape based off-site backups of VMs.  The vendor of the solution being deployed has recommended Windows Server 2012 R2 but before we deploy this, I need to know how we would be covered from a support point of view by Symantec.

We will not require the GRT option to be enabled for this backup, so in affect it should not matter what the OS is as the only required component to support would be the vSphere environment and the SAN transport mechanism (which is currently all ok) so my thoughts are this should be ok?.....but I'd still like to hear from someone else on this to clarify the situation for my own sanity :)

Thanks in advance!

[RahulG]

Backup exec 2012 sp3 does not support Windows 2012 R2, but it support Vsphere 5.1. 

So your AVVI backup without GRT should work fine.

[DunFraggin]

Thanks RahulG

Would this be officially supported from Symantec in the event of a restore being required and there was a problem?  I'm only talking about the restore of the VM files making the Windows 2012 r2 VM.

[RahulG · Accepted solution]

As a best practice you should try restores in your Test enviornment. Also as Vsphere 5.1 is listed in compatibility list it is Offically supported .

[DunFraggin]

Thanks again for the prompt reply.  Much appreciated.

[pkh]

Earlier you said that Server 2012 R2 is not supported.  This means that Symantec has not tested whether Server 2012 R2 can work without problems with BE 2012 SP3 (latest version) and this also means that Symantec also has not tested whether the backup and restore of a Server 2012 R2 VM, with or without GRT, can be done successfully. So how can you claim that it is supported?  Can you provide some documentation to support your claim?  Also, if what you claimed is true, shouldn't Symantec document this as a workaround for users who wants to use Server 2012 R2 right now?

If your claim is true, by collorary, it does not matter whether the OS is in the VM is supported or not, the user would be able to backup and restore the VM successfully so long as the VM hypervisor is supported. 

[RahulG]

Just correct my Above statement "I meant Vsphere 5.1 is offically supported and not windows 2012 R2" and it is my assumption that the non GRT backups of the Windows 2012 r2 VM would run fine but still to have confidence one the backup sets Once should try running Restore in the test Environment.

Appologies for the confusion if any.

[pkh]

 it is my assumption that the non GRT backups of the Windows 2012 r2 VM would run fine

You are providing advice to a user based on your assumption???  What happens when your assumption is wrong and the backup done run fine?