Backup Exec 2012 Tutorials

[dpsguard]

Hello Guys,

I am new to BE. Can someone help point to a step by step tutorial / link to set up BE and backup jobs on the following platform.

1. HP server DL320 G6 with 7 drives ( 2x600GB for RAID 1 Mirror OS / BE and 5x600GB RAID5 for Backups). Windows 2012.

2. A tape drive attached to this server LTO-4 for duplication of the backups from the disk over to tape.

3. I need to backup 12 VMs on Hyper-V cluster again on 2 DL machines. I understand that at this time, I cannot have VMs running on 2012R2 to be able to backed up, but the VMs running on 2008/2012 are all there now (to be upgarded to 2012R2 in few months). 

4. The plan is that I should be able to do initially full back up (total size is about 1TB at this time) on RAID5 ( disk, dedup) and then every friday night full backup, overwriting the previous full backup.

5. I will need to setup incremental backup for saturday thru thursday nights on the RAID 1 OS disk itself. 

6. There is a 4TB of NAS attached the BE server. I should be able to take full back up plus next day incremental and create a synthetic full backup from the previous full backup (on RAID 5 set) and next day incremental (on RAID 1 set) and then write it to USB drive.

7. And finally, I need to duplicate the full and incremental backups over to the tape drive.

I am sure this is all simple, but I will appreciate if someone can validate these assumptions and advise if possible step by step on how to create these jobs.

And any update from folks who are doing BE2014 beta evaluation if this is good to be become general release in next two months and until then how do you backup a VM that is running on windows 2012R2?

Thanks and God bless you all.

[ecnivnaj · Accepted solution]

Hi dpsguard,

Currently Backup Exec 2012 SP4 does not support WIndows Server 2012 as media server OS.

Kindly see this link: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH175581

If the tape device is installed and connected to the BE server it will be automatically detected and configured in Backup Exec once it is installed.

Please refer to this link below: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO73419

Yes you can create a FUll backup job and incremental based from your sched, but please do bear in mind that we can only have 1 Deduplication Disk Storage for a media server, in line with this your setup would be a Dedup storage on the RAID 5 disk and a Backup to Disk on the RAID1 disk.

About synthetic backups, kindly see this link: www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO73675

About configuring duplicate backup jobs, kindly see this link: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH187265

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

[pkh · Accepted solution]

There are some videos in the Video section which you might want to take a look.  Beyond that, a good place to start is the Admin Guide which can be found here

http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC5211

What you are trying to do is possible.  Note that synthetic backups are only available to files/folders on Windows systems,  it would be not be available for VM backups.

If you have difficulties, you might want to engage a Symantec partner to help you set them up.  Also, you should consult a Symantec reseller on your licencing requirements.

[dpsguard]

Thanks so much. I will review the links that you have indicated.

1. So the backup server software needs to be installed on WS2008R2?

2. When BE2014 is available, will it work on WS2012R2?  What should be the upgrade process for the BE and OS? Should BE2012 be upgraded as such to BE2014 and then the OS be upgraded from 2008R2 to 2012R2?

3. Will it preserve the backup jobs / policies?

4. I still dont understand the use of dedup disks. Does it require first a standard backup and then from there it is deduped to another disk / folder?

5. Any update on BE2014 availability? And in absence of the same, how do you recommend backing up the VM running on a WS2012R2 OS?

6. Any issues for the Hyper-V 2012R2 host backup?

Thanks again.

[dpsguard]

The licenses were purchased and maintenance renewed sometime ago when no one in company understood that we will have issues when we upgrade the Hyper-V cluster. And  the folks who used to manage backups and BE are no more working here. We just found that WS2012 and 2012R2 support is not available in latest BE2012. So having spent so much money just a year ago for renewal of licenses for 3 years or so, company will not spend any more monies. The cost of engaging a reseller and consultants will probably be more than simply buying a new veeam solution. So we are just trying to salvage the investments and hopefully new BE2014 will take care of all these issues.

Thanks so much.

[pkh · Accepted solution]

1. Yes.

2. Yes. As for the upgrade process, you got to wait for BE 2014 to be released.

3. An upgrade should preserve jobs.

4. To understand dedup, do read the Deduplication chapter in the Admin Guide.

5. It is scheduled to be released in the middle of the year.

6. You cannot backup Hyper-V 2012R2 host with BE 2012, but you should be able to do so with BE 2014.  As for problems with BE 2014, you got to wait until it is released.

[pkh]

Even if you buy Veeam, you would still have to setup your jobs, so it is either you set up the jobs with BE or Veeam.

[dpsguard]

Thanks pkh again. Yes even if we buy veeam, we need to set up everything, but that solution is 2012/2012R2 compliant and tape compliant. But I dont think, company has any money left in the budget to buy veeam, so if BE2014 will be available by May / june time frame, it is acceptable solution, under the assumption that the maintenance contract allows free upgrade to BE2014.

I am assuming some of you folks are beta testers and I am looking for some feedback.

Appreciate yoru help.

[pkh · Accepted solution]

If you are on a current maintenance contract then the upgrade would be free.