Backup Exec 2012 question

[RicohNorway]

Have 2 question which i hope you guys can help me with.

I have upgraded from BE 2010 to BE 2012. My understanding is that to backup a VmWare server, you need to add the Vcenter or ESX server first and then once added, open it and choose the servers you need to backup. Is it not possible to backup the VmWare server individually so it appears as a separate server in the server list. Only way i have found til now is to add as if you are adding a Windows server and then add the server name or IP and it appears as an individuall server, but it does end up with an icon as if it was a physical server, not a Virtual server. There must be another way to add a virtual server individually because when i migrated my data from BE 2010 it did transfer the Virtual server individually aswell, so some of the servers are listed with correct icon in the server list.

Secondly question, where in job properties do you choose wheter this backup is a VmWare snapshot, Application or Sql backup, or File server backup. I remember in BE 2010 there was a seperate options for that, not in BE 2012 anymore.

[lmosla]

Hello, 

when you add the server use the fully qualified domain name  see this discussion: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs/backup-exec-2012-virtual-servers-show-physical-selecti...

and I'm not sure I fully understand the second question but make sure you have the Agent for Windows on the Virtual Servers and then you should have the options show up in the Job properties  

Take a look at the Backup Exec Admin Guide on page 781 and 790 http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC5211

[pkh]

For your first question, it is not possible to add the individual VM's unless you want them to appear as physical servers.  The scenarios that you described are correct and there is no way around them.

For your second question, are you talking about the GRT settings.  Is so, then they are found here

Other than the above, you backup the entire VM, along with the application inside the VM.  If you want to backup just the SQL database or Exchange, then you need to create a separate backup job and target the application as if the VM is a physical server.  You will need to install the RAWS in the VM to do so.

[Colin_Weaver]

Also for your second question VMware agent backups are always vStorage snapshots at an individual VM level and they also trigger a VSS request via the VMware tools into the Windows operating system located inside the VM.

The GRT settings mentioned by PKH above affect whether you want GRT and to a certain extent how the backup data is stored and the catalog processes involved for the GRT data. They however do not affect the basic operation of the vStorage snapshot or VSS inside the VM.

You can slightly affect the VSS operation using the information on pag 791 of the Backup Exec 2012 Admin guide http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC5211

[RicohNorway]

Thanks alot for the replies. lmosla and Pkh answers contradict, however, i tried the suggestion from lmosla and guess what, it helped with the fully qualified domain name. I have now successfully added an individual Virtual server to the Servers list with correct icon and all that. Thanks alot Lmosla. For my second question, i guess i am a little bit confused here my self. I have for example a virtuell server which is running sql. So obviously this one needs an application or Sql backup. So to be able to do that, i understand GRT technology needs to be enabled?

See, the thing is that i have limited number og licenses for VmWare Snapshots, and limited for Application or database backups. So i need to find out which one is running what, and how to change them. I have 1 job running successfully on my BE environment, but i am afraid it is taking snapshots of that server, not an application or database backup. When i go to the job property of that particular job, it only have the following options available. see attached file

[RicohNorway]

Nobody can answer my question? Just wondering wheter Backup Exec detect itself what type of backup it is gonna take or we can do that manually? I have figured that if i choose to backup all files in job properties for a server, it automatically makes a Disaster recovery in form of a Snapshot. However if i choose some of the files (not all of them) it automatically changes it to file backup. It should be in properties wheter to do a snapshot, or file backup.