Backup Exec 2012 single backup

[CPPHT]

We have recently upgraded to Backup Exec 2012 and have noticed there doesn't seem a way to create a single backup job containing all server lists. Is there a way to do this or do you now have to run individual backups?

[AmolB]

Refer to Page# 177 of BE2012 Admin Guide.

 http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC5211

[CPPHT]

This creates multiple backup jobs instead of a single backup job though. We just simply one backup job containing all the servers to back up.

[AmolB]

This is not possible in BE2012.

[Kingston]

It is possible to do .. select the servers that you want to include in the job, click Backup -> (select the backup option you want). The downside here is that you then lose the ability to do custom selections. e.g. with backup up the file system, you must backup all files or no files - no drill down to select particular files or folder, and also you cannot choose to backup files on one server and not another. You must either select to backup the file system on both, or backup on none. The only way to do custom selections is to do separate backup job for each server. Also with these jobs with multiple servers in them I couldn't seem to find a way of adding additional servers to the job.

The reason BE2012 is like this is because Symantec has designed it to be "server-centric" rather than job-centric, and I think they want to encourage you to use their "Simplified Disaster Recovery" as much as possible, even if you dont want to back up the whole server.

I agree it's strange. And I don't think Symantec has fully explained this change. They kind of expect you to watch their hyped up videos, read their 1342 paged admin guide and somehow just "come to the realisation".

Let us know if you have any more questions.

[mc625569]

The problem with this approach is that most people use multi server jobs, and so things like reporting and error checking are streamlined when this is done on a per job basis vs. a per server basis. 

I had 30 servers and 3 jobs, I now have 30 servers and 30 jobs. 

The ability to get aggregate views of backup status is now completely disassembled and although I can now see what the status of a specific server is, I can only assume that a good portion of the users have too many servers to view reporting like this. I've started using the server groups to try and segment this up, but its still slower.  Not to mention the absolutely useless home screen graphing options. 

I understand the shift towards a server centric view with disk based backups, and the ability to do full server backups, but to remove the option to have multiple servers per job (with individualized selections for backup)  is to remove a really easy way for us to consolidate white noise, and quickly tell - did my backups run correctly or not?  

We now have to look in far more places to make this determination.  I'm working on making one of the custom reports to do this, but it seems like such a basic part of backup maintenance, that I cannot figure out why they would omit this feature. 

[brupnick]

I agree with mc625569.  I can see how this might be useful to some, but in my case, I have a handful of physical servers that cannot be virtualized.  Because of that, I have a requirement to back these servers up nightly to tape.  In previous versions of BE, I had two jobs, one for fulls and one for differentials, that would handle these 25 servers.  Now, based on what was written above and similar to mc625569, I have to go from 2 jobs to 25 jobs.  Also, it is my understanding that only one backup job can access a drive/tape at a time.  So if I want to write all 25 servers to one tape (or one set of tapes), I'll have to get creative with Job A calling Job B calling Job C, etc.  Once or twice, this might not be bad, but relying on this for 25 iterations does not seem like a good solution.

For long term retention purposes, I also have the need to write the full backup files from my virtual backup software (.vbk files from Veeam Backup and Replication) to tape on a monthly basis.  VBR writes these files to a NAS device, and then BE reads them from there.  Since these jobs to go different tapes, I have multiple jobs to write these files to different sets of tapes.  Again, based on what I'm reading here, since these are all on the same NAS device, there's really no way for me to back up the full from VBR Job A to one set of tapes and the full from VBR Job B to a different set, without modifying the job for my NAS every time.  It sounds like any job run against my NAS will be seen by BE as a successful backup of the server.  This to me is an unacceptable solution and will be the reason that I stay with BE2010 while I research alternative solutions.

I apologize for hijacking mc625569's thread, but I think it's important for Symantec to understand how their customers are using the Backup Exec product and more importantly, how significant changes to the core workings of a product impact said customers.  If I have misunderstood anything here, please feel free to correct me since I am sincerely hoping that I'm completely off base with all of the above and that I will be able to create jobs similar to BE 2010.

[mc625569]

Hi brupnik, 

I may be totally misunderstanding your Nas backups - but we do something similar here with our full vm backups. 

If you have a Nas box, you CAN configure multiple jobs for this specific nas. Each job can be a different selection of files on said nas, backup type and tape. 

But lets say you had 2 nas boxes nasA and nasB,  you cannot create a single job that backs up both nasA and nasB UNLESS you back up the entire nas (you cannot choose different sets of files for each nas).

So if I have  NasA with folder A and Nas B with folder B I cannot create a sinlge job that captures both \\nasa\foldera and \\nasb\folderb

You would need to break this into 2 jobs. 

Now make this 30 servers instead of 2 nas' and you have the situation I'm in.

I guess I just don't understand, in any version of 2010 or before, you could create a job for each server if you wanted to, but no one I know ever did - since it was too much housekeeping. If backup exec was really disk imaging software, then I'd understand, but its not. Its a file level backup tool.

I hate to be the person that whines when they change an interface, but I'm whining because this has created more work for me, not less - Unfortunately I had to do the update to solve another issue. 

Change is fine, just not at the expense of flexibility and time. Perhaps multi server jobs with non uniform selection lists can be a patched feature .  But until it is I cannot say admins wiho have lots of multi server jobs should udate. 

[brupnick]

Thanks for the response, mc.  You are correct that I can have multiple jobs for one server, so this will help me with my VM fulls.  But the ultimate problem is that I still can't have multiple servers for one job.

I agree with everything that you said:

• If backup exec was really disk imaging software, then I'd understand, but its not. Its a file level backup tool.
• I hate to be the person that whines when they change an interface, but I'm whining because this has created more work for me, not less
• Change is fine, just not at the expense of flexibility and time. Perhaps multi server jobs with non uniform selection lists can be a patched feature .  But until it is I cannot say admins who have lots of multi server jobs should update.

I like new or updated interfaces, new features, etc.and will usually be the first one to upgrade.  But when the core workings of a product are changed in such a way that it makes orders of magnitude more work for the people who use it, there's obviously a serious disconnect between the people making the software and their understanding of how their customers are using it.

[JCofran]

I had Backup Exec 2010 R3 working the way I wanted on a new backup server that I setup fresh for my recently virtualized environment. Since the server and BUE 2010 had only been running about a month I figured I'd upgrade to the latest and greatest.

Bad idea. I had BUE 2010 sending one Email notification for the daily backup to disk and another for disk to tape dupe.  Now with BUE 2012 I get 18 Email notifications (2 for each of the 9 servers that are being backed up).  Dumb.

Besides this problem I just think the interface doesn't provide the information you need at a quick glance.

I'll be going back to BUE 2010.

Jeff

[Cornish]

How to backup multiple servers, with different selections, on one job:

Select all your servers and create the job.

Once the job has been created, right click on a server and select edit backup.

Then you will beable to edit the selection just for that server.

Hope this helps.