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Backup Exec Install location - HOST or VM

cjfoxton
Level 3

In a previous installation on Server 2008 R2 BE was installed on the host and our two VMs (Hyper-V) backed up using the WINagent or by backing up the VHDs on the host.

I recently came across a discussion saying it is better for server 2016 to have BE running on the VM and not bother backing up the HOST.

Is there any guidance about these two different scenarios?

1 REPLY 1

Ben-Veritas
Level 4
Employee

Normally I would suggest installing BE on a guest machine, just because it is sometimes required to reboot the BE server and no one wants to reboot the Hyper-V host.

But if you plan to backup to a tape device and not just disk devices you'll have to install BE on the host.

You can backup the host OS from the VM, but remember if the host goes down it will have to be rebuild it before the VM's can be brought back online.  

best practice would be to install BE on a server that is not a VM or a hyper-V host.  It's really going to depend on your DR process on what is best for your environment.