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Backup VM Order

Benjamin_Chiu
Level 3

 

Recently, we've upgraded to BE2012, same as most of you, we used BE2010 as the backup solution.

After over 1 month for testing, the impression of BE2012 is bad, frankly speaking, it is the worst idea to change backup concept to server based instead of job based. It may acceptable if just manage 3~5 servers, but how can I manage over 10 servers or more in BE2012 by using this server based job?

I don't know why the BE2102 is making backup job more complex, and reading a lot of articles, I temporary solved "single job for multiple server", but I still think it is not easy way.

However I still have no idea about how to change the VM backup order, in BE2010, there were "resource order" function; however while in BE2012, this function has been removed. 

Sadly, I don't find any news about SP1 include this function.
Can we change the backup order by using PowerShell or other tools?
7 REPLIES 7

AmolB
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

Since BE2012 is server centric I doubt there is any way to change the resource order.

deepak_t
Level 4
Employee

VM selection resource order has nothing to do with BE 2012 server centric.

If you have selected vcenter for backup then it will have selection as *.*. There BE gets list of vm's to be backed up from vcentre and sort it using name therafter backup of vm is done in serial fashion based on sorted list.

If you are selecting vm's individually then the order in which you selected decides the order in which you will backup and you can verify by going to selection tab. I doubt whether it is different for BE 2010.

Benjamin_Chiu
Level 3

We have > 100 VMs in VCenter, and we create a backup job to backup ~20 VMs in BE2010, and then using "Recource Order" to backup according to our desired sequence.

  1. VM1
  2. VM3
  3. VM5
  4. VM7
  5. VM9
  6. VM2
  7. VM4
  8. VM6
  9. VM8
  10. VM10

In BE2012, I tried to select the VM one by one, for example:

  1. VM1
  2. VM3
  3. Saved and Edit
  4. VM5
  5. VM7
  6. Saved and Edit
  7. VM9
  8. VM2
  9. VM4
  10. Saved and Edit
  11. VM6
  12. VM8
  13. VM10
  14. Saved and Edit

And then we found the order come out is random again (may be in step 6 or 10)...

In BE2010, it is easy to change the sequence, however I'm still have no idea how to solve it in BE2012...

 

deepak_t
Level 4
Employee

I agree with resource order menu it will be easy to change order in BE2010 but in BE2012 if you are selecting manully in a order which you require then selection will show same? are you seeing in same sequence. Now what I understand is you are saying but backup does not respect order which was selected, if that case it is a bug  and it will be a good idea to open a support ticket.

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified

As you are aware, resource order is no more in BE 2012, so what you are trying to do (order the backup sequence of your VM) is impossible.  Go to the Ideas section and make a ggod case for why resource order is important.  If enough users agree with your Idea, resource order may be brought back in some future release.

BTW, when you select individual VM's, rather than the top level, any additions/deletions of VM's will not be taken care of by BE.  You would have to change your selection list yourself.

JeroenL
Level 3
Partner

Little short to simply tell us to create a case in the Ideas Section.

We NEVER EVER asked Symantec to remove this "feature", so why DO we have to create cases to get it back.

Next time when you try to improve the user experience of a product please asked the user community what THEY want to see different.

When running VMware environments more than often backup configuration is done by creating groups in vCenter and linking a backup job to these groups. In BackupExec you must be able to select an order in how these VMs are back upped.

Even when not using groups in vCenter you must be able to select multiple VMs in one job and then select a backup order.

BackupExec is a decent product, but when it comes to VM backup it's miles behind on competitive products from Quest or Veeam. The only reason we still use BackupExec is because of the need for tape backups and because we also need physical servers to be protected and this is not possible with these other products.

Please move yourself to into an administrators shoes and try to look at things from this administrators view. The base rule of ALL backup products should be that it's main function is to provide a solid and reliable backup AND restore solution that is intuitive to use. BackupExec is now a good looking backup application with dozens of features but it isn't real solid and reliable. Just my humble opinion.

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

As far as I know, at this current time you can order by selecting the VM's one at a time in the correct order in the first place, however any attempt to edit the list afterwards means deleting all of the existing selections and starting from a zero point. So your multiple saves and edits in the above test will have caused the only way to order VMs to fail.