Backup of ESX machines with Windows 2012 R2

[dai_tuebingen]

Hello there,

I'm fairly new to the world of backups in server environments and need some help handling our setup. We are an NPO and received Backup Exec 2012 for a very small price of about 100$. Now, our IT service provider is unfamiliar with BE and now I have to cope with it on my own ;)

Well, so much about the intro. Our setup is this: 2 machines with overall 5 VMs in ESX/VMware, with Windows Server 2012 (R2) installed on each of those VMs. I would like to backup the VMs from one server to the other, and once on the weekend to our USB drives.

Of course I tried to install BE'12 on my own, but I got confused by so many technical terms that I got lost. I know I'm begging for hand-holding which is not very welcome in most forums on the internet, but I'm hopeless to deal with this on my own and now seek for help everywhere I can :\

I hope to hear from you! - Thanks in advance.

Achim

PS: We can get BE14 for another $100, so I wouldn't mind too much upgrading, if that would make things easier. I've read a lot about BE's problems with Server 2012, but I don't know whether that's still a current issue in SP4.

[Colin_Weaver · Accepted solution]

As you seem to have Windows 2012 R2, and Backup Exec 2012 did not support that Operating System, you are going to need to go to BE 2014 to support the environment, irrespective of how you try to configure BE.

To see what is and is not suppirted ine BE 2012 and 2014 you need to locate the Backup Exec 2012 and backup Exec 2014 SCL (Software Comptibility List) documents (if you can't find them directly on teh Symantec website then Google can be used ot help you find them)