Backup strategy with BE 11d

[jimmyca]

Hi all

At our school we currently have 3 main servers - server1, server2 and server3. Server3 runs BE 11d whilst server 1 and 2 runs RM's very basic Server Backup software.

We recently purchased a 2TB NAS box (QNAP TS-459+ Pro) and some external esata drives. We now backup Server3 to the NAS box and then the NAS box replicates to the external drives.

I wanted to do something similar with servers 1 and 2 but it seems the RM server backup does not support this and can only backup to tape.

So im looking at purchasing the necessary software/licenses from Symantec to have the other 2 servers backing up to the NAS box. Can people please advise what i need and a good strategy to achieve this?

For reference our current backup strategy is as follows:

server1 - daily full backups (mon-fri) around 150gb to tape

server2 - daily full backups (mon-fri) around 120-130gb to tape

server 3 - full backup every fri (500gb) mon-thurs daily diff backup (30-50gb) to NAS box

thanks
Jimmy

[AmolB]

To backup remote server you need to purchase Remote Agent for Windows.

 If you plan to backup any application like SQL or Exchange then you will need Remote agent

 for SQL, Remote Agent for Exchange.

 Tape device has to be connected to the server where Backup Exec is installed.

[jimmyca]

thanks for info

No SQL or exchange to backup.

When you mention the tape drive - each server has its own drive. Does it count for remote agent? or will the remote agent only backup to the drive attached to the server with the mian Backup Exec software?

i.e. if i install the remote agent on server 1 and 2, will it only be able to backup to the drive on server3 where BE is installed?

thanks

[AmolB]

if i install the remote agent on server 1 and 2, will it only be able to backup to the drive on server3 where BE is installed?

True, Remote agent publishes info from the remote server to the Backup Exec (Media) server.

So the drive has to be connected to the Backup Exec server itself.  BE will not be able to detect

the Tape drive iwhich is connected to the remote sever.

[RahulG]

Well you can configure ur  NAS box as  backup to disk device in backup exec and run the backup directly to the NAS device . Make sure that the NAS device is supported as per the compatibility list .

ONCe you have the NAS configured you can target your backup job to run on NAS and then run duplicate job which duplicate data from NAS to Tape .

The tape dirve should be connected to the media server. If you have the tape drive connected to the remote server i.e server 1 or server 2 the backup job will not run on that drive . it can only run on the drive which is locally connected to the server .

[jimmyca]

Thanks RahulG

I have configured the NAS as a backup to disk device for server3 and works perfectly. I understand now that as this will be classed as a device

I am trying to move away from Tape completely, my desired setup knowing i can use the NAS as a B2D drive will be:

server1 - remote agent installed, backup to NAS drive

server2 - remote agent installed, backup to NAS drive

server3 - BE 11d installed, backup to NAS drive

With this in mind i take it im looking at purchasing 2 x remote agent licenses? will the latest version of the remote agent work fine with BE 11d?

Thanks again

[AmolB]

Symantec has stopped selling the license key for 11d but what you can do is buy remote agent

license of BE2010 and then downgrade the license key to 11d with the help of licensing team.