Backup to USB drives located on network PC

[zorro]

I want to do a full backup twice a week to removable usb drives.  We have 6 1TB drives.  Backup Exec 2010 R2 is installed on a Windows 2008 R2 server.  We connect the drives to a separate workstation on the network.  There is only 1 drive connected at a time.  They all use the same drive letter and same network share. Example \\pc\backup  I just want to do a full backup twice a week to a different drive each time while we rotate them off site.

It was very easy with our old backup software to simply point it to the network share.  I can't quite figure this out with backup exec.  I have almost the same exact scenario and issues that this user had with version 11! https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/backup-removable-usb-drives

Unfortunately it seems that the "Removable Backup-to-Disk Folder" option in backup exec will not work.  It won't accept my UNC path and it won't accept a mapped network drive letter.

So the only option seems to be to use the normal "Backup-to-disk-folder" option.  I tried this but when I disconnect the usb drive, the device goes offline and doesn't seem to come back online when I connect a new one.  It also seems to think that it's the same media.

[Ken_Putnam]

Any particular reason the USB drives are not connected to the media server?  The way you are set up, you are fighting the network twice, right?

If you connect them to the media server and upgrade to 2010R2, it is a simple matter of placing all the B2D (not removable B2d) devices in a pool and pointing your jobs to the pool.  Backup Exec should grab whatever specific device is active when the job runs

prior to 2010R2, Symantec says you could not share a drive letter  between multiple devices (tho some have done so and reported success here on the forums)

[zorro]

I am running the latest version, 2010R2.  Backup Exec is installed in a VM on top of ESXi so we can't connect the USB drive to the server.

Although I'm disappointed the product won't do what I want, I may delete the VM and install it on the workstation instead if that is easier.

If you connect them to the media server and upgrade to 2010R2, it is a simple matter of placing all the B2D (not removable B2d) devices in a pool and pointing your jobs to the pool.  Backup Exec should grab whatever specific device is active when the job runs

Can you explain how to set that up better?  What type of device do I create "Removable Backup-to-Disk Folder" or "Backup-to-disk-folder"?

Thanks

[pkh]

What type of device do I create "Removable Backup-to-Disk Folder" or "Backup-to-disk-folder"?

I use Removable Backup-to-Disk Folder.  Just create one for each of your USB disk, then in the Device tab, create a Device pool to contain them.  Target your jobs to this device pool.  When you plug in a particular disk, it will be online and your job will write to that disk.  For all this to work properly, you need to be on BE 2010 R2.

[zorro]

I use Removable Backup-to-Disk Folder.  Just create one for each of your USB disk, then in the Device tab, create a Device pool to contain them.  Target your jobs to this device pool.  When you plug in a particular disk, it will be online and your job will write to that disk.  For all this to work properly, you need to be on BE 2010 R2.

Does each one need to have it's own drive letter or can they all have the same one?  It's a shame BE won't accept a UNC or Mapped drive as a "Removable Backup-to-Disk Folder"

[pkh]

Does each one need to have it's own drive letter or can they all have the same one?

Prior to BE 2010 R2, you would have to worry about this problem, but BE 2010 R2 can handle drive letters properly.  You don't have to assign a particular drive letter to a particular disk.  Just use them normally.

It's a shame BE won't accept a UNC or Mapped drive as a "Removable Backup-to-Disk Folder"

You cannot used mapped drives with BE because BE jobs are run as batch jobs and mapped drives are related to an online session.

[Colin_Weaver]

Just to clarify Removable Backup to Disk Folders are designed for local devices with removable cartridges or platters (i.e CD ROM or an RDX drive etc)  A USB disk is not therefora a removable disk in terms of B2D usage - if you look carfefully in the admin guide I believe it states what are classified as Removable B2D devices.

As such you have to use a standard B2D - as others have described Backup Exec 2010 R2 has changes that monitor for USB disk being changed - although you would actually handle each disk as a different B2D and then put all the B2D's in a device pool and target the jobs to the pool to allow you to swap between disks. Unfortunately the USB disks have to be on the media server as this method relies on the USB insert notifications in order to identify the drive and the letter it is on when it is reconnected so that won't help you.

I am not sure we can cover for what you are doing as once we detect that a device is no longer present and marked offline we need some sort of insert notification to detect that it is present again. It might be that you could give each USB disk a unique share and a unique B2D device and then use a Devcie Pool to handle the multiple disks. However you will probably have to restart Device And Media Service every time you re-insert one of the USB disks onto the remote system. It might help if you pause the B2D devices in Backup Exec before you eject them from the remote system and unpause the connected one after inserting as well as restarting the services.

As we can't cover it I would suggest you use the Ideas section (at the bottom of the forums menu) to post it as an enhancement request and make sure you mention as part of the request that the reason is the you are running a virtualized media server that can't directly access the USB drives you are using as storage.

Of course the other solution is migrate your backup server onto real hardware ;)

[zorro]

Removable Backup to Disk Folders are designed for local devices with removable cartridges or platters (i.e CD ROM or an RDX drive etc)

That seems contradictory to what others have said they're doing.

Of course the other solution is migrate your backup server onto real hardware ;)

ESXi is running on "real server hardware".  Backup Exec is the issue.  You would think that it would work with any media type by now.  Looks like it's still designed around tape.

I was going to install it on the Workstation but I just found out that Backup Exec does not support Windows 7!!

Why does Backup Exec make it so difficult to do this?  I simply want to back up to a network share (which happens to be a USB drive) twice a week.

Apparently in order to backup to USB drive backup exec can not be installed virtually and the drives must be attached to the media server.  That's ridiculous as it requires me to purchase another server and another windows license when I already have unlimited data center licenses for our ESXi hosts.

[Colin_Weaver]

You can backup to a network share twice a week - however if you unplug the USB device that holds the share - you are then changing the environment in a way that has not been designed into the product as such having to work around something that is outside of the design should perhaps be expected.

As an aside it is possible to setup USB pass through into a Virtual Machine - I have done it ( with ESX not ESXi) and I haven't used it for a B2D location. Have you tried this as an option as then the 2010 R2 Support for Backup to Disk (not removable B2D) on USB disks would potentially apply.

Oh and yes I know they there is a very common misconception about what a removable backup to disk is and in fact until relatively recently that misconception existed amongst support staff as well - however it has been the case since removable backup to disk was first added into the product that it was there to support local devices that had removable cartridges or platters - Additionally USB disks were not a common option when Removable B2D was added to Backup Exec hence it was not designed for it - however even if it was designed for USB it would still have to be a local device not something attached to a remote system.

[zorro]

What I think I'm going to do is create a normal network share on the workstation and do a full backup to it twice a week.  After the backup is complete, I'll have a script run that will copy from that folder to the USB drive.  Will this work ok?

[Colin_Weaver]

Well yes but Unfortunately not a good idea either for another reason:

Backup Exec needs to be thought of as a very large relational database - where the SQL Data (in the BEDB) is just part of the database with the content of the tape and disk based media being another part and the catalogs being another part. If any one part of this relational database ends up being inconsistent with the other parts you will have an issue. (Catalogs being the easiest to fix and BEDB content being the hardest)

Now every B2D file has both a media name (B2D00001.bkf or IMG0001 for instance) and a Media GUID/ID that is stored inside the BEDB.

If you have a scenario where you have copied a B2D file to another disk (any type of disk) and then Backup Exec comes along a week or so later and overwrites the original B2D file (and updates the records in the BEDB at the same time) and you then copy back the original file from your USB copy you are likely to have problems - these problems get worse if it is not just one B2D file but a linked set of them. Often the only way out of this (if you must do a restore from a set of disk files that have been copied away) and then copied back later is to completely empty the BEDB and the catalogs and then re-catalog the media you copy back (which can be a time consuming process as you obviously want to put back your current media and BEDB once you have completed your restore.

There are other ways out - i.e. use a second media server that has never run backups to catalog the media OR take a copy of the bedb and teh catalogs just after the backup and make sure that this is copied to the USB disk as well, so you can then use these when restoring etc. However every option can be fiddly which is why we only recommend duplicating data to other storage locations and not taking copies outside of the inbuilt Backup Exec processes,

[zorro]

Ok I give up and install it on it's own box.  Next year I will be evaluating new software...