DLO backup locations

[trevlantin]

Hi everyone,

We had a nasty server failure that obliterated our BackupExec 12.5 installation. Good news is I still got all the (encrypted) users backups intact on the main storage location. My only option was to setup BE again from scratch. Now as I am trying to setup DLO, I was just wondering whether I should point the Storage Location to the existing folder or should I create a new one and try to import the existing backups per user. My main concern is that I will not be able to use the existing backup anyway as the encryption is based on the old installation main password. Otherwise if encryption is based on the user, that's a welcome news.

My other concern is how the users will be populated again on the new installation? Will it build up automatically as soon as the clients start connecting? Also, I am assuming that as soon as the clients connect, the new matching profile will be used by their computer.

I still got a few doubts to be sorted, but any insight on the above issues will certainly guide me to the right direction. Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Trev

[CraigV · Accepted solution]

Hi Trev,

From what I've read, encryption is done on the server itself...not a per-user basis. As such, if you didn't have the encryption key saved somewhere before your server crashed, it's gone for good.

In this case, it might be best to rather point your users to another location and let them backup there.

The Admin Guide for BE 12.5 will have further details on encryption, but check out the links below as well for further information:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO22978 (encryption keys)

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH33336 (DLO Scan Tool)

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH59757

Thanks!

[trevlantin]

Hi CraigV,

Thank you for the links which got me started on the right direction. I was able to resolve my issue just when I was to give up on it :D.

I recreated the profiles and had to add users individually. Import via CSV did not work as it needed the user folders to be created before the import. I tried to copy the level-1 structure from the old backup location but the ACL wouldn't get copied over (tried robocopy with /COPYALL - failed). Anyway, the next step for me was to change the clients settings by using 'Reset accounts' on 'Options-Tools-Preferences'. Then I had to refresh (Main-Tasks-Refresh) the DLO desktop so that it could connect to the new server installation. The DLO agent needed restarting and connected successfully to the new server properly. I had to do this on our 60+ workstations. Backup is now happenning after office hours and it is looking good. I am thinking there could have been better ways to do this but I just wanted to quickly get it over and done with. There came a point where I thought I would have to reinstall the agents but luckily I found that 'Reset accounts' working on my third try. I needed the refresh to make it work.

For the old bakcups, I found the tool 'dlocommandu' to be really useful. I successfully restored a few of the 'orphaned' backups (lucky to have the old system password). I'm keeping the old backups for now until I've confirmed all the users have recreated their backup on the new location.

It's been such a challenge but all is good now including the main SBE server backups going to our tape library. thanks again.

Regards,

Roberto