DR test server

[Ruska]

We have an upcoming DR test. For this I have installed BE 2010 on a test server (No licenses entered as to have full functionality). After the installation I copied some catalogs over to the test server to ensure I will be able to read the catalogs on the testbox. Having done so all the catalogs appear on the new server allowing me to browse all the different servers and backups jobs by expanding the dates. When looking at the detail pain after clicking on a specific job all the detail for the job is displayed apart from the one curtail part that is needed being the “Media Label”. After doing some digging it sounds like this is due to the db being blank. I have to copy the BEDB from the original server to the test box as per the below posts.

 http://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/migrate-backup-exec-2010

http://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/migrating-backup-exec-125-new-server

The problem on the new box is that the BEutility wont run. It is complaining about the vxACE_3I.dll not being present non the server. The file is in fact present. I have tried copying the file from the original server and pasting it where it is supposed to be overwriting the file present on the testbox. It allows me to do this for the vxACE_3I.dll file in the DLO folder but not for the one in the BackupExec folder. Not even after stopping all BE services and the BE SQL instance. It still says the file is in use by another program.

I have asked our DB guy to try and get this procedure done via some SQL commands which also proved unsuccessful. Can anyone tell me how to get around this please or even suggest a better way of preparing a DR box. Surely, restoring from tapes in the event of disaster should not require one to catalog all tapes in n newly built server. This would add days restoring a production environment.

 More info:

I have already tried recreating all the media sets manually thingking that the media have no media to associate themselves with. No luck.

The testbox has been built to represent the original as closely as possible i.e.

Both servers are running the same OS 2008 std R2

Both servers has the same name

Both servers are running the same version of BE 2010 SP1. 

[CraigV]

Hi Ruska,

Have you tried to repair your BE installation first through Add/Remove Programs?

[Colin_Weaver · Accepted solution]

The comments below won't necessarily fix your issue but will help you understand the requiremenets.

Backup Exec keeps required data for a restore in 3 locations

1) The backed up data is stored in the backup media

2) The information about what files were backed up and where each file is on the backup media is stored in the catalogs

3) The information about the backup media itself including it's name, current location, current media set, overwrite and append timings etc is stored in the Backup Exec database (BEDB)

So in order to restore you need all 3 of the above to be present on your DR server, that said you obviously can't get away from needing the media however the other 2 parts of required information can be regenerated or moved from one server to another.

Enough information about the backup media itself (for a restore operation) can be regenerated by running inventory jobs against the backup media or you can migrate the BEDB to the new server (which should only be done if the new server does not run it's own backups as it is a replace operation not a merge) Note if you run an inventory job instead of moving the bedb then media sets and timings are not recovered so you should not run backup jobs unttil you have protected important media from overwrites

The catalog information can be regenetated by running a Catlog job against the media but it is usually much quicker to copy the catalog information from the original server (as you have done).

Now to your problem:

The problem you are having with missing/unable to access DLL files implies that something has gone wrong with the installation on the DR server itself as such you might need to repair or re-install Backup Exec on that server.  However before you do that as the file seems to locked by abnother priocess you might wnat to reboot the server and try again.

Also I am not sure what you were trying to do inside of BEUTILITY but assuming it was a recover DB operation then the BEDB.BAK file you copied from the original server is just a standard SQL .BAK file as such if you have a SQL administrator who knows how to use SQL Server Management Studio Express (Downloadable form Microsoft)  then you should be able to restore the BEDB from this BAK file using SQL.

[Ruska]

Many thanks guys, then I hav eno need to resotre the DB inthe first place as the test box will serve only to do some test resotres. If I can do that simply by copying the catalogs and running an inventory on the media there is no need to get the db moved over as well.