Does Backup Exec 2012 Incrementally dedup a VM and its' application database Exchange 2010?

[Steven_L_]

Hello!

Goal I want to achive:

I want to be able to use the VMware Agent to perform a Full backup of a guest Exchange 2010 VM to to a dedup folder and then I want to make Incremenatl backups of the VM (and of course of Exchange) to that same dedup folder.  This is ideal solution b/c in disaster I want to be able to restore the entire VM or B2V or B2P it to dissimilar hardware.

Media Server Configuration:

I have the VMware Agent installed and can see my ESXi Server in the Backup Exec (BE) 2012 console.  I also have the Windows Remote Agent and the Applications and databases agent installed on the BE Server.  

I was told that I should not make Incremental VM backups from the Exchange 2010 VM Full backup which also resides in the same dedup folder.  This was recommeded not to do, b/c since the VM backup is using applicaiton level GRT it will cause errors when trying to mount the Full database backup to compare against when doing the incremental.

Is it possible to do make Dedup Incremental VM backups of Exchange 2010 Servers?

If I cannot do it to dedup folder that is fine, I'll just send both VM backups (Full and Incr) to a non-dedup folder and achive the same Goal, but I'll loose the ability to dedup.

Please advise,

-Steven

[CraigV · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Doesn't appear to be possible without running into errors. Check the TN below which states running your backups to disk first, and then duplicating to a dedupe folder. Check to see if this will accomplish your goal:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH186741

Check the readme on the link below as it states that BE 2012 handles dedupe of VMs better...

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=DOC5215

Lastly:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO74446

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH142668

Thanks!

[Steven_L_]

Hi Craig,

Thanks. Incr of application based GRT to dedup folder question is clear to me now.  It was my hope that by using the VMware agent to make the backup of the VM that it would have some background logic to handle the incremental application GRT based functionality while still doing dedup, but I realize that this is not the case.  Maybe SP2 will include this.

Thank you for the confirmation,

-Steven

[CraigV]

...I think you mean BE 2012 R2 which is entering Beta at some stage. Check below:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs/new-beta-program-backup-exec-2012-r2

Thanks!