Does a redirected restore need a Remote Agent?

[Onieda]

I recently faced having to try to restore the contents of a failed server to another machine and came up against a problem.

The replacement hardware was completely different from the original server so I set the new one up with a plain installation of Windows Server 2003 and intended to do a redirected restore of the files from our failed machine onto the new one.

I couldn't get the Media Server to "see" the machine I was trying to redirect to, even though it was available on our network, and after putting the full path of where I wanted the files to go and setting the restore running I got an error saying that the job had failed because there was no Remote Agent on the destination machine.

Are we expected to buy an extra Remote Agent licence in case of a disaster recovery situation, which all being well will never be used? Was there something else going on that caused the problem? I didn't want to back up the new machine or use BackupExec on it, just copy the files across to it as an emergency measure, so I didn't expect to need an extra Agent.

[BackupDawg]

You probably could restore it to a UNC share?  (\\servername\restorefolder)

[Onieda]

Yes, I tried that, but got the message that a Remote Agent was needed.

[Siddhant_Saini]

You are making use of Backup Exec 2012. You may try to do either of the following since you are performing a restore of files and folders ONLY: 

1. Add the Remote Server as a File Server and then try to perform a redirected restore. 

2. Remove all the License Keys of Backup Exec 2012 and activate the 60day trial period. On doing so, you would be able to install one Agent for Windows on your remote server to perform a restore. 
Do ensure to add the licenses again. 

[Onieda]

Thank you sidd3009, I will give that a try. It did occur to me that I could use the 60 day trial but I wondered if that was the only way round the problem. Once the old server was taken off the network we would have been able to transfer all the licences, but we couldn't do that until we were sure the replacement was up and running.

I will try adding the new server as a File Server - is that an option from the button on the top right hand side of the window in the main screen of Backup Exec?

[Siddhant_Saini]

For adding the server as a File Server, please refer to the points mentioned in http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH189560

[Onieda]

Thank you!