Hardware requirement for BE 2010 installation& advice

[geekgadget]

Dear All,

I need to install Backup Exec 2010 on a client side who has the following requirements of licenses in their  environment.

1.Backup Exec 2010

2. Agents licenses for

 a. Exchange Server

 b. Sharepoint Server

 c. SQL Server

 d. for Windows systems

 e. for Linux/Unix Servers

3.Deduplication suite

4.Library Expansion per device

5.System Recovery

They have around 1.5 TB of data and previously they are using ca ARCSERVE backup application in their environment  and for storage they have IBM LTO3 Tape storage and IBM DS 8100 SAN .

I want to request you to know what is the good hardware requirements in terms of CPU , RAM , Storage , Network  that should I ask for installing BE 2010 in their environment as they also want Deduplication option in their environment  and what should be the strategy   to phase out  ca ARCSERVE slowly from their environment and continue with BE 2010 and for how much time period they have to continue with ca ARC SERVE simultaneously with BE 2010 because if they have any issue then they recover data from their ARCSERVE backup and what may be the issues for  having both ca ARCSERVE and BE 2010 in an environment simultaneously

Should I go with the fresh tape cartridges in IBM LTO3 Tape storage and  they don’t request for SAN SSO license it means that their backup traffic is in their LAN environment  I have create the scenario that their environment should look like this for BE 2010 according to me ,see the attachment for this and please give your valuable suggestions and comments  on this scenario.

Regards

Geek gadget

[RRE]

Hi There,

Hardware Requirements

RAM and disk space requirements may vary depending on the operations
performed, the agents and options installed, and the specific system configuration.
Backup Exec database and catalogs require additional space on the disk.
Backup Exec requires at least one storage media drive or single-drive robotic
library and the appropriate controller card. You can also use removable storage
devices and non-removable hard drives.
Support for a single robotic library drive is available when you purchase Backup
Exec 2010. To enable support for additional robotic library drives, you must
purchase the Backup Exec Library Expansion Option. In addition, support is
included for every single-drive virtual tape library. To support additional drives in
each virtual tape library, you can purchase the Virtual Tape Library Unlimited
Drive Option.

Check the Hardware compatibility list

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH137050

Deduplication Option: Requirements

System Requirements
The system requirements for installing the Deduplication Option are:
• 64-bit Backup Exec Media server
• One quad-core processor or two dual-core processors
Requirements for using the deduplication storage folder
To use the deduplication storage folder, the following requirements must be met:
• The storage location of the deduplication storage folder should be a dedicated
volume
• For every 1 TB of storage, 1 GB of RAM should be available. Symantec
recommends at least 8 GB of RAM.

Miscellaneous Requirements

Before you install Backup Exec, perform the following checks:
• Check the name of the computer on which you want to install Backup Exec.
The name should use only standard ANSI characters. You may encounter
errors if you install Backup Exec on a computer with a name that uses nonstandard
characters.
• Check the Windows security settings to make sure that they work properly
with the Backup Exec Service Account.
• Ensure that third-party software, using Backup Exec ports, is configured
correctly.
• Install the Storage Device Hardware such as controllers, drives, and robotic
libraries on the Media server. Use the appropriate Windows hardware setup
functions to configure your controller and storage devices.
• If the drive on which you want to install Backup Exec is encrypted or
compressed, and you would like to use a default SQL Express database, verify
that an unencrypted and uncompressed drive is available for the SQL Express
installation.

Step By Step guide to download and install Backup Exec 2010

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH124432

Regards

RRE

 

[RRE]

Continuation....

Scenario that you have created is the ideal one. As far as implementation goes

- Install BE on the media server

- Install the required licenses. Install remote agent on those servers that you are planning to backup

- As you are using Arcserve in the environment , make sure you will not backup one application ( sql, exch etc) with both the software. You can start with domain controller backup & looking at the success rate , move on to backing up Exch , SQL , sharepoint. I dont find any reason to hold back BE from implementing completely. But you can proceed with one server at a time

Regards

RRE

[geekgadget]

Thanks RRE ,

I want to clear some points 

1.Does RAID 5 architecture of 500 GB disk is good for Server on which BE 2010 will install or single disk with two or three partion will be fine..

 2.They have IBM DS 8000 SAN in their environment so how can I use their SAN , I am thinking to use it for deduplication , can I create more than 1 deduplication folder on same SAN or any other alternative method I can use . Second thing currently they have client backup connectivity protocol is LAN not SAN so it means that backup traffic is on LAN for BE 2010  also because they didn't have a license for SAN SSO , so is it a good practise to have a backup by BE 2010 Servers disk - SAN - Tape storage else if I take backup directly on Tape storage is there any recommendations for backing up Exchange,SQL,Sharepoint and Active Directory.

regards

Geekgadget

[RRE]

HI there,

Please refer pg no 9 to 16 of the HCL http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH137050 . You will find answer to your question.

Admin Guide

http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC2211

Refer the following chapters in the Admin Guide

Symantec Backup Exec Agent for Microsoft Exchange Server

Symantec Backup Exec Agent for Microsoft SharePoint

Symantec Backup Exec Agent for SQL Server

Regards

RRE

[CraigV]

Hi,

OK, so ignoring the cut-and-paste from various technotes above, here are some real-world scenarios:

1. I'd recommend at least 8GB RAM in your server, especially since you need to run Windows Server 2008 R2 in order to take advantage of the dedupe option and backin up Exchange 2010 media server MUST be x64...the more RAM you can get into the server, the better.

2. In order to make use of LAN-free backups, you need the SAN SSO option, and all servers need to be zoned to see the library which must be SAN-attached too. If the drive/autoloader is SCSI-attached, it won't work as it is unsupported. You need a full BE media server license PER server attached to the SAN you want to backup using SAN SSO. SAN SSO is also licensed, and you need to license any agents on the server. If the library only has 1 drive, it's a waste to by SAN SSO as all the backups will be queueud.

3. For every tape drive more than the first drive in a library you need a Library Expansion Option (LEO) license. The first drive is covered by a "free" license within BE.

4. You can only have 1 dedupe folder PER media server! If you want 3 servers to run the dedupe option, you need 3 dedupe licenses.

5. I have successfully restored ARCserve 11.5 data using BE 2010 R3, but for safety's sake, rather keep the tapes from ARCserve aside and use new tapes if possible. THis means you can recover any data if need be, but start using them once their retention has expired in ARCserve.

6/ If you ever stream your dedupe data off to tape, be aware that it rehydrates itself to the original size. If you need to stream off to tape, do so over a weekend rather.

7. To phase our ARCserve (and I've done this myself), I'd simply make a final backup of ARCserve and hang on to any monthly tapes for instance, along with license keys and installation media. Make a copy of the catalog and DB if need be too. Take note of the selections and how the jobs were created in ARCserve, and uninstall it. INstall BE and configure accordingly...

8. Uninstall ARCserve completely...it will cause issues with the accessing of hardware and ports. You can a least reinstall if need be temporarily!

Let me know if you have further questions!

Cheers!

[pkh]

@RRE - Your answer is extracted from various documents like the Admin Guide and this document

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO23357

If you are quoting extensively from a document it would be better to direct the user to the document/page.  Otherwise, people will think that you are plagarising the documents.

[pkh]

@RRE - If you forgot something, do use the edit function to add in the addtional information.  Do not use multiple posts.

[geekgadget]

Dear All ,

sorry for adding multiple post and for representing the case by taking help from various documents

actually my scenario is mostly the same as I describe above but I am confused from where I have to start from and how to streamline the process as I have already mentioned that I new to backup field as I know the importance of data for any organization so I am little bit cautious with the situation.

I don't want to cut and paste and make all of you annoyed by this in contrast what I want to do is to explain you all as much in details as I can so in this way I will get a valuable feedback from all of you how to start this with your experience and some preventive measures that I have to take into account.

regards

geekgadget

[geekgadget]

Hello CraigV ,

I want to clear one thing with your permission for this installation backup traffic is on LAN because in BOQ (Bill of Quantities) for my client SAN SSO license is not mentioned.

1.what I am thinking to do after your comment "deduplicated data rehydrates itself on tape storage" is to keep the deduplicated data on SAN itself for any specific server e.g SQL , Exchange and for the rest of the servers I will take backup directly on Tape storage. is it fine to do or any other option I have to look for like Server disk - B2D folder on SAN - Tape storage .

please guide me with this concept.

regards

Geekgadget 

[RRE]

@pkh - Thanks a lot !! i appreciate your advice :) This is definately going to help me improve my posts

[RRE]

@pkh - Thanks again ;)

[CraigV]

Hi,

That will work, no hassles. As long as you're not streaming the deduped data to tape, it stays deduped.

Ideally you'd want to send all data to the dedupe folder to get the maximum benefit of it, but if you need/want to stream data to tape, that will work too.

You COULD zone each of those SAN-attached servers to see your IBM storage, and then install a full copy of BE + agents on them. You would then direct backups to those B2Ds, but this is an extra cost of licenses! And makes manageability harder with multiple backup servers in your environment.

Thanks!

[geekgadget]

Hi CraigV ,

I decided to ask client for a server for backup exec installtion with following configuration.

Hardware requirements :

a. Processor  8 Core CPU ,speed 3 GHz  and above ,64 bit Architecture.

b.Memory should be 16 GB and above

Operating system : Microsoft windows server 2008 R2 Enterprise edition

But one thing I want to know for disk storage should I ask for RAID 5 with atleast 3 HDDs of 500 gigs each or a simple HDD with 500 gigs is fine with 2 or 3 primary partition.

regards

Geekgadget

[CraigV]

RAID will always beat an external drive for speed and availability, hands-down. If you can put that in, I'd recommend it.

[pkh]

A RAID 5 drive will always be slower than a non-RAID drive.  This is one of the price you pay for the fail-safe of your data.

[geekgadget]

Thanks CraigV and pkh for your comments on RAID 5.

I am thinking about one option to switch from ca ARCserve to BE 2010 and I want to request your opinions and information regarding one of ca ARCserve feature.

Solution in my opinion.

Steps :

1.Take full backup of all servers from ca ARCserve on tape storage and remove those cartridges and load new one in tape library.

2.Continue with ARCserve and create a B2D (back to disk) folder kind of option if present in ARCserve in SAN and redirect all further backup traffic from ARCserve to that folder till BE 2010 will take backup of complete environment.

3.Install BE 2010 on a new server and configure all the media and other settings.

4.Uninstall ARCserve agent from the target servers one by one and start taking backup from BE 2010 in this fashion we can completely switch from ca ARCserve to BE 2010 and we can also minimize the risk of not having a backup in the mean time of switching from ARCserve to BE 2010.

Do ARCserve have a feature of B2D folder like we have in BE 2010

regards

Geekgadget

[CraigV · Accepted solution]

...I'd cut over in 1 go to be honest. You're managing 2 different backup vendors at the same time.

I'd honestly do it this way:

1. install BE 2010 R3 on your new server, and patch with SP1 and any further patches. You can use LiveUpdate for this, or do so manually. 

2.Take a final backup using ARCserve (and include installation media if you have the ISO). Write-protect the tape physically and lock away.

3. Uninstall the ARcserve agents off the servers in question, and push-install the BE 2010 R3 agents to the servers.

4. Configure the jobs accordingly.

This is the way I'd do it, but it depends on your level of experience and comfort in doing it all-in-one.

[geekgadget]

CraigV the way you describe to do this task is the best one actually this is my first task that's why I am little bit cautious but as far as managing the ARCserve this one is not my headache it's to be done by their admins but I have to explain them a plan what they need to do on their end that's why I ask you that this ARCserver has a feature of B2D like we have in BE .

[CraigV]

Yep, it certainly does. You can create the B2D folder under ARCserve's version of the Devices tab like BE has...once your job is either created new, or modified using an existing job in ARCserve, you can point it to that B2D folder. Then you can continue your cut-over as you planned above.