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Impressions of BackupExec 2012

Bulbous
Level 5
Partner

Is it just me, or does anyone else absolutely HATE the redesign of Backup Exec? I have worked with BE since version 8, and I have become acutely familiar with the menus, where everything is, and how it works.

This redesign of the UI reminds me of the differences between Microsoft Office 2003 and Office 2007, only much worse. Menus are now hidden behind other menus, and everything has a completely counter-intuitive feel.

At first, I thought that the feeling would pass as I grew more familiar with the product, but in fact my dislike has grown as I have found more issues.

Does anyone else feel the same way?

417 REPLIES 417

RakeshB
Not applicable
Employee

While taking the backup there is no fool proof way of figuring out files that are important to the OS or the applications installed on it. Hence, excluding a file from the critical system drive is not allowed. The missing file can render the restored OS unusable or can corrupt applications on the restored system. 

Bulbous
Level 5
Partner

That is a major screwup. Many servers, especially Small Business Servers, have only a single drive/volume. Essentially, they are now prohibited from excluding any files or folders, no matter how trivial. I would say this needs to be fixed. It is not that hard to differentiate critical system files and folders from inconsequential ones.

David_Willoughb
Level 3

I wouldn't care what the interface looked like if the software would just work. I have had more problems getting successful backups with this version than any of the previous versions I have used. All you did was slap a pretty new interface on top of the same crappy software you've been pushing for years. There are issues in this version that have been around since at least version 8.5. How about stop worrying about the interface for a while and fix the software? Vmware is looking better and better every day, because I sure don't use this piece of crap to back up VM's.

David_Willoughb
Level 3

Let us know if you find a good solution. I am also among the rapidly growing number of users who would love to send Symantec packing.

David_Willoughb
Level 3

This is part of the problem. You look at these comments and conclude that we are "unhappy". I can't speak for all users, but I passed "unhappy" a couple of versions ago. I'm "da**ed" angry" that Symantec keep taking my maintenance and support dollars every year and keeps producing steaming piles of you-know what.

David_Willoughb
Level 3

Not the least of which is to pretend we are getting something for all those maintenance dollars we give you I'm sure.

David_Willoughb
Level 3

Of course there are going to be issues any time a software package changes as much as this one did. But IMHO Symantec really dropped the ball on several points. On 2 separate occasions I called support and eventually had the tech admit to me that they didn't know a lot about the new version yet either. That is completely unacceptable. And as far as "due diligence", there are those of us that did that, met all the requirements, installed the product from scratch, and it still doesn't work correctly. To use your car analogy, that's called "buying a lemon".

TTT
Level 4

I've also signed up for Elizabeth Teffner's sessions (on third page at https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/impressions-backupexec-2012#comment-7202651 ); I think it's great to see Symantec has heard us and is looking for our feedback.

Hopefully everyone here that uses tape (in any form, even duplication) will sign up too!  Looks like she still has some open sessions left.

TTT
Level 4

Just so I understand- SDR won't work at all on a restore if a non-important file is excluded?  Has anyone tried SDR after excluding a file?  Or will it still work but the "green light" for fully-selected turns off?

Personally I don't like seeing the repeated "blue icon" informational alerts for "SDR Full Backup Success".  I'd like to see an option to turn that off.  To me, an alert has to be responded to- whether it's critical or not- and if the server's been backed up successfully, and it's part of a daily schedule, why should I respond?

Matt12345
Level 4

this is slightly off topic - but I think it fits within this thread... as it relates to Symantec changing the look and feel of a [formerly] functional solution.

Symantec is putting a new face on Verisign SSL certs... they are now going to have a "Norton Secured" secured badge http://www.symantec.com/theme.jsp?themeid=seal-transition&sl=62LMR-0000-01-00

For the sake of e-commerce I hope they get this one right.

David_Willoughb
Level 3

Don't even get me started on support. Would be nice if I could get somebody from support that actually speaks a word of English. I'm tired of having to ask them to repeat EVERY SINGLE THING THEY SAY! And that's when I can get in touch with them at all. Just about every time I put in a support request, it gets assigned to someone whose working hours aren't even close to mine. I can put in a call at 9:00 AM my time and get a call back at almost 4:30 PM (just as I'm getting ready to walk out the door).

jerrys79
Level 4

I have been following this thread since the beginning but have yet to comment since the community has summed up how I feel.  I won't get into specifics since it's all been said throughout this post though I will say one of my biggest complaints like many others is the single job/multiple servers issue.

Luckily the site that is running 2012 is our smallest with only two servers doing full nightly backups to tape.  I now receive two emails instead of the usual one.  I can't imagine getting 25 emails if I upgraded my main site.  I will not upgrade any of our other sites to BE2012.

I was thinking about joining Elizabeth Teffner's session but don't really want to waste my time with something that should have been done during the beta stages by Symantec and not the customer.  Yes, you can argue that Symantec is listening to the customer and doing this but for me it's too late.  Even if that feature does get added, I don't think I will continue using this product.  At this point, a major development change could make the already unstable product even less stable as appears to be the case with BE2012 SP1.  It has been out for 4 days and the comments show nothing but problems which makes me believe it was rushed and not tested.  Another sign of deploying something and then having the customer test it.  On that note, the base product has only been out 3 months and already a service pack is needed??

http://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/backup-exec-2012-service-pack-1-released

 

I've truly enjoyed BE for years and don't mind change but only if it's for the better.  I have spent a lot of time on 2012 and do like some of the new features and at a first glance appears to be a good product, but from a professional business level it just doesn't cut it.  It's a shame the product went down this road. 

Our support ends next month and I too will be looking for another product.  Anyone have any good suggestions?

 

hazmat09
Level 4

I get downvoted for providing help...facepalm

StrongmanTech
Level 3
Partner Accredited

jerrys79, you are right! SP1 is out. Read through the forums though, and you will probably want to wait for SP1a to be released. SP1 has caused major issues for some that have upgraded to it.

Recommendations from other users have been to contact tech support prior to upgrading. They should be able to verify whether it will fail in your environment. None of the other posts note which types of environments it is failing in, so just be aware.

Jimmy_Mac
Level 3

Am I reading this correctly? The 2012 product is already a bad option due to the lack of traditional product functionality and now we hear that SP1 could possibly make it worse? Just what is going on over at Symantec? Don't they have any sort of quality control? Any 'real world' beta testing going on?

Geez..

I guess I'll start returning some of the cold calls I'm getting from Acronis, CA and Retrospect.

 

Steve_Kratz
Level 4
Partner

When I first tried 2012, I was pretty supportive of the changes... However, that was on a small network with two servers. Now, I've tried putting it on a network with 18 servers to back up, and it's a nightmare.

In the past, there have been those inexplicable situations where system state or exchange can't run in the same job due to compatibility issues with different parts of AOFO. Well, that seems to be the case again. The full backups for Exchange will run, but not incremental, so now I have to have one job that does full files + daily incremental files, and then a second job for the same server with a full exchange job.

The old way was SO much easier.

 

(And watch out if you back up virtual hosts with the BE VMWare agent. If the server happens to do a restart due to, say, Windows Updates or anything else, it leaves snapshots laying around taking up massive amounts of space on the VMHost.)

Zekester65
Level 3

Spent a nice Friday morning thinking I need to upgrade BE2010 R3 to 2012. Thought to myself, shoot, BE has always been seamless with the upgrade process, shouldn't take long and good to get on the most current version. Wow was I wrong. Jobs lost, backups missed, it was (and still is) a nightmare.  What was 3 jobs in the queue has now turned into 25, with each wanting to run at the exact same time. Serious? It is now Wednesday and I am still trying to sort out this mess with not much luck. It is quite easy to tell this new version is all about backup to disk with every job starting at once. Guess what? There is still a bunch of us out there who use tape for every backup and 2012 is worthless for us.

 

I have already advised our CEO that I will be inserting money into the budget for a new backup solution because after just 5 days (including my weekend) of wasting time, I am done with it.   

 

patters
Level 4

I still can't get a single day's worth of backup without the tape spoiling with End Marker Unreadable and refusing to append. I'm in week three now, with spoiled backups every day. I might as well give up. THREE WEEKS. The Quantum hardware diag wrote a whole 800GB tape with no read/write errors. The same tape hardware worked fine on BE 2010 R3.

Which replacement product should I buy? I mean Veam looks good but I need tape backup to use my existing investment. I have no money for an offsite SAN just for backup sets, let alone a high-speed link.

hazmat09
Level 4

I've been having similar issues with my TL2000 Tape Library. No errors on the physical unit, but BKUP Exec 2012 thinks otherwise. I'm working with a few engineers this friday to try and sort out the issues. My patience is wearing thin though.

Bradl3y
Level 3

I've been getting the "end marker unreadable" issue also, but in my case it's related to other jobs failing, killing the beremote on the server which means it can't nicely mark the tapes as appendable for jobs that were in the middle of running.

At least that's what I think is happening - the times seem to line up in the job logs.

I thought I'd mention it in case you are having the same problems.

To alleviate I've moved around the backup schedules for the jobs that regularly die, and moved when my duplication jobs run, and I'm backing up to disk first then duplicating to tape.  That at least gives me a backup to disk, then I can dupe to tape.  I have a tape library with 2 drives also, so when this unappendable problem happens I'm duplicating backup sets to different tapes and scratching the ones that aren't appendable.  This fails sometimes too because the backup set on tape isn't readable, valid, corrupted etc (the error varies).

Fortunately I have nothing better to do with my mornings... (sigh).