Is Remote Agent needed for backup of BUE 2010 server?

[RegionsMark]

We recently had one of our BUE 2010 (FS1) server's tape library go down.  We have a seperate BUE 2010 (FS2) server on site with a different library.  Until FS1 tape library is fixed, Is it possible for FS2 to backup FS1 if Remote Agent is not installed on FS1?  If not, would pushing remote agent from FS2 to FS1 and creating backup job work?  Would there be any conflicts between remote agent installed on FS1 and BUE 2010 server?

[Dev_T · Accepted solution]

 Hi,

As I understand:

1  : FS1 : BE2010

2  : FS2: BE2010

Wants to backup FS1 from FS2......................

** The remote agent is BY DEFAULT present on FS1 so you will be able to backup FS1 from FS2. Make sute that the beremote.exe version is same on both the servers.

[RegionsMark]

Is there a document or article that decribes this?

[Dev_T]

 By design, backup exec media server installs an instance of remote agent on itself for backing up the media server. I have checked and did not find any official document from symantec saying that you can backup a backup exec server from a different backup exec server

I have configured the above setup in a test environment and it worked for me.

hope this helps...

[Ken_Putnam]

I have configured the above setup in a test environment and it worked for me.

Good to know

I stopped trying so may versions ago I can't remember. 

I do know that through at least v9.1, this would not work

[RegionsMark]

I'll let you know what happens tomorrow.

[CraigV]

...actually Ken, I tried this using BE 2010 R2 and it didn't work, unless I was doing something incorrect...

[pkh]

This arrangement is definitely working in BE 2010 R2.  I use it for tests because my test BE server does not have a lot of data.

[RegionsMark]

I was able to successfully back up FS1 from FS2.  Both are using Symantec BUE 2010 R2.  Also I managed to get the new tape library going on FS1 this morning and so far all jobs/test have been successful.

Thanks for the advice,

[Colin_Weaver]

The main reason why you would not be able to backup FS2 form FS1 or FS1 from FS2 is if you don't have any remote agent licesnes installed on the media servers.

However if you need to do this regularly I'd recommend running VxMon (The Remote Agent Utility) on each media server to make sure that the two servers are publishing/advertising to each other instead of using a user defined selection.

Just be aware that BKF file and IMG folder backups done in this way could cause you problems at restore time, (Restoring from inside the IMG/BKF not restoring the files themselves)

DeDuplication Storage Folders will potentially need special handling as well.