Migrate physical BE2014 Media Server to Virtual BE2014 Media Server
My physical BE2014 server is on it's last legs. I want to move the existing BE2014 media server configuration to a new Virtual Server BE2014 media server. Is there a TechDoc for that? So far all I've found is how to convert a backed up physical device to a virtual device. I've configured the VM server as Microsoft Server 2012, 32GB Ram, etc.
I would really appreciate any assistance with this.
TIA.
Brian Ferguson
Spelman College
Atlanta, GA.
Hi,
BE on a VM as a media server isn't really supported. Read below:
http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH130609
Doing so equates to an alternative configuration and you may, or may not, get support from Symantec on this.
If you can, rather keep BE on a physical server, and the TN below helps you migrate BE from 1 server to another (can be VM if you don't take into account the advice in the TN above):
http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH67768
Thanks!
Background Info:
We MUST support Backup Exec inside a VMware Virtual Machine as otherwise we would not be able to Support the VMware Hot-Add Transport method (which only works inside a VM)
The Passthrough of Physical Tape drives/Libraries via SCSI, Fiber Channal, SAS or USB is not supported in VMware and neither does the Virtual Fiber Channel Adaptor in Hyper-V support tapes. The few customers that have tried tape passthrough in VMware have reported random problems that in some cases have needed a server reboot just to get a temporary fix with it then happening again in the future)
Note the article referenced by CraigV and VJware which specifies support for Adaptec SCSI cards related to similar content in a VMware document written for ESX 3.5. Symantec did not officially test that configuration and additionally VMware withdrew/amended that information in similar documents relating to newer versions of ESX.
The Passthrough of USB devices for backup to disk storage targets is not officially tested by us (in Hyper-V or VMware). However we are not aware of any reported issues that can be directly linked to this configuration.
An iSCSI Tape library listed on our HCL is supported inside both Hyper-V and VMware VMs
SAN Transport is not supported if the media server is located inside a VMware VM (The Backup API seems to block it because you should be using Hotadd)
Hotadd Transport is ONLY supported inside a VMware VM and is not supported on a physical server or inside Hyper-V VMs)
Irrespective of the media server being virtual or physical, we do not support the use of Tape drives or libraries that are attached to a different host and use some kind of software based iSCSI target (we did have a customer try this as a way around the passthrough limitations)
As a recommendation because Deduplication is very CPU and RAM intensive we do suggest that physical servers are used. This is a recommendation purely based on it potentially being a bad idea to have the Hypervisor load balancing taking resources away from the Deduplication server duee to the requirements for other VMs.
Offhost of data held within virtual disk files is not supported for VMware or Hyper-V VMs, although VMware does offer a similar facility via SAN Transport. In theory there is a supported offhost configuration involving VMs where an offhost supported iSCSI disk array that is attached into a VM is also attached to the media server. We are not aware of any customers doing this.
EDIT: If none of the above limitations or recommendations apply to your environment then you could go ahead however you do need to be aware of them before continuing with your plans just in case
