Newbie - Thrown into the fire.

[Rick_Repsher]

I just inherited the backup operator job at my company… due to the termination of the majority of our IT staff.  I have never used Backup Exec before.  E-Mails to Symantic as to the status of our support contract, or the possibility of renewing one, have gone unanswered.  

 So I’ll try this approach!

 Here is what I know.  Our hourly, daily, and weekly backups go to hard disk.  On the first Friday of each month, a full backup runs on our MRP system (SQL Server), Exchange, and the file system.  Then this data is duplicated to tape.  On the first Friday of November, I found out that October’s tape was in the robotic library.  I replaced the tapes with new ones, but as of last weekend, I got a “Please insert overwriteable media…” error.

 So here I am… a lost soul.  To start, what do I need to do to at least get a tape backup of the data?  And secondly, I’m thinking we need some sort of support contract so I can get the knowledge needed to see what we have, and run it properly.

 Thanks ahead of time!

Rick

[AmolB]

Hi Rick

 "Please insert overwriteable media" is not an error message. It is just an alert.

  If the backup job is configured to overwrite and if there is no overwritable media 

  then Backup Exec will throw alerts requesting for an overwritable media.

  I would recommend you to go through admin guide to know more about BE.

[Rick_Repsher]

A: I have inserted two new tapes into the the slots that (apparently) the monthly backup runs to.

B: I have been reading the admin guide off and on for the past month.  Unfortunately for me, some of the terminology hasn't been very user friendly (to me at least.)

I guess that is why...
C: I need to find out how to get some support.

Thanks again.

[Ken_Putnam]

The Admin Guide can be a little daunting, so I'd recommend the "best practices" guides at

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH126401

Choose the ones that apply to your site/business

(The title says v2010, but most should also apply to v12.  I can't find the v12 best practices doc anymore)

And a support contract is never a bad idea, but I don't think that they provide any training

Symantec does offer courses, tho.  See

http://www.symantec.com/business/training/product_training/detail.jsp?pkid=backup_exec

[macpiano]

When I first got this job 10 years ago I hired a Backup Exec person to fly in and set it up and teach me how to get all this done. He came, spent the day, we got it all set up, and taught me how to do it. I keep maintenance and service up all the time. It was $2800 back then but worth every penny.