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Remote agent re-use between physical and virtual servers

Eduman
Level 2

Good Afternoon All,

We are going to virtualise their environment in a few months. Following a server failure we've bought into BKUPExec 16 but I'm not getting much luck in finding the most cost efficient licensing options that'll cover us for 5 servers now and in the future.

My question is this:

Can we buy 5 remote agent licenses, use them for backups for the next 2 months, uninstall them from BKUP then re-use them on the incoming 5 virtual Windows Server 2016 servers?

Technically I can't see why not. I mean, I can install Office 2013 on a physical machines just as well as a virtual with not need for a Office Virtual 2013 License or equiv. My managers aren't too keen on buying a years worth of RA licenses for such a short time frame only to buy a second batch 2 months later.

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. I have tried Veritas directly but yet to have a reply, just keeps hitting voicemail.

Cheers,

Eduman

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

Using the host as the BE server is fine BUT

If using the Synology NAS devices in NAS mode (and not iSCSI/SAN mode) then workgroup security can cause problems with configuring access to a disk based backup targets over shares. In order of recommendatation  it is therefore preferable to use an iSCSI setup if you can, and then a domain security model if you can't and then trying workgroup security if that fails (unless you are already sure you can get workgroup security to work)

You can continue to use remote agent backups in the way you currently do but you massively miss out on the advantages of Virtual Agent backups if you do.

Although it is possible that workgroup security and Hyper-V agent backups would not be very easy to get working as well. (I am not really placed to confirm this point)

Overall you should probably setup some kind of proof of concept of what you trying to do.

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7 REPLIES 7

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

Yes you can - but really you should be looking at Virtual Agent backups after your conversion and not traditional agent based ones - which would need different licenses but give a MUCH better complete restore mechanism against your VMs

 

Efficiency wise you should probably be looking at Capacity Edition Licensing which includes both virtual and traditianal agent activation

 

As an aside don't make the Backup Exec server itself virtual unless you are not intending to use a tape library (SCSI, FC or USB passthrough not supported into a VM)

Hi Colin,

Thanks for the quick reply. The plan was to have the hyper-v host server as the backup machine using the exisiting Synology NAS boxes here as the backup destination.

The host itself would be in a workgroup but of course the VMs would be domained. Would the host be able to backup the VMs using the standard remote agent(s)?

Eduman

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

Using the host as the BE server is fine BUT

If using the Synology NAS devices in NAS mode (and not iSCSI/SAN mode) then workgroup security can cause problems with configuring access to a disk based backup targets over shares. In order of recommendatation  it is therefore preferable to use an iSCSI setup if you can, and then a domain security model if you can't and then trying workgroup security if that fails (unless you are already sure you can get workgroup security to work)

You can continue to use remote agent backups in the way you currently do but you massively miss out on the advantages of Virtual Agent backups if you do.

Although it is possible that workgroup security and Hyper-V agent backups would not be very easy to get working as well. (I am not really placed to confirm this point)

Overall you should probably setup some kind of proof of concept of what you trying to do.

We're using ISCSI currently yes so the server(s) control the permissions. 

Who would be the best team to contact regarding the pricing of virtual vs physical agents please? Perhaps we can keep limping along here using manual backups (BeyondCompare) in the meantime.

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

You should speak to a reseller for quotes (or perhaps our customer care, but they do not monitor these forums)

Hi All,

Glad I found this as we're in a similar situation of going phys to virtual. I've been digging around and I've been advised to look at

14212-M0009     BACKUP EXEC AGENT FOR VMWARE AND HYPER-V WIN 1 HOST SERVER ONPREMISE STANDARD LICENSE + BASIC MAINTENANCE BUNDLE INITIAL 12MO ACD                           - apx £750

 

14209-M0009     BACKUP EXEC AGENT FOR WIN 1 SERVER ONPREMISE STANDARD LICENSE + BASIC MAINTENANCE BUNDLE INITIAL 12MO ACD                                                                                          - apx £250

 

I dont know if these take into account the fact we've already got a license for BKUPExec and just need to add on agents to it. A bit like Eduman's proposed setup we've got a Host on a workgroup and VMs as a domain within that.

However, we're wondering if making the host part of the domain will help matters - namely for ease of access for data traffic and ISCSI targets we have here.

Any suggestions on how we should go about licensing for our scenario? Do we need Hyper-V licenses or can we just use a regular agent deployed the same as you would to a physical but to a virtual server? Can I get a trial to try this somewhere???

Thank you in advance,

Lu

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

If you install Backup Eec without licences it gives a 60 day trail which allows both physical agent and virtual agent backups