Running backups over a backup network for Backup Exec 2012

[Rocomm123]

We have created a backup network on our system to enable us to re-run backups during the day. Our VMs have 2 NICs with one on the live network and one on the backup network, this is also true regarding the backup server.

We have edited the backup job as shown above to select the backup network but the backup server fails to connect to the VMs straight away, I believe this is because the backup server cannot resolve the IP address of the VM to be backed up on the backup network. Therefore I have added entries for the backup server in the hosts files on the VMs that need backing up and also added the IP addresses of the VM to be backed up into the hosts file on the backup server. Once this has been done the backup are running fine and I can confirm the traffic is running over the backup network.

My question is thus: Is this what anyone that uses a backup network has to do or is there a nicer method? The 1300 page admin guide only has 1 page talking about a backup network with no technical information.

Kind Regards

Phil

p.s. Backup Exec 2012 SP4

[CraigV]

Hi Phil,

This is the way to do it. A "nicer" way would be to eliminate your LAN-based backups completely and look at running backups across your SAN, assuming this was possible in your configuration.

Thanks!

[lmosla]

This is a sound method to speed up access to the backup domain

[Rocomm123]

Just being thorough: is editing the hosts file is a normal method to force the network traffic over the backup network?

[CraigV]

DNS should be taking care of this through name resolution. If not, then editing the hosts file is fine. You can also see if you can change the IP address that the RAWS agent publishes to the media server with to the backup NIC range and see if this works.

Thanks!

[pkh]

Yes.  This is normally the way to do this because the backup network is meant to be used only for backups and not for anything else.  Hence your DNS resolution should give the IP address on the normal network and all other traffic will go through the normal network.  You don't want normal traffic to go through the backup network.

Other than editing the Hosts file, you can use the backup network IP addresses of all the servers in BE.  You don't use server names.  However, this can be a bit confusing during normal usage.