Suppressing Errors / GRT

[cegedimit]

Can anyone offer any guidance here.

We have Backup Exec 2010 R3. I have created a policy that backs up all VM’s via VCenter and the VMWare agent. Additionally it backs up several physical servers using the windows agent.

We have GRT enabled for files and folders and also need this enabled to cover SQL/Exchange and AD.

Ideally I would like to have one policy to keep everything organised. At the moment I have daily, weekly, monthly backups within one policy. It backs up to a dedupe folder, and once each backup completes it then duplicates the backup to tape.

The issue I have is:

1.  I constantly receive warnings that GRT cannot be used on servers where SQL/Exchange etc aren’t in use.

V-79-57344-38726 - Backup Exec failed to connect to virtual machine '\(DC)Site(DC)\vm\TaskPC02' and was unable to collect the necessary metadata to restore individual application items. You cannot perform GRT-enabled restores of application data from this backup.

This is fair enough but is there a way I can apply a specific selection list just for the GRT backups? The only way I can see to do this is with an additional policy thus the backups start to get split.

For examples sake, say I had 2 policies and selection lists (one for GRT, one for standard servers). I want my “backup to tape” to run when the deduplication backup (to disk) finishes. I assume the only way this can be linked together is by having everything under one policy. i.e. a rule that says when “GRT Weekly backup” finishes start “Standard weekly backup”, when “standard weekly backup” finishes “duplicate to tape”.

So, I guess I need to know whether I can use mixed selection lists within one policy ? If not then can I create a separate “backup to tape” policy that only runs when the other 2 policies complete ? From what I can tell you can’t link policy together, you can only link jobs within each policy

2.  When backing up via the VMWare agent. Each VM only presents the VMDK files therefore I cannot add any exclusions. Pretty much every backup is returning an error saying it cannot find a download folder:

Backup- VMVCB::\\VCENTERSERVER\VCGuestVm\(DCSite(DC)\vm\dhcpSvr01Directory C\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\2c3fad1de0f04535916f6a41f51321da\ was not found, or could not be accessed.

None of the files or subdirectories contained within will be backed up.

V-79-57344-5893 - The object was not found, or could not be accessed (VMware backup).

 Can this error be suppressed anywhere? Or is the only way around it to use the windows agent rather than VMWare agent in order to set exclusions. Which then defeats the point of managing via VMWare and VCenter

I have seen forum posts from last year by Symantec to say they are looking at implementing a way of suppressing error messages so the customer can choose what causes backup failure / warning etc but has this happened yet?

Any advice is appreciated

Thanks

Jon

[ArulPrasad]

You can Create Jobs From selection list with One polocy.

The only cons is that it will create jobs for all the templates in the policy

Once the Policy is created, Create a selection list and make it ready.

Example GRT and NON grt or file wichever.

But rember template is Applied to all the selection and Job are seprately created(wich Makes No difference as templates are Interlated dn Binded to Polocuy)

Right Click on the Policy and select New Job using Policy and select the Selection list You would Like to apply to the Policy .

If the policy contains 2 template. You choose one selection list.. 2 Jobs are created for the same selection for the 2 templates.(it depends exception if it is a Duplicate or Export template)

So Its Best 2 have 2 seprate Policy for You scenario (GRT and NON GRT based Policy)

Let me Know how it goes

Regards

Arul

[teiva-boy · Accepted solution]

"Ideally I would like to have one policy to keep everything organised."

I've posted about this ad nauseum.  This is a bad practice.

Organized is easy to administer, but bad to troubleshoot, meet SLA's, and over all hard to manage maintenance windows.

Break out policies by OS type, Group Applications into their own list, and AOFO jobs in to their own list, etc...  I will have policies for all SQL servers, Exchange, Windows with AOFO, Linux, AD, etc.

I can pause these jobs as needed without affecting others.  I can troubleshoot singular jobs easier, rather than stopping a all encompassing job with 10+ servers.

[cegedimit]

Thankyou both for the responses

What you are saying about breaking the job down into smaller jobs does make sense the more i think about it. We have never done this before as we always backed up direct to tape, until now.Can you give me any guidance on how i then backup to tape?

So for example, i have 1 policy. This policy has the following templates:

1. Daily Incremental Backup to De-Dupe folder

2. Daily Incremental Backup Verify

3. Weekly Full Backup to De-Dupe Folder

4. Weekly Full Backup Verify

5. Monthly Full Backup to De-Dupe Folder

6. Monthly Full Backup Verify

So presumably i would then need to replicate this policy (and jobs) for each selection list (SQL, Exchange, Applications, Standard etc) in order to account for different settings i.e. some servers wont need GRT.

The way it has been set at the moment means when each Full backup finishes it then duplicates backup to tape

If we have the setup as above, then how do we backup to tape? We are limited with tape drives so we would really need a some way of setting it that says when weekly sql backup, weekly exchange backup, weekly application backup all finish then duplicate backup set to tape

I can see how you do this within a policy but how is it done when there are multiple policies ? or do you have to use a separate backup to tape job for each policy

Thanks for your help

[ArulPrasad]

Just need to add one more template with the above listings

( Remove it accordingly if not required to duplicate all of the template)

1. Daily Incremental Backup to De-Dupe folder

 >> Duplicate of Daily incremental template to tape

2. Daily Incremental Backup Verify

 3. Weekly Full Backup to De-Dupe Folder

>> Duplicate of Weekly full template to tape

4. Weekly Full Backup Verify

5. Monthly Full Backup to De-Dupe Folder

>> Duplicate of Monthly full template to tape

6. Monthly Full Backup Verify 

And replicating As easy .. You have copy option to copy the policy and modify the templates inside the poloicy (i.e removing AOFO for database backups from the template..)

[cegedimit]

Ok, thats how it is at the moment, but i guess the more policies/selection lists we have the more separate "duplicate backup to tape" jobs we will have.

Is there a way of having one single backup to tape job that runs at the end and copies jobs x,y,z ?

[Sublaner]

We use a sepatate policy for each type of Application GRT needed by the job: in AVVI enable Actrive Directory, or Exchange, or SQL, or none. The easy way to set up Duplicate jobs is to link them to the Full Backups; we run them by rule not schedule, so they kick off as soon as the Full jobs finish. I have not tried to combine the duplicates into a single job, for same reasons as using several policies: if one fails it can kill them all, and easier to troubleshoot and select for restore. We run to multiple B2B folders on network storage not tape, so several can run at once... If your duplicates go to the same target/tape the one that starts first will run and the others will queue. If the tape is appendable you should get all your duplicates onto the same tape, same result.

[cegedimit]

Thankyou for the responses and clarification. I will split these jobs down and just create appendable jobs to tape. cheers