Symantec Backup Exec 2012 support for VMWare ESXi 5.5 and vCenter 5.5

[megor]

Hi all!

VMware announcement new version of vSphere: ESXi 5.5 and vCenter 5.5.

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsphere/VMware-vSphere-Datasheet.pdf

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere/VMware-vSphere-Platform-Whats-New.pdf

Does anyone know can we expect support for ESXi 5.5 and vCenter 5.5 in this year?

[Jaydeep_S]

Unfortunately there is no public eta at this time. Symantec has prioritized platform support, so you could expect it soon.

[ZeRoC00L]

Sorry, but I am a bit sceptic. Why should Symantec Backup Exec support vSphere 5.5 soon, as you know that the support for vSphere 5.1 took more then a year ?

I hope 5.5 will be supoprted much sooner than it did with vSphere 5.1....

[megor]

Symantec waiting for an official letter from VMvare? 

Information on the official website of the product is not enough?

See "Technical Information": http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/

Realy non official information:

Revision Date:

03/2013 - vSphere 5.5 Beta

04/29/2013 - vSphere 5.5 Beta2

06/27/2013 - vSphere 5.5 RC

I hope the Symantec Backup EXEC team has already begun testing? 

[megor]

vSphere 5.5 already released: https://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esx-vcenter-server-55-release-notes.html

When Symantec Backup Exec 2012 support for ESXi 5.5 and vCenter 5.5?

[wesross]

How about now?

[Gunni75]

Backup Exec 2012 SP2 runs succesfully with vsphere 5.5, but official not supported !!!
Official Support are planed for the First Quarter of 2014.
I've installed vsphere 5.5.0 - 1312299 + VMware Tools for Windows version 9.4 and vmware backups
running fine.
At this Moment i've been testing for customer situation like CASO Function and GRT-Backups.
 

[pkh]

I am surprised that you are using an unsupported configuration at a customer site.  If there is any problems, who is going to solve them?  You?  It is definitely not going to be Symantec.

[Gunni75]

You have misunderstood me there. It is not used in a productive customer environment. It is a pure test environment.

[pkh]

What is the purpose of the test?  You certainly can't use an unsupported configuration.

[Jaydeep_S]

Official Support are planed for the First Quarter of 2014.

Please don't speculate about timelines. This is not an official statement.

[Gunni75]

Official Support are planed for the First Quarter of 2014.

Please don't speculate about timelines. This is not an official statement.

thats why i describe this as "planed" !
 

[CraigV]

...so where did you come up with the official planned support date? I've seen nothing on the forums at all from anybody from Symantec...just a "watch this space".

Thanks!

[SpawnXX]

Unofficially the support for vSphere 5.5 will certainly be 2 years after the product is available to general public.

Symantec is  now a big machine that dont care much about being on top of the game.

and , when this is released, you will need to wait another 1 year for fix issues to get resolved  ( that will be a "beta" of course).

Conclusion, you should take a guest and upgrade vsPhere right now and test a backup&restore. I have a case open with them since 4-5 months ago. They are playing ping pong game with VMware.

[Why_did_we_buy_]

Well I just had a go at calling Symantec support to get a clear-cut answer to a very simple question - is vSphere 5.5 supported by BEWS 2010 R3? After being bounced around 3 people and hung up on, the second time I called they wouldn't even put me through to anyone who could look this up, for what is a purely presales question.

At this juncture, it's a toss-up as to whose support line is more painful to deal with - Symantec or IBM?

[CodyP]

I am also running vSphere 5.5 and BackupExec 2012 SP2.  The backups run fine, but every time a VM is backed up, the VM console can no longer be opened.  After the backup attempting to open the console gives the error "Unable to connect to the MKS: The operation is not allowed in the current state".  Do you experience this also?  The only way to get around this that I have found was either shutting the VM down and turn it back on again; or vMotion it to a different host.

[mike_sands]

I just speak with a symantec tech support and there is no release date for backup exec 2012 compatibility with vsphere 5.5

[Jaydeep_S]

Though there is no official date announced yet, the registrations for Beta of BE 2012 R2 are open.

https://symbeta.symantec.com/callout/?callid=082D2918EC924087AA1F7FB1AE66B8E6

This would support VMWare 5.5 and installation of BE 2012 as a media server on Server 2012 Operating System.

As for BE 2010 R3 supporting VMWare 5.5 we (Tech Support) don't have information if this would be done or not.

[Colin_Weaver · Accepted solution]

SP3 is released giving 5.5 support

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH205351

Release notes:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH211740

[mike_sands]

Finally. Thank you.