Symantec Gives us all Free Steak dinners

[Randy_Blasik]

I've been using the same backup jobs for a few weeks now where nothings really changed. Sometimes they work sometimes they don�t. Most mornings I come in there's a new issue, warning or random crash. This morning the remote agent on my media server randomly crashed. So I've got warnings on all my completed backup jobs that say:

Backup- Server-02.MyDomain.comV-79-57344-3844 - The media server was unable to connect to the Remote Agent on machine VERITASCPS.
The media server will use the local agent to try to complete the operation.

I have literally had to baby sit 11d since the minute we "upgraded", dialing in right before bed at night and first thing in the mornings before I work a full day. I continue to check on weekends and Holidays. Like many Admins here, I�ve had it! Our jobs are stressful enough without the added pressure of worrying if our backups are junk. Nothings worse than coming in to work first thing and finding out failed backup jobs. What�s worse is that support for this product is just non-existent!

Since I didn�t buy this software and inherited it from a previous Admin I�m stuck with this turd until the end. Symantec owes me, and everyone who bought this thing early on, an apology. A steak dinner would be nice. But more importantly an explanation as to why I can�t get the support I need when I need it, after all I am still a paying customer.

[Sean_Daniely]

I second this; we were using CommVault Galaxy which I rarely had any issues with. When there was an issue, it was a legitimate one. Backup Exec was made out to be such a great product (10d) that we decided to invest in it....like Randy, now I baby sit this every day and spend my entire day trying to figure this out.

Also, what makes this even worse is that we, like you all, paid for the Enterprise Support but calling support I am left on hold for hours and do not receive a call back for days. Those I deal with are nice and proficient enough in the product but it's Murphy's Law...It works for them but as soon as we hang-up, it's fails again.

I'll take my apology, a service pack and my steak medium please.

[Florian_Zimmerm]

*signed*

i?m caring for approximately 40-50 installations of backup exec - from version 7 to 11d (now) - from the point where symantec bought backup exec, the quality of the product has worsen alot, though the lifecycle has shortened. i got the impression the strategy is steering backup exec to very small business costumers, including bad/slow support, generic answers but comfortable liveupdate-functions. i strongly advise to not let the vast user-base from veritas slowly drop off.Message was edited by:
Florian Zimmermann

[Dennis_Thornton]

I get the feeling we're all just background noise. Just something to ignore or drown out by turning up the ipod.

By the time we got the steak it would be cold.

[Sean_Daniely]

It's turning my stomach that I just invested in what I thought was an enterprise class backup system where it turns out my previous application was better.

[Wes_Stewart]

50% Red & 50% black in the Job History is getting real old.

[Ryan_Cerwick]

Ditto...

After all of the following, I've decided to roll us back to 10d ASAP...then find another product completely for the long term.

1 - No licenses STILL. We bought the product in early December, been using the "demo" with a promise from Symantec that we'd get our licenses well before the trial was up. Trial has expired and all we've gotten from them is a file from Symantec that resets the trial period back to 30 days....somehow, they think this is a solution.

2 - Licensing aside...the product doesn't work. Been dealing with every stupid little bug in this software since release. How this product got released in it's original state is beyond me. Several patches later and it's still bug ridden.

3 - CPS is a joke. Successfull Exchange backups w/ no errors whatsoever that I cannot restore from to random failed jobs for no apparent reason. Now, after this latest hotfix, I get a 1st good full Exchange backup that I can restore from, everytime, but every recovery point thereafter fails...everytime. Now I go back to legacy bricks-level backups of Exchange and I'm still getting random oddball failures.

4 - Support....or lack there of. Crazy hold times to talk to someone that basically fumbles his way through with no real answers. Scheduled callbacks that never happen.

We've been Veritas/BackupExec Customers for several years...loved the product...no issues to speak of. Symantec buys them out and it's been a total nightmare since. We cannot have these kind of issues from our enterprise backup solution! This whole experiance has been a huge slap in the face. Like I said...rolling back to 10d and looking hard at other products.

Microsoft's DPM v2 is definately showing promise. Still in beta, but I'd bet my paycheck I'd get better results with this product's beta than 11d.

[Sean_Daniely]

The failures last night did it for me. I contacted the vendor we purchased from (Dell) to ask to return this and am going back to CommVault Galaxy. I am very disapointed with this!!!

Were getting a full credit :). Beside my wated time, at leat it wasn't wasted money!null

[Greg_Saunders]

> I second this; we were using CommVault Galaxy which I
> rarely had any issues with. When there was an issue,
> it was a legitimate one. Backup Exec was made out to
> be such a great product (10d) that we decided to
> invest in it....like Randy, now I baby sit this every
> day and spend my entire day trying to figure this
> out.
>
> Also, what makes this even worse is that we, like
> you all, paid for the Enterprise Support
> but calling support I am left on hold for
> hours and do not receive a call back for days. Those
> I deal with are nice and proficient enough in the
> product but it's Murphy's Law...It works for them but
> as soon as we hang-up, it's fails again.
>
> I'll take my apology, a service pack and my steak
> medium please.

If you don't mind sharing... why were you leaving CommVault. What was it NOT doing for you?

[Sean_Daniely]

I love it, talking up another product on this Symantec forum:

MONEY!!!

It is capable of doing everything we need. However, in order for it to DO everything we need we would need to purchase additional licenses (back-up-to-disk). It was less expensive for us to buy all the licenses we needed for Backup Exec plus the maintenance then it would be for buying the additional license AND pay for the service contract renawal.

[Greg_Saunders]

Gotcha... I wasn't actually trying to actually talk up another product... just curious why you needed to change. To Symantec's credit "IF EVERYTHING WORKED AS ADVERTISED" their price point is quite nice for the latest feature set. They just need to fix it and provide better service.

My guess is 3 to 6 months from now they may have the technical issues addressed, but I can't wait.

[Randy_Blasik]

Greg brings up an interesting point. My bet is that 3-6 months they will have things ironed out. But like him I cannot wait! Again last night I had two failures one on CPS exchange and one on my backup job. This is the error:

V-79-32772-8982, there's no documentation to the error of course...

[Sean_Daniely]

I will re-visit BE in 6 months to a year.....good luck all.

What are you all going to do?

[Greg_Saunders]

Hang myself! :)

We are looking at other products, but most are much more expensive, and the one that is better pricing wise is 2 to 3 times slower than Backup Exec which we can't live with either... since this is Symantec's forum I'll refrain from mentioning the other company names, but they are part of the major "expensive" players.