Symantec still suitable for SBS replacement?

[Stefano_Gianfra]

Hi,

To me it is difficult to sort out which Symantec product, if any, can achieve all that is needed for those system setups that will replace thousands of SBS 2003/2011 in smaller companies in the near future. Since outsourcing Windows Server 2012 originally was designed for is no more option and SBS does'nt exist anymore people have to use the robust virtualization features of Server 2012 to build their own "SBS". So I would like to ask point-blank what Symantec can do in the following situation: 

An SBS 2003 will be replaced with Server 2012 R2, with role of Hypervisor. There will be two guests, the first one is a Server 2012 R2 acting as DC, DNS, DHCP and file server, the second one is a Server 2012 R2 with Exchange Server. The physical server (no cluster, just one box) has a single internal LTO-3-SCSI-Drive, there will be only one RAID 10 which has to carry host system as well as guests and data. On the old systems of our clients OS and data were easily backed up on tape with Backup Exec 2010, so the restore of single data, emails or the whole system was no problem. How can I achieve a similar state of security for the new virtualized environment? Precisely:

1. Is there a Symantec product that is capable to perform backup and disaster recovery for the host and/or(!) for the guest systems in case of hard- or software crash?

2. Can I backup emails and files and restore files and folders or a single email or a complete email folder back into Exchange mail store?

3. Is there one product to achieve this within one backup job or do I need different modules/agents/licenses and/or different backup jobs?

4. Can I safe all these data to and restore from tape drive without having to think about an additional disk subsystem only for the purpose of backing up (no stuff like B2D2T)?

Thanks in advance for a clarification whether Symantec still is the right product for this default scenario.

Regards,

Stefano

[Siddhant_Saini]

Stefano, you would be able to achieve all of the above with Backup Exec 2012 R2. The product would reach the Beta Testing phase soon. You could refer to the following link for more information: https://symbeta.symantec.com/callout/?callid=082D2918EC924087AA1F7FB1AE66B8E6

Till today, Backup Exec 2012 with Service Pack 3 works with Backup Exec 2008 R2(as a Media Server) and Windows Server 2012 is supported as a Remote Server(with Agent for Windows installed on it). 
 

[pkh]

The BE Small Business Edition will solve your problem. See the Licencing Guide below http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH178479 You don't need any other license for your configuration. You just need to load BE on the house. Since SBE includes the Hyper-V agent, you can back up your VM's as VM's. That is, your just need to backup your entire host, including the VM's. With GRT, you can then restore individual items, like Exchange mail. Note that to do GRT restores from VM backups from tape, the VM image needs to be staged to disk before the restore begins. This is done automatically during the restore. The only way to avoid this disk staging is to duplicate the backup set to disk and then restoring form this disk backup set. Unfortunately, Server 2012 R2 as a media server is not supported at the moment. You can either use Server 2012 on your host our wait till the middle of the year for BE 2012 R2.