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VM Agent Backup Issues

wonker
Level 2

I've been reading and playing around with the VM Agent in BE2014SP2.

It appears that using the agent is the new/best way to do backups. My dilemma is that I have many directories/areas that I do not want backed up because they do not need to be and frankly I do not have the room to do so.

From what I can see, if I use the VM agent I have to backup everything. There is no option to de-select folders and files.

With that said, in this case, my only option is to not use the agent and continue backing up with no agent?

Am I off in left field or am I correct with my assumptions?

4 REPLIES 4

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified
If you want to selectively exclude folders from your backups then you can't use the VM agent. You got to backup the VM as if it is a physical machine

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

Basically you are correct

 

The VM agent backs up either VHD or VMDK files (depending on Hyper- Visor techology) but gives the ability to restiore individual files contained inside the VMDK or VHD separately. There is some capability for incremental backups (in effect a block level backup against the change blocks making up the complete file and not a file level inisde the file)

 

Basically VM backups usually give faster overall backup speeds and much faster DR restore times but do have the disadvantage that everything is backed up, so more disk space is used and the actual length of the backup job is greater. Bascially a trade off between ease of backup restore vs storage requirements. The admins of most environments (but not all) do tend to prefer the VM backup mechanism.

 

wonker
Level 2

Now I kinda regret buying the agents. I will be able to use them in some instances, but there is no way I can just blindly back everything up. WIthout being able to select files & folders individually, the agents limit what I need to do.

Thanks for getting back to me.

 

Jeff_W
Not applicable

I think this answers my problem as well, is this correct?  Even though BE is supposed to exclude .mdf and .ldf files, it looks like they are backed up with the VM backup through the host.  Since these files are huge, running this way consumes my backup to disk with deduplication so fast that it cannot be successfully managed without running out of space.  Is there a Symantec work around that allows databases to be excluded, or do I need to move all mdf and ldf files over to a different drive and exclude the entire E: drive for instance?  If that is the case, it should be brought up in the configuration guides as they all seem to state that those files are automatically excluded, so don't worry about it when planning backup space.  Thanks in advance.  -Jeff

Update

Tech support confirmed backup through host will back up all drives attached to the guest, there are no excludes available with that type of backup.  If you don't want the entire machine, you have to back it up like it is a physical standalone server.