What do you like/dislike in Backup Exec 2012

[UFO]

Reading a lot about this new BE 2012 release here on Connect and on other web-resources I learned that a lot of long-time BE admins not happy with some of new features. On the other hand there are people who like the product. To make clear the picture for myself I kindly ask you to share top 3 features of new BE 2012, and the same on dislikes you have in BE 2012?

[Backup_Exec1]

Hi There ,be2012 have lot of new features out of most attract me is 1 if you backup exchange with be2012 then you have feature along with get restore , to restore it directly as PST 2 With this option now you can do p2v or b2v backup which was not possible with other version 3 Open file in linux is the other thing which I enjoy most, so with this version you can backup open file on linux machines About dislikes 1 For me the main is job monitor which is not there 2 If you have large enviorment like 50 plus server to manage that with be2012 is really of skills things as the new approach of server centric make it complex to manage 3 and last dislike will be that we cannot change the resource order Thanks

[UFO]

Thank you both llists. I didn't know about restoring directly to PST.

As for negatives - as i see there's no option to switch back to job centric approach in BE 2012.

cool nickname, BTW :)

[Backup_Exec1]

Hi There ,yes there is no way to change that too resource centric view, but then we can always hope for the best that as this is just released symantec will bring changes in which they are lacking. Thanks

[Juve]

I'm working with Backup Exec from years and I'm very disappointed with BE 2012

The product as a pity with several bugs

1 - You can't send notification emails if your server is Microsoft Exchange because authentification does not work (you must create open relay this is not acceptable)

2 - Wizard reports wrong time (if you select 23:00 it reports 11:00 in dialog boxes)

3 - Symantec does not know that it could be 5 Sundays on some months and in this case jobs run twice (4 and 5 sundays)

4 - Interface hangs

5 - Can't delete licence numbers

6 - Migration from previous versions does not work ( I have tried it from 12.5 and 2010 without any success, corrupted database hangin jobs...)

7 - Stupid wizards chaining jobs or selecting more than one server does not work correctly

8 - Jobs hangs with V-79-57344-34563 and hyperlinks does not report correct info if you see log file you cand see Error  0xe0008703 please see log file!...

Stop children administrator product and let us do our job correctly

I'm considering to switch to another product

[UFO]

Juve, hi

thank you for this detailed response. I will try to test out these scenarios and avoid them if they do not work as they should be. I am wondering if there any positive features in BE 2012 for you? Something that was not present in prev version, but has been implemented in this new one?

[pkh]

I think you should install and test out BE 2012 for your self.  There are a lot of resources out there that you can refer to.  My article below have links to some of them

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/preparing-install-or-upgrade-be-2012

You would be doing your organisation/clients a big disfavour if you base your recommendations on other people's opinions.

[UFO]

Thank you for advice and for link to your artice!

I'm already testing BE 2012. Installed it so far on server with Ultrium tape attached and performing some basic backup things.

The reason I started this thread is that I have read a lot of negative feedback on the product and was wondering what are the most frustrating facts about new release and are there any positive features, improvements that real users see compared to their previous experience.

[CraigV]

...firstly, you're doing the right thing by labbing the application. All the changes made have resulted in some pretty unhappy people. Whether or not they did due dilligence and checked BE 2012 out first is another story...

Keep at it, and once you're happy with the application, put it into production. There are a lot of positives about the application. The only way to start off on the right foot is to play with it first, and get to grips with it.

Follow the videos that are on Connect, check out some of the articles that pkh has written around BE 2012, and check some of the blogs and you'll get a good idea of how to do certain things, and what to look for.

Base your judgement on what you've seen rather than someone else's. My experience will never be the same as yours for instance...

Thanks!

[UFO · Accepted solution]

Craig,

You're absolutely right saying that everyone has his/her own experience with the product. Doing exactly as you said, watching videos. So far, I like BE 2012.

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Editied: closing discussion

[Frank_Osborne]

I have two issues, SDR doesn't work, it fails with a "communications error" was escalated to another level, and 5 days later no one has gotten back to me. Still can't do a SQL backup, hangs forever with no progress, can't cancel the job, can only restart services to purge it. Software has a lot of nice new features, geared toward restoring entire servers, but they need to work.