basics for assurance

[pn153]

From a risk assessment perspective, I need some assurance that 3x physical linux servers are being backed up.

Our admins tell me they use backup exec to do this, which I am very new to.

I need some assistance on obtaining the following information:

1) how to see what is configured to be backed up for those specific servers (i.e. which volumes, how often, where the backup file is being written to)

2) and then how to get some form of log file that shows successful/unsuccesful backups for those systems over say a month period

3) any logging/monitoring enabled, that would inform the admin were the job to have failed, where would this be configured?

Can you give a bit of an idiots guide on how to get this information, ideally with screen shots?

Many Thanks

[Jaydeep_S · Accepted solution]

1) how to see what is configured to be backed up for those specific servers (i.e. which volumes, how often, where the backup file is being written to)

You can find this information by looking up the backup jobs and its selection lists and sehedule.

2) and then how to get some form of log file that shows successful/unsuccesful backups for those systems over say a month period

Look for the job log / Job History information

3) any logging/monitoring enabled, that would inform the admin were the job to have failed, where would this be configured?

You can setup job notifications to send alerts to email recepients with a copy of the job log.

[CraigV]

...there are reports that you can look at as well. BE has a bunch of canned reports which should also give you the information you're looking for.

Thanks!

[pn153]

Hi Craig, can you name the specific reports which cover 1-3 above?

Cheers

[pn153]

I dont suppose you could provide a screenshot for each of these areas you mention above just so I can see exactly what that information appears as?

[CraigV]

1. Check the Device Usage by Policy or Device Summary Report, and the 3 reports in #2.

2. Check the Backup Job Success Rate Report, and Backup Resource Success Rate Report which will list successful jobs and resources. For a list of files etc, consider the Backup Set Details by Resource report.

3. You can configure alerts for this. Check the Alerts tab of your version of BE (assuming you're not running BE 2012), and you can click on a particular alert to enable it, and configure email notification.

It's also possible to run a custom report...just check the admin guide for your version around this.

Thanks!

[pn153]

Thanks Craig, is it theoretically possible that when you add a new server to a domain, that when selecting what to backup on that server, that an admin could mistakenly miss a specific drive on that server out the selection? Or by default do you just select all drives on that server?

[CraigV]

Hi,

User error is always possible. That's for you to investigate to confirm. From my side, I never selected entire drives to backup. It was faster to rebuild a server to OS level and then restore the data.

When we went to full VM sites, we moved to another product to backup the VMs and use BE to backup-to-tape.

Thanks!