BACKUP EXEC SYSTEM RECOVERY & BACKUP EXEC FOR WINDOWS SERVERS - DO I NEED BOTH?

[IT_KING]

I am testing Backup Exec System Recovery v8 and Backup Exec v12.5 for Windows Servers on the same Windows 2003 SBS R2 Premium server. My purpose is to provide a comprehensive backup system which will save a series of restore points throughout the day and a nightly backup. 'System Recovery v8' handles the restore points, saving them onto a 1TB Iomega USB2 external drive and 'Backup Exec v12.5' performs a nightly backup onto a Tanberg Data tape drive. My question is, do I need both products to achieve the desired outcome or is there one Symantec product that will perform both operations?

[NicholasC]

To the best of my knowledge, I do not think there would be any changes I could recommend to make to your setup.

One thing though, The nightly backup of "everything", that can also be done by BESR 8.

You would just setup incremental backups to one location and then full backups to another.

I would recommend testing this out on a test machine possibly to see if it provides the kind of solution you are looking for.

[IT_KING]

Thanks for your suggestion about using BESR 8 for the nightly backup. The reason that I thought about using BEWS is that I want to use removable tape media on a rotation basis with the tapes stored away from the server room, and it appears that BESR 8 does not support tape devices.

[David_F]

That is correct BESR, at this time, does not directly support tape drives but can enlist the support of a 12.5 RAWS agent to send its backups to tape; what we call DISK TO DISK TO TAPE (DtDtT). You would also use BEWS 12.5x for application level backups. What this means is that in the event a server offering more then one service is operational minus a specific application service that has fails; say Exchange, you can then restore just that application content back to the server through BEWS; BESR at this time can not. BESR again is more geared for system level backups and restores with a side bonus of retargeting to dissimilar hardware. BEWS on the other hand, from my experience so far, is more geared for flat and application level file base backups & restores. In combination you have more capabilities in what you want to backup and what options are available when you have to do a restore.