BESR 2010 MS - Three Questions

[dale_m1]

Regarding the Altiris/Symantec BESR 2010 Management Solution -

I am doing some testing with this product before rolling it out across our network.  In so doing a few questions have arisen;

1.)  Once a backup policy has been created it must be applied.  I had expected to be able to apply a backup policy to systems that I explicitly choose - or at least apply it to a subset of computers that I have grouped in some meaningful way.  Instead, when I click Apply I am presented with a screen that presents me with six options, among these;

"Computers with Backup Exec System Recovery 2010 Installed",
"Windows Computers With Backup Exec System Recovery Installed", and
"Windows Computers With Backup Exec System Recovery Plug-In Installed",
and a few others. 

All of my clients will have the BESR 2010 client installed - both my workstations and my servers.  So suppose I want to apply a different policy to my servers than that which I apply to my desktops.  It would seem that if I select the first option above, then the same policy will be applied to everything running the BESR 2010 client.  What am I missing here?  The backup policy defines the backup destination, the source drives, the schedule, etc.  Surely it must be possible to have multiple backup policies, even if all your clients are running the BESR 2010 client.

2.)  The testing I am currently doing is on a somewhat marginal PowerEdge 700 (2.8GHz single core, 1.5 GB RAM), running, of course, Win Server 2003 R2.  No other apps are running on this server.  Running on this box, the Management Solution responds very slowly.  Admittedly this box is somewhat below the recommended 2.0GB min for RAM.  Nonetheless, I can wait as much as 10 seconds for some kind of screen response when clicking various buttons.  I have a new server arriving this week which will be the production BESR 2010 MS box.  However, given how slow this thing runs on my older box, can someone tell me what kind of performance they are getting on their systems?  This just seems painfully slow, even with this marginal hardware.

3.)  Another thread indicates that BESR 2010 SP1 is due for release sometime soon.  Can someone tell me whether SP1 is expected to include the ability to run the Management Solution on a 64 bit Windows box?  Or, would this functionality be included as part of an RU1 release?  In any case, is there any update as to when this capability will be available?

Thank You

[criley]

I'll try to answer most if not all of your questions...

1. Yes, you can create filters which allow you to group machines together (all server operating systems for example). Have a look here:

https://kb-secure.altiris.com/article.asp?article=48122&p=2

Once you've created the filter(s), you can right-click the backup policy and choose edit. Then go to 'apply to', 'quick apply' and type in or select the filter you want.

2. 2GB is the minimum that is recommended. Anything less than this and you are likely to see performance issues.

3. BESR 2010 SP1 is due for release soon but this is for the BESR client itself, not the management solution. I don't have any news on when support for 64bit will be available.

Hope this helps.

*** Please mark thread as solved if you consider this to have answered your question(s) ***