Gave up on the manager...

[RBall]

I gave up on BESRM and have requested a refund for it. The manager modules kept locking up and had to be reinstalled randomly on our servers. This was much less frequent than with the BESRM 7 versions so I tollerated it for some time.

I came in recently to find all indicators green for NS1 but inspecting the backup destination showed the last time stamp to be the previous evening. When I tried to refresh the manager did not report.  Typical behavior.

So I attempted to reinstall the manager agent on the client as in the past. This time, however, it could not uninstall the BESRM agent on the client and therefore could not install the manager. I opened a case with Symantec. Tried everything they suggested, would not install. Had to wait until that night and do an unscheduled reboot... TWICE.  Still... the agent would not reinstall, they admitted they don't have a clue.

At this point... I've given up on the manager.

This is just and FYI to all those using or looking to buy the manager. With the reduced functionality of the manager, lack of dependable reporting and the potential problems it cause it is IMHO simply not worth the investment.

/RB

[Reefcrazed]

I know we have talked in the past and both of us had the same problems with 7.03. How many stations did you have running and how long did everything run before you had problems? So far, so good on my 8.01 install as I am only having problems using the indexing (knocks on wood).

[RBall]

I'm still having the indexing problem too, no fix on the horizon.

I ran the manager up until a week ago or so from just a few days after v8 released.  The problem cropped up about twice a week across 10 servers. The last "manager not responding" error was typical in appearance... the failed fix was not typical.

With only 10 servers I'm getting along just fine using BESR on the backup server and connecting to each client when needed.  The MOST reliable way I've found to see if a client is backing up is to simply look at the time stamps of the directories on the backup destination. Nothing is more frustrating to see all green lights and find out when someone asks for a file back from this morning that incrementals hadn't ran since the day before.

Use the manager with caution if you use it and good luck.

/RB

Message Edited by RBall on 04-30-2008 11:51 AM

[Reefcrazed]

Good information.

Nothing like paying to have to babysit your product.

[danchiasson]

I feel your pain. We invested in BESR and the Manager, based on the hyped-up marketing materials, and based on our positive experience with Veritas (we have a large scale NetBackup solution for our servers.) We thought, it's Symantec, it must be a solid product. Unfortunately, this is probably the worst piece of business/enterprise software I've used in my 18 year career. I apologize to the Symantec employees on this forum for saying this, I'm sure you work hard at this, and it's never fun to hear negative comments on your products. Unfortunately, the software has so many quirks and problems that it's a complete nightmare to try and depend on it from a IT perpective, especially given the cost. I've spent months trying to iron out the bugs and adaptimg myself to the quirky behavior, but I'm at a point where I'm giving up.

Here are a just few problems with the Manager, off the top of my head:

- the Backup Status of computers is almost never correct; I can't rely on this status, I need to drill down on each computer in BESR and poke around viewing logs, or physically verify the backup files (on the backup destination, or on the computer in question.)

- the Computer Status is useless as well. jobs are in pending state, "in progress" state, "updating license" state, almost constantly, and there's no real way to fix this short of a reinstall.

- tomcat java errors are rampant. Almost everything throws a java error. The implementation with tomcat was obviously an afterthought. I've had to re-install the Manager software, and Manager Control on dozens of computers with mixed results, mostly bad.

- The overall manager "console" interface is painful to use. The most basic of usability features are missing. For example, there's no provision to add simple comments or notes to each computer. (i.e. Joe's laptop, currently out for repair.); Drilling down in a computer's Properties, you can't add/remove/modify the backup job from that screen! Hello? it's a backup MANAGER; Hitting refresh while having a computer selected, the software unselects and scrolls you to the top! How ridiculous! I have hundreds of computers! Arrrggg.

Anyway, that's enough venting for me for today. I just feel completely let down by this very mediocre solutio that I have to painfully endure until we replace it.

Message Edited by danchiasson on 10-24-2008 08:03 AM

Message Edited by danchiasson on 10-24-2008 08:06 AM

[David_F]

Those who use Altiris Notification Server might want to consider using BESR's plugin to learn more about it check out the following doc:

http://support.veritas.com/docs/293926

[roninmagik1]

I've also given up on the manager.  What a waste of money.  I went through Symantec tech support trying many different things, and nothing fixed it.  Weird things would happen, like, one server would take over the identity of another server on the management console.  I don't even remember all the hoops i jumped through to try and get it to work.  At the last, I was supposed to uninstall, run some batch files, to completely uninstall and then re-install from a zero session or from the actual server.  It shouldn't have to be that hard to get something working.  I'm hoping someday, they'll redo the whole **bleep** thing and get it right.

[RBall]

Has there been any improvement in the manager for V 8.5?

It sounded like big improvements were planned for the manager functions in 8.5 when I attended the Web Hype-inar but I've not found any comments about it yet.

/RB

[mjm01010101]

We've had a lot fewer problems with 8.5 versus 8.0.  8.0 I rolled out as a test case and only about half the clients worked, with many of the issues already on the forum. 

Right now after a week of use of 8.5, we're seeing all upgraded clients backing up and reporting accurately, minus one.  That one I was applying a license product key as it was rebooting, and now I cannot remove nor add the license key, and it claims its in trial mode.  will deal with later.

[David_F]

I would be interested in those here who uses Altiris Notification Server if using the BESR's plugin to it are having less reporting/communications problems then when using Manager:

http://support.veritas.com/docs/293926

[RBall]

We've been using the 8.51 BESR Manager for about a month now, so far we have not had any serious issues only a few quirks which I can over look.  It still takes it a while when a backup fails to change from Backup Up to Needs Attention but we're talking hours not days now.

I've not had any clients (knock on wood) that have suddenly stopped reporting once I get them connected. Connecting W2008 servers has been the only real issues we've had but those have been solved in each case.

Looking better.

/RB

[David_F]

do you hae any updates since your last post for this thread RBall?
Thank you