Hyper-V & BESR 2010

[Digerati]

Hi All,

I have one BESR 2010 License for ONE Server at the moment (Backing up Exchange 2007 with it), it is installed on the Exchange Server itself.

I have two Hyper-V Host servers (not in a cluster - independent), Would I just purchase the Hyper-V Agents (according to the number of Virtual Machines) and then push them via the already installed BESR 2010 I have and that would be it ? or would I need to purchase something else too?

Most of our VMs use Dynamic VHDs (not differencing or pass through), would that be a problem ?

Thanks & Regards
D

[criley]

Your best option would probably be to purchase BESR Virtual Edition:

http://www.symantec.com/business/backup-exec-system-recovery-virtual-edition.

This is licensed per host and gives you unlimited BESR server licenses to use in your Windows guest machines (only applies to Windows, not Linux).

Hope that helps.

[Digerati]

Would dynamic VHDs be a problem ? I read some where on these forums (and can't seem to find that thread again) that Backup Exec System recovery and Backup Exec doesn't supports dynamic vhd ?

is that true ?

I know they don't support VMs with a Physical Pass through disk attached.

Thanks

[criley]

This is taken from the BESR 2010 user guide:

To create a backup of a running virtual machine, the following conditions must be met:

The guest virtual machine should be configured to only use basic disks, not dynamic disks.
This is the default for installing a Windows virtual machine.

If you attempt to perform a backup when the conditions above are not met, Backup
Exec System Recovery creates a system state recovery point that is
crash-consistent.Acrash-consistent recovery point captures the virtual machine
as if it had experienced a system failure or power outage.

NOTE: there are other conditions but I've just copied the one that relates to your query.

[Digerati]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your reply ; I think we got confused on "Fixed Size VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) and Dynamic VHDs (Virtual hard Disks)"

A virtual machine uses a VHD which is either FIXED or Dynamic VHD (Expands as required)

The Disks are Basic on our Servers - so seems like it should be ok.

Now, I came across this thread : https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/besr2010-symsnapsys-bsod

Is this true that BESR 2010 won't be able to backup a running VM (Windows 2003, 2008, 2008R2) ? with all integration services installed ?

I am planning to install BESR 2010 in a VM of 2008R2 (testing) and then push agent to a 2003R2, 2008 VM and backup them upto a NAS.

I have the trial I downloaded, would it give me the functionality to push agents to a couple or 4 machines (VMs) and back them up ?

Kind Regards
Thanks for your replies.

[criley]

The blue screen issue with Hyper-V is now resolved (as per the link in the thread you found). Is that what you were asking?