Running command files with administrative rights for scheduled backups

[Def_J]

Hello everyone,

Is there a way to run command files with administrative rights when scheduling a backup in BESR 2010 on 2008 Server R2?

I'm sure there is an easier way to do this but here's what I am trying to accomplish:

I have one physical machine (host) that has BESR 2010 installed.

This host machine hosts (4) Hyper-V virtual servers (all runnning 2008 Server R2 Enterprise).

I use a set of external USB hard drives as the backup location rotating out the drive once/month.

I thought BESR was able to backup virtual servers via VSS while they were running but I could not get it to work.

I decided to have a script run before the backup started to gracefully shutdown all of the VMs, perform the backup, then run another script to start all of the VMs.

I created command scripts ("HVon.cmd" and HVoff.cmd") that call the associated powershell scripts to turn all of the VMs off and on.

These scripts work perfectly when run manually via the 'Run as Administrator' option or when scheduled via task scheduler and the 'Run with highest priviledges' option is selected.

I was really hoping to see a similar option when selecting command files for a scheduled backup in BESR.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,

Jeff

[Markus_Koestler · Accepted solution]

BESR can backup the hyper-v Host. You don't need to backup the individual VM's. But be aware of the following: http://support.veritas.com/docs/340076.

[criley]

As Markus points out above, there is no need to power down the virtual machines. You should be able to backup the entire host server including the running VMs.

[Def_J]

Chris,

Thank you very much for your reply to my post.

I purchased BESR 2010 with a new Dell server about 3 months ago. I believe it came with a 12 month support agreement.

I would really appreciate someone being able to walk me through setting up a simple backup for my configuration using BESR 2010.

I could not figure out where or how to install the "Hyper-V VSS Integration Component" on each of the virtual machines. I'm sure this is a simple task but I've searched for instructions to no avail.

Additional notes:

All 4 VMs are running Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise

One of the VMs is a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and SQL 2008 R2 Standard server.

I've been fighting with trying to get this backup setup for longer than I'd like to admit. I have found myself lost in the 234 page user guide on more than one occasion. This is why I went the "brute Force" method of scripting the startup and shutdown of the VMs. I would prefer to use BESR the way it was intended but the manual does not mention how to install the Hyper-V VSS integration component or verify that it is installed.

Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you again for your time.

Cheers,

Jeff

Jeff Davidson

Configuration Management

DCS Corporation

46641 Corporate Drive

Lexington Park, MD 20653

Phone: 240-237-4921

Cell: 240-682-9024

Email: jdavidson@dcscorp.com

Fax: 240-237-4704

[criley]

I would prefer to use BESR the way it was intended but the manual does not mention how to install the Hyper-V VSS integration component or verify that it is installed.

You just need to install the Hyper-V Integration Services on each VM.

Hope that helps.

[Def_J]

FYI,

On the Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise host machine, the Hyper-V VSS integration services are installed by default on VMs running Windows Server 2008 R2. When attempting to setup the VSS integration services on these machines a message is displayed indicating that the services are already installed.

As for running pre and post backup commands with administrative rights within BESR, there does not appear to be a way to accomplish this through the GUI.

The fix that was implemented for this post was to remove the scripts that stopped and started the VMs and then apply the 'beta' patch from Microsoft (KB980856). Once patched, the BESR backup runs successfully without having to stop the VMs prior to the backup.

Thanks for the help :)

Cheers,

Jeff Davidson