Backup exec 12.5 solution

[lafleur1977]

Hello,

 

We have a backup solution which myself and my colleagues have inherited: backup exec 12.5. We do not have extensive experience with the software and are having some real trouble with it. Allow me to explain its setup...

 

File server is connected to a SAN with 4.5 TB of storage being used as one partition for file storage. It is also connected to another device called a disc shelf which is similar to the SAN and has about 5 TB of storage again seen as one partition by the server.

 

Backupexec 12.5 is installed on the file server and is configured with:

 

- Daily differential backups (mon - fri 2 - 4) which backs up to disc on the disc shelf.

- Fridays 2 - 4 differential backup to disc then duplicates to tape every friday (currently 1 lto 3 tape).

- Friday 1 is a Full (monthly) backup which backs up to disc on the disc shelf. This then duplicates to tape (currently 4 lto 3 tapes).

 

All the backups include system states for 10 servers, files and shares, and 1 exchange server. All originally all backup jobs had a 27 day overwrite period but recently we have had to lower it to 14 days due to space running out on the disc shelf.

 

The problems we are having is mostly to do with the size of the backups and the time they are taking. The differentials are taking around 17 hours to complete and the full backup around 40 hours. Tape backups vary as we only have one tape drive so we have to swap the tape the next day, so I think an tape loader with multiple tape drives in will help this. Another problem is all backup jobs are configured to compress (hardware if available, otherwise none), but for each job history report every server says: compression type: none. So we suspect the backups are not compressing at all.

 

Personally I would replace backup exec but currently at least this is not an option. We also do not have a support contract so symantec will not talk to us. If anybody can suggest anything that may help us regarding our configuration of backupexec and the server that would be great.

 

Thanks

[Millgate]

I'll put this to Symantec for you and see what they come up with If necessary, it might be worth a conference call but i'll let you know.

 

Cheers

[lafleur1977]

I'll put this to Symantec for you and see what they come up with If necessary, it might be worth a conference call but i'll let you know.

 

Cheers

 

Thankyou, thats great

[Millgate]

They haven't come back to me but I've asked one of our engineers for you and.....

 

Can we find out how many servers you have? I would recommend putting shadowprotect in then using this to backup to the sans with continuous increments and write a full backup out that BE can pickup and drop onto a tape for offsite. There is a 30 day free trial of the software so we can even test the backup sizes and time to backup.

 

Cheers

[RTFM]

You could turn verification off on the backups, this would speed it up. Whilst verification is useful (to an extent) you are never going to know if your backup is a 100% good backup until you come to use it whether the data is verified or not.

[Cache]

Might help:

 

If you are backing up to disk, there is no hardware compression available so it will never compress the backup. If you want to compress your backups which go to disk, you need to use Software compression. (Had this issue with the Dell RD1000 drives we use)