Some Backup Exec 2010 R2 questions

[RabbieBurns]

This was all installed and setup when I took over the network, annual renewals are fairly cheap so Im happy to keep it.

 

However Ive got a couple of questions Im not too sure about, so hoping someone with a bit more experience of the product can help me out.

(I do have support contract, but the time I waste on the phone trying to articulate the problem to the indians I only really phone them when Its 100% mission critical (no offennse intended, its probably my accent thats to blame rather than theirs))

 

Anyway, 1st question is, Im running 2010 R2, and I renew the license anuually, does that meaan Im entitled to 2010 R3 or whatever the latest may be?

 

2nd question regards restores:

 

I run a D2D2T, with a nice new Dell tape library installed in july. I wanted to restore an entire mailbox from the july tape today, but it seems to be doing a 'staging' stage of the restore, where it seems to be restoring the enitre exchange database. Is this normal for restoring from tape?

 

I dont really have any experience with tapes to be honest, I just used to change the tape each week when I got the email from backup exec asking for a new one, until I got this library. (god knows how I will go about restoring any data from one of the old tapes from the old tape drives)

 

Is there such a thing as a backup exec training course? Im due a few more PD hours... (can my time on the phone to support learning this stuff count as PD?? )

[zag]

Sorry don't know anything about tape backups (The year is 2011 you know!!)

 

But the licensing for all 2010 versions should be a one off. We bought the boxed product with agents and have been able to live update to R2 no problems.

 

The backup exec knowledge base is actually really good.

[RabbieBurns]

Whats wrong with tapes?

 

Its a 45 tape LTO5 library, each tape holds 1.5TB, with compression thats 3TB per tape.. which is about 140TB of storage off the top of my head..

 

I have a 45TB San for servers, I have a 15 TB storage array for D2D backups, whats wrong with wanting 18 months of backups online at a click of a mouse with minimal effort and minimal cost and minimal faulure (hopefully)?

 

The Dell tape library was cheap, under $10k IIRC, including all the tapes, I dont think I could get 135TB of storage for that price could I?

 

To be honest, the Tape Library was ordered by my predecessor before he left, so I dont really know either way, I just embraced what I was given..

 

Thanks for the info on the licensing, I guess what we pay for annually must be the support then? i guess I should use them more often, and try go figure out how to upgrade to R3.

[zag]

Yes the annual payment is for support, but in my experience you can find anything you need on-line. It does offer piece of mind though.

 

Tapes are fine I guess but I really don't get the advantage over disks. We just back it all up to a Qnap NAS in a different location and can instantly restore anything. Its been running a year or two now and I have never touched it to be honest. Every restore has been perfect.

 

45TB!!! wtf are you storing lol. I always say the first decision to make when planning your backup strategy is reducing your data footprint.

[featured_spectre]

If you can do cloud storage or storage elsewhere on site nowhere near the originals then that provides a bit of a safe haven.

 

As for licences that's a one off sand the renewals are for support, so no you are not entitled to R3.

 

Backup exec order a training course but you must speak to sales about it as its not well advertised.

[RabbieBurns]

I have 2 campuses, about 1km apart but a LAN 12core fiber between them both, so the D2D is on one site and the D2T is on the other site so offsite should be fine..

 

Thanks for the info on the upgrade and the training.. I might push for it next year.

[RabbieBurns]

Y

45TB!!! wtf are you storing lol. I always say the first decision to make when planning your backup strategy is reducing your data footprint.

 

Like i said, 45TB would be 18 months worth of backups.

[featured_spectre]

45TB isnt that much you know...try 200TB for 18 months worth of back ups (including system states, incrementals, etc)

[zag]

Ours is 267gb at the moment. I make extensive use of the Xcopy - delete after 5 years command line

 

+ 500gb on the video server (But I just back this up once a term to the NAS)

 

and 27gb for Hyper-V backups. (again back these up manually to our 3rd hyper-v host once a term)

 

Thats for a 1,000 user secondary school.

[IanT]

One thing you will notice is you can use 2010 and 2010 R2 License Keys within R3 installation - I even rang Symantec up to check this a while back when R3 came out and they said yup thats fine.

 

I would also enabled or check that Granular Restore Technology is enabled on the Backup Jobs for exchange\hyper-v.

 

Make sure you also get some lto barcodes for the tapes!

 

Backkup Exec is pretty easy when you have a play with it, make sure you create a policy for daily, weekly and monthly jobs!

 

PM me if you need any help!!

[sukh]

depends if the product supports restoring a single mailbox and alos I would expect it too restore the databse then ypu can pull out the mailbox.

[RabbieBurns]

Right Ive found R3 licensed download on the symantec site.

 

Anyone know if I can just do an inplace upgrade from R2 to R3 or is it more convoluted than that?

[IanT]

Right Ive found R3 licensed download on the symantec site.

 

Anyone know if I can just do an inplace upgrade from R2 to R3 or is it more convoluted than that?

 

Inplace upgrade yup - done many times without any issues

[farmerste]

i am asking for some advice, we currently use tape backup on the sims admin server running sql 2k5, and sql 2k8, on a server 2003 standard box. ( symantec backup for software )

i am currently looking to upgrade the server to 2k8, and i was wondering what people could suggest as a backup solution that is on site, either tape or nas. ( looking at a dell server )

we currently use a tape and backup less than 30Gb per night, the office manager then takes home with her the 'last known good' backup each night in case of disaster, which is a good habit i will have problem breaking.

 

can anyone give me a software solution and a nas or external drive/tape solution they are currently using with sims on a 2k8 platform. off site backup is the last preferrred option.

 

obviously it will need to be compatible with sims, and the sql.

 

thanks in advance

[featured_spectre]

Why not have a tape backup for long term running on the Grandfather Father Son system, and have the NAS do one big massive System state and volume back up, followed by incremental each night?

 

Ensure your NAS is elsewhere onsite though as should the proverbial hit the fan in your racks, the last thing you want is your back ups to go with it!

[IanT]

I would go with both solutions, Tape and Disk based backup.

 

A number of places I run have the D2D2T - Have a policy in backup exec to duplicate data once tape has ran - runs pretty well!

 

One of the other things I would recommend is getting a proper solution in place for tapes to be taken off-site, we use Recall to collect tape each week and works well, I wouldnt trust taking it home myself or giving it to anyone else!

[mrbios]

Highly recommend the upgrade to R3, R2 was a nightmare for us, some of the fixes in R3 were a god send.

 

Also it's certainly not intended as a layer of backup but to save yourself the hassle of having to do restores from tapes every time you have to restore something make sure you have volume shadow copies setup, they're fantastic in this place. Also highly recommend keeping your tapes in a fireproof safe in a separate building to your main racks. (haven't read any replies so don't know if you do all this, just thought i'd mention it anyway ) Periodic restoration tests are the last thing i'd recommend, it may say it has backed up and validated but don't always trust what the software tells you

[IanT]

I would agree above, its very very rare I restore anything from tape from backup exec, Volume Shadow Copy is what i use to restore most things! :-)

[farmerste]

thanks for the info,

i am really looking for something cheap, and simple that will stop the sql, and then do a backup of seleted areas, verify, and the restart sql, a bit like backupexec does now.

i also have to consider that a none ict tech might have to log in, and check backup has worked, and size of backup time taken etc, so something a bit simpler may be helpful.

internal drives ( tape) seem to be really expensive, but might have to go with this regardless.

 

thanks

[IanT]

"i also have to consider that a none ict tech might have to log in, and check backup has worked, and size of backup time taken etc, so something a bit simpler may be helpful."

 

You can setup email notification backups which gives all these details.

 

Enterprise Support - Symantec Corp. - How to configure backup jobs to send notification using Backup Exec 9.x, 10.x, 11x, 12x and 2010 (includes SMTP configuration)