Backup Exec 20.2 Administrator's Guide
- Introducing Backup Exec
- Installation
- Methods for installing the Agent for Windows
- Using a command prompt to install the Agent for Windows on a remote computer
- Using a command script to install the Agent for Windows
- Installing the Remote Administrator
- Installing Backup Exec using the command line (silent mode)
- Backup Exec license contract information
- About upgrading to Backup Exec
- Getting Started
- Backups
- Backing up data
- Restores
- How Backup Exec catalogs work
- Job management and monitoring
- Alerts and notifications
- Enabling active alerts and alert history to display on the Home tab
- Adding a recipient group for alert notifications
- Sending a notification when a job completes
- SNMP traps for Backup Exec alerts
- Disk-based and network-based storage
- Configuring disk storage
- Configuring disk cartridge storage
- Backup sets
- Cloud-based storage devices
- Amazon S3 cloud-based storage
- Google cloud-based storage
- Microsoft Azure cloud-based storage
- Private cloud-based storage
- About S3-Compatible Cloud Storage
- About the Backup Exec™ CloudConnect Optimizer
- Legacy backup-to-disk folders
- Legacy backup-to-disk folders
- Legacy backup-to-disk folders
- Tape storage
- Robotic libraries in Backup Exec
- Creating robotic library partitions
- Managing tapes
- Creating media sets for tapes
- Labeling tape media
- Default media vaults
- Storage device pools
- Storage operations
- Conversion to virtual machines
- Configuration and settings
- Using Backup Exec with firewalls
- Deleting DBA-initiated job templates
- Backup Exec logon accounts
- Reports
- Creating a custom report
- List of Backup Exec standard reports
- Instant Cloud Recovery
- Preconfigurations to be completed in the Azure portal
- Troubleshooting Backup Exec
- Troubleshooting failed components in the SAN
- Generating a diagnostic file for troubleshooting Backup Exec
- Using Backup Exec in cluster environments
- Configurations for Backup Exec and Microsoft Cluster Servers
- Disaster recovery of a cluster
- Simplified Disaster Recovery
- Setting or changing the alternate location for the disaster recovery information file
- Creating a Simplified Disaster Recovery disk image
- Preparing to recover from a disaster by using Simplified Disaster Recovery
- Recovering a computer with Simplified Disaster Recovery
- Performing manual disaster recovery
- Integration with Veritas™ Information Map
- Appendix A. Backup Exec Agent for Windows
- About the Backup Exec Agent Utility for Windows
- Appendix B. Backup Exec Deduplication Feature
- Creating or importing deduplication disk storage
- Selecting storage devices for direct access sharing
- Appendix C. Backup Exec Agent for VMware
- About establishing trust for a vCenter/ESX(i) server
- Backing up VMware virtual machines
- About instant recovery of a VMware virtual machine
- About Recovery Ready for VMware virtual machines
- Appendix D. Backup Exec Agent for Microsoft Hyper-V
- Backing up Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines
- About instant recovery of a Hyper-V virtual machine
- About Recovery Ready for Hyper-V virtual machines
- Appendix E. Backup Exec Agent for Microsoft SQL Server
- Backing up SQL databases and transaction logs
- Restoring SQL databases and transaction logs
- Disaster recovery of a SQL Server
- Appendix F. Backup Exec Agent for Microsoft Exchange Server
- Backing up Exchange data
- Appendix G. Backup Exec Agent for Microsoft SharePoint
- Backing up Microsoft SharePoint data
- Appendix H. Backup Exec Agent for Oracle on Windows or Linux Servers
- Configuring the Oracle Agent on Windows computers and Linux servers
- Configuring an Oracle instance on Windows computers
- Viewing an Oracle instance on Windows computers
- About authentication credentials on the Backup Exec server
- About backing up Oracle databases
- About restoring Oracle resources
- Appendix I. Backup Exec Agent for Enterprise Vault
- About backup methods for Enterprise Vault backup jobs
- Restoring Enterprise Vault
- About the Backup Exec Migrator for Enterprise Vault
- Configuring the Backup Exec Migrator
- About retrieving migrated Enterprise Vault data
- About the Partition Recovery Utility
- Appendix J. Backup Exec Agent for Microsoft Active Directory
- Appendix K. Backup Exec Central Admin Server Feature
- About installing the Central Admin Server feature
- What happens when CAS communication thresholds are reached
- About job delegation in CAS
- How to use Backup Exec server pools in CAS
- How centralized restore works in CAS
- Appendix L. Backup Exec Advanced Disk-based Backup Feature
- Appendix M. Backup Exec NDMP Feature
- About restoring and redirecting restore data for NDMP servers
- Viewing the properties of an NDMP server
- Viewing storage properties for an NDMP server
- Appendix N. Backup Exec Agent for Linux
- About installing the Agent for Linux
- About establishing trust for a remote Linux computer in the Backup Exec list of servers
- Editing configuration options for Linux computers
- About backing up a Linux computer by using the Agent for Linux
- About restoring data to Linux computers
- Editing the default backup job options for Linux computers
- Uninstalling the Agent for Linux
- Appendix O. Backup Exec Remote Media Agent for Linux
- About installing the Remote Media Agent for Linux
- About establishing trust for a Remote Media Agent for Linux computer in the Backup Exec list of servers
- About the Backup Exec operators (beoper) group for the Remote Media Agent for Linux
- About adding a Linux server as a Remote Media Agent for Linux
- Editing properties for the Remote Media Agent for Linux
- Creating a simulated tape library
- Viewing simulated tape libraries properties
- Appendix P. Accessibility and Backup Exec
- About keyboard shortcuts in Backup Exec
- Backup and Restore tab keyboard shortcuts
- Storage tab keyboard shortcuts
About Recovery Ready for VMware virtual machines
Backup Exec has introduced the Recovery Ready feature with Backup Exec 16 Feature Pack 1. With the Recovery Ready feature, you can use the Validate VM for Recovery operation to validate the recoverability of virtual machines. When you create and run a Validate Virtual Machine for Recovery job, it runs tests on the virtual machine after which it is marked as recovery ready.
Recovery ready virtual machines can be used to do the following:
Disaster recovery readiness: In a disaster recovery scenario, administrators are sure that the validated virtual machines are recoverable.
Vault the backups to cloud or tape: Validates the backup sets before you vault them to devices such as cloud and tape.
Audit and compliance of backups: For meeting company audit and regulatory compliance requirements, you can provide validation information of your backups for virtual machines.
When the Validate Virtual Machine for Recovery job runs, the virtual machine is registered on the vCenter server or ESX host with the host name in the Validate_VM name_GUID
format and then powered on. The virtual machine is created only for validation purpose. It is a temporary virtual machine, which is removed after validation is completed. After the power on is complete, a heartbeat check is run to ensure that the VMware Tools Service is running.
During virtual machine validation there is no data transfer.
When you create the Validate Virtual Machine for recovery job, before the validation job runs, you can select the maximum time that is allowed for a virtual machine to boot. The default value is 10 minutes. You can select a value between 1 to 60 minutes.
See Configuring default backup settings.
After these checks are successfully completed, the virtual machine is marked as ready for recovery.
All information about the validation is part of the job log. After validation you can generate the Recovery Ready Validation Summary report to view the summary of the virtual machines that you validated.
See Recovery Ready Validation Summary.
To see the validation status, on the Backup and Restore tab, double-click the host name or on the Storage tab, double-click the disk storage name. In the left pane, click . For the selected server or storage view, the is displayed.
The following table describes the process of validating VMware virtual machines for recovery.
Table: Virtual machine validation process
Step | Description |
---|---|
Step 1 | Add the vCenter server or ESX host. |
Step 2 | Take a disk-based GRT backup of the virtual machine that is hosted on the vCenter server or ESX host. The Recovery Ready feature supports full, incremental, and deferential backup sets. |
Step 3 | Run a Validate Virtual Machine for Recovery job for a VMware virtual machine. |
Step 4 | Backup Exec virtualizes the backup set. |
Step 5 | Backup Exec creates a share as an NFS datastore on the Media server. The datastore becomes accessible on the host where the virtual machine is validated for recovery. The host uses the NFS datastore as read-only. Note: Since Windows Server for NFS is not secure, the share that is created by Backup Exec is available on the network. |
Step 6 | Backup Exec runs the following tests in the given order on the VMware virtual machine being validated.
|
Step 7 | If all the tests are successful, Backup Exec marks the VMware virtual machine as validated. |
The following tests are run on a VMware virtual machine that is being validated.
Table: Tests run on a VMware virtual machine
Test | Description |
---|---|
Register the virtual machine | The first test is to register the virtual machine on the vCenter server or ESX host. |
Power ON the virtual machine | The second test is to power ON the registered virtual machine. |
Heartbeat test | The third test is to check the VMware Tools service. If this service runs successfully on the powered on virtual machine, the heartbeat test passes. VMware Tools must be installed and the VMware Tools service must be running on the backed up virtual machine for the heartbeat check to be successful. If VMware Tools is not installed, the validation job fails and for the corresponding backup set, status is displayed. |
All information related to the test results is also available in the job log.
During validation, the following statuses are displayed for the backup set of a VMware virtual machine:
: The backup set has passed all tests and is recovery ready.
: The backup set has failed the tests and is not recovery ready.
: The virtual machine is not validated because of environmental issues. Hence, the backup sets cannot be validated.
During validation the following statuses are displayed for the validation job of a VMware virtual machine:
: The validation job has passed all tests and the virtual machine is recovery ready.
: The validation job has passed all tests but when there is a clean-up of resources that are used for validation, the power off fails.
: The validation job has failed the tests or validation is not performed.
If validation fails or Backup Exec is unable to validate a virtual machine for recovery, you can check the validation job log for more details.
The following matrix gives details about the tests and validation status.
Table: Validation status for a VMware virtual machine
Validation test | Backup set status | Validation job status | Reason for failure |
---|---|---|---|
If registration is successful, go to the next check. | |||
Validation failed | Failed | Backup set issue | |
Unable to validate | Failed | Environment issue | |
If power ON is successful, go to the next check. | |||
Unable to validate | Failed | Connectivity issue or check not attempted as registration failed | |
Unable to validate | Failed | Test not attempted | |
Validation failed | Failed | Boot issue or VMware Tools issue | |
Validation successful | Successful | Virtual machine is validated and recovery ready |
See Requirements for validating a VMware virtual machine for recovery.
See Notes about validating a VMware virtual machine for recovery.