Backup Exec 21 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)
- Updating Backup Exec with Veritas Update
- 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
- About the Job Monitor
- About the Job History
- Viewing the job log
- Error-handling rules for failed or canceled jobs
- 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
- Changing network and security options for Backup Exec
- 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
- GDPR Guard
- 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
- Integration with Veritas SaaS Backup
- Forever Incremental Backup
- 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
How conversion of physical computers to virtual machines works in Backup Exec
Backup Exec provides the ability to convert a physical computer to a virtual machine in the following ways:
Back up a physical computer and simultaneously convert it to a virtual machine.
Back up a physical computer and schedule a conversion to a virtual machine to run after the backup job runs.
Convert existing backup sets to a virtual machine.
Convert a running physical computer to a virtual machine without running a backup job.
Note:
Conversion of a physical Hyper-V host into a virtual machine is not supported. In addition, in a VMware environment, conversion of Windows Server 2012 physical servers that have 4K disks is not supported.
The newly created virtual machine is bootable and is identical to the physical computer from which the virtual machine was converted, with the exception of the network cards and settings. Conversion to a virtual machine enables business continuity for both Hyper-V and VMware environments.
This topic includes the following information:
Conversion to virtual machine options
How backup selections are processed during conversion to virtual jobs
How full, incremental, and differential backups work in conversion to virtual jobs
Conversion of disks or volumes larger than 2 terabytes
Notes about conversion to a virtual machine running on a Windows Server 2012 or later Hyper-V host
Notes about conversion of Exchange servers
You use one of the following options on the Backup and Restore tab to set up a conversion to a virtual machine:
Table: Conversion to virtual machine options
Name of option | Description |
---|---|
These options run the conversion simultaneously with the backup job. Because two operations are performed at the same time, this job may take longer to run than a regular backup job. A large backup window is recommended for this option. A conversion from a full backup creates the new virtual machine. Incremental and differential backups update the virtual machine that was created from the full backup. Note: Incremental backups are preferred over differential backups because the differential backups are inefficient for conversion as compared to incremental backups. Although the backup runs simultaneously with the conversion, the backup is the primary job. Therefore, if the backup fails, then the conversion fails also. However, if the conversion fails, the backup continues to run. For a conversion failure, the job is marked as a success with exceptions. In the case of a failed conversion, the conversion process runs again during the next full backup. See Converting to a virtual machine simultaneously with a backup job. | |
These options let you schedule the conversion to run after the backup job. These options require a smaller backup window than the simultaneous conversion options. A conversion from a full backup creates the new virtual machine. Incremental and differential backups update the virtual machine that was created from the full backup. Note: Incremental backups are preferred over differential backups because the differential backups are inefficient for conversion as compared to incremental backups. | |
A conversion to a virtual machine from a point in time converts existing backup sets from a backup job in which all components that are necessary for a virtual machine conversion were selected. When all necessary components are selected for a backup job, Backup Exec identifies that job as Fully selected and the option has a status of ON. The option to convert to a virtual machine from a point in time is useful in a disaster recovery situation in which you want to quickly recover a failed server. The backup sets contain all of the critical components of the server. Additionally, you can select application data or user data to include in the conversion. Note: The option becomes available for selection only after you run at least one full backup that includes all critical system components. | |
This option converts a running physical computer to a virtual machine without a separate backup job. A one-time conversion job can be scheduled to run at a later time, but it cannot be scheduled to run more than one time. Only Full (Copy) backups are supported for this type of conversion. Incremental and differential backups are not supported for one-time conversions. Note: Copy backups are not supported in Hyper-V 2008 or 2008 R2. A crash-consistent conversion is created instead. | |
You can add a stage to a backup job to convert to a virtual machine. Two types of stages are available: and .See Adding a conversion to virtual machine stage to a backup job. |
Note:
Regardless of the option that is used to initiate the conversion, Backup Exec does not power on the virtual machine after creating it.
Backup Exec creates a snapshot of the virtual machine at the end of the conversion process. The snapshot is removed before the next job runs as long as the virtual machine is not powered on and the only snapshot on the virtual machine is the one that Backup Exec created. If you want to start using the virtual machine, you must manually remove the snapshot.
If the converted virtual machine's host fails and you bring the virtual machine online, the existing conversion job continues to run and then fails. In this situation, you must create a new conversion job.
When you set up a conversion to virtual job, you select the items to back up before the conversion or simultaneously with the conversion. Backup Exec may automatically exclude or include data in certain situations. The job log lists the items that were excluded from or included in the conversion.
Selections are processed as follows:
If you exclude a volume from the backup job, then that volume is automatically excluded from the corresponding conversion job.
If you include an application in the backup job, the disk and volume on which that application resides are automatically included in the conversion job.
If you exclude a volume from the backup, the disk that is part of the volume is automatically excluded if the volume is the only thing on the disk.
Conversion-to-virtual-machine jobs create a virtual machine from a full backup. Subsequent incremental and differential backup jobs update the virtual machine that was created by the full backup. Although differential backups are supported for conversion jobs, incremental backups are the preferred method for updating virtual machines. Differential backups are inefficient for conversion when compared to incremental backups.
When using the incremental backup method for conversion to virtual machine jobs, keep in mind the following points:
Data from volumes is backed up at a file\folder level. Even if only a portion of the file has changed, the entire file is backed up.
The entire System State is backed up. Incremental backups are supported only for the system file components of System State; the other System State components are backed up as a full backup.
Block-level backup methods must be selected for SQL. After the initial incremental backup runs for SQL, block-level backups are performed for any subsequent full or incremental backups for which the ON. Conversion will not be performed if a block-level backup method is not selected.
option isFull backups are always performed for Active Directory. Neither incremental backups nor differential backups are supported for Active Directory.
Backup Exec supports conversion of disks or volumes that are larger than 2 terabytes (TB) for VMware hosts and Hyper-V 2012 or later hosts.
Note:
If the boot volume or the system volume on the source physical computer is larger than 2 TB and you are converting to a VMware or Hyper-V 2008 R2 virtual machine, then Backup Exec cannot convert it. A boot volume cannot be split or created as a dynamic spanned volume. This limitation also applies if the boot volume on the source is larger than the destination datastore's maximum supported disk size.
Backup Exec converts all disks and volumes on the destination to simple or spanned dynamic volumes. Even if the source disk is a basic disk, the converted disks on the destination will be dynamic. Since Backup Exec supports only simple and spanned dynamic volumes, if the source volume type is striped, mirror, or raid5, then Backup Exec converts that volume to either simple or spanned on the destination.
The following additional information applies only to VMware:
Conversion of a volume that is larger than 2 TB is supported in the following situations:
If the volume is not a boot or system volume
If the volume was created on a dynamic disk
If the volume is an MBR disk
Conversion of GPT disks is not supported, regardless of the size of the volume on the disk. Conversions of GPT disks fail.
In situations where the VMware source disk size is larger than the destination datastore's maximum supported size, the source disk is split into multiple disks. Backup Exec splits the disk based on the destination datastore's maximum allowed size.
Before you create a job to convert a physical computer to a Windows Server 2012 and later Hyper-V host, review the following information:
Disk data is stored in vhdx files for conversion of a physical computer to a virtual machine running on a Windows Server 2012 and later Hyper-V host. The vhdx files can have a maximum capacity of 64 TB. The physical computer's disk sector size is maintained during the conversion.
The conversion of physical computers that have simple GPT disks is supported.
The conversion of physical computers that have dynamic disks is not supported.
Storage Spaces and Storage Pools are not supported.
Conversion to any previous versions of a Windows Hyper-V host is not supported, so those jobs fail. For example, if the physical computer runs Windows Server 2012 with an ReFS volume, conversion to a Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V host is supported.
If the physical computer runs Windows Server 2012 or later with one or more Windows deduplication volumes, conversion to a Hyper-V host is possible, but it may fail. The converted disk data is not deduplicated. In other words, an unoptimized data transfer is performed. For this reason, the conversion may fail if the amount of unoptimized data is greater than the capacity of the destination volume.
Backup Exec disables Exchange services on a newly-created virtual machine after a conversion-to-virtual job. If Exchange databases are present on a converted server, after a conversion-to-virtual job you must open the Microsoft Services Control Manager and manually restart the following Exchange services:
MSExchangeDagMgmt
MSExchangeADTopology
MSExchangeAntispamUpdate
MSExchangeDiagnostics
MSExchangeEdgeSync
MSExchangeFrontEndTransport
MSExchangeHM
MSExchangeMailboxAssistants
MSExchangeDelivery
MSExchangeSubmission
MSExchangeMigrationWorkflow
MSExchangeMailboxReplication
MSExchangeRPC
MSExchangeFastSearch
HostControllerService
MSExchangeServiceHost
MSExchangeThrottling
MSExchangeTransport
MSExchangeTransportLogSearch
MSExchangeUM
MSExchangeUMCR
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