Backup Exec 20.3 Best Practices

Last Published:
Product(s): Backup Exec (20.3)
  1. Backup Exec Best Practices
    1.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec software encryption
    2.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec installation
    3.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec tape management
    4.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec disk-based storage
    5.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec data lifecycle management (DLM)
    6.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec catalogs
    7.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec backups
    8.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec backing up critical system components
    9.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec Agent for Microsoft Exchange Server
    10.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec Agent for Microsoft SQL Server
    11.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec Agent for Linux
    12.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec Agent for Microsoft SharePoint
    13.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec Central Admin Server Option
    14.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec Agent for Oracle on Windows and Linux Servers
    15.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec NDMP Option
    16.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec reports
    17.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec and Veritas Update
    18.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec Simplified Disaster Recovery
    19.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec Agent for Enterprise Vault and the Backup Exec Migrator
    20.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec Granular Recovery Technology
    21.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec Remote Media Agent for Linux
    22.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec Agent for Microsoft Hyper-V
    23.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec Agent for VMware
    24.  
      Best practices for using Backup Exec with server clusters
    25.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec Deduplication Option
    26.  
      Best practices for using Backup Exec Deduplication Option with the Central Admin Server Option
    27.  
      Best practices for using hot-pluggable devices such as USB devices in a drive rotation strategy
    28.  
      Best practices for Backup Exec database encryption keys
    29.  
      Best Practices for Using the Veritas Backup Exec Cloud Connector

Best practices for Backup Exec backups

Best practices include tips and recommendations to help you use Veritas Backup Exec backup jobs effectively. For more information, see the Backup Exec Administrator's Guide.

The following best practices help ensure effective backup jobs:

  • Test to make sure that you have the appropriate credentials to access the content that you want to back up before you run a backup job. If a credentials test fails, you can enter new credentials for the content so that Backup Exec can access it.

  • You should run a backup job to your storage device before you run a test run job. Backup Exec does not recognize the capacity of a storage device until an actual backup job sends data to the device. If you create a test run job before any other jobs, Backup Exec cannot check that the device has sufficient capacity to perform the backup job. After at least one backup job has send data to a device, Backup Exec can determine the capacity.

  • You should always run a full backup job before and after upgrading Backup Exec, the operating system, or any applications.

  • Be sure to run full backup jobs periodically, in addition to any incremental backup jobs that you run. When you restore data that was backed up using incremental backups, Backup Exec restores the data from the initial full backup plus any data that was backed up in subsequent incremental backups. However, if one of the incremental backups is corrupt or missing, it can cause the restore to fail. Running full backups periodically can help ensure that all of the data is accessible when you need to restore it.

  • You should avoid using hardware compression with software encryption. Hardware compression is performed after encryption. Data becomes randomized during the encryption process. Compression does not work effectively on data that is randomized.

  • You should not use software compression or encryption for GRT-enabled backu pjobs. The compression and encryption process are resource-intensive. Enabling either software compression or encryption can result in degraded performance for GRT-enabled backup jobs.

  • You should run a verify operation after all backup jobs. Running a verify operation can help you to determine if you will be able to restore the backup sets created by a backup job. If a verify operation fails, you can rerun the backup job to ensure that your data is protected. Otherwise, you may not realize that the media is inaccessible until you try to restore from it. By default, Backup Exec automatically verifies backed up data at the end of a backup job. However, you can also schedule the verify operation to take place at a later time or manually verify backup sets at any time.

  • If you need to keep data longer than four weeks, you should duplicate it. You can duplicate the backup data from the original storage device to tape, for example, which you can then send for long-term or off-site storage.