Symantec has released Backup Exec 12.5 SP2 for download. It contains many bug fixes and enhancements for the product. If you are currently running 12.5 in your environment, you will want to apply this service pack to your server.

Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager 12.5

Have you ever wanted to know what patch level your Backup Exec Remote Agents have? Have you ever wanted to see if a particular server is being protected via your numerous backup jobs? Well now you can. Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager 12.5(BEIM) gives you just that kind of functionality. Its designed to help you manage your backup servers. Is does so with its deep integration with the Altiris Notification Server (version 7).

Altiris Notification Server 7 is a free download and offers basic system management and inventory operations out of the box. However, if you want the really cool functionality, it comes in the form of solutions that are purchased separately. BEIM is just such a solution.

BEIM is available via the altiris.com website, and its also available as a DVD via the symantec.com store. The advantage of the DVD media is that it does not require Internet access on your servers to install, whereas, it does not provide updates unless they are manually installed. Installing via the altiris.com web site will provide you the latest version of the software at install time.

The BEIM 12.5 solution provides server deployment, as well as patch management and reporting. There is an additional 12.5 media solution available on the DVD and on the website that will install on the notification server, and it provides the ability to deploy 12.5 servers to your network using the integrated Altiris software delivery framework. An 11.0 solution is only available for download via the Altiris web site. The advantage of these packages is that they allow upgrades going back to 9.1 of Backup Exec.

BEIM 12.5 has preconfigured software policies that allow delivery of media servers to Windows systems, as well as delivery of remote agents to Windows, Linux/Unix, and Mac systems. There are also policies for patch deployment as well. There are embedded reports to show patch revisions of your media servers and remote agents. There are also reports that show license information for the deployed media servers in your organization. In Addition, there are tasks that can be delivered to the media servers where configuration settings could be deployed to the remote systems via integrated BEMCMD functionality.

The Backup Exec System Recovery solution can reside side by side on the notification server as well. BEIM has the capability of detecting BESR servers, as well as CPS index servers. Currently DLO and CPS server support is not included (except as above).

BEIM offers little in the way of job management, device management, etc. So if your looking for that kind of functionality, you will not find it in this offering.

Patching for servers without Internet connectivity is available by installing the Symantec Installation Manager on a Internet accessible system, and creating offline packages for the desired updates/packages you want installed on the notification server.

I would love to hear thoughts, comments, opinions on the solution.

So you purchased Backup Exec for Windows Server 12.5 and your ready to start protecting your ESX host and its associated virtual machines. There are some considerations you need to take into account when planning your backups with 12.5.

Lets talk about the available options for protecting your ESX Server, and then we can dive into how to begin protecting the ESX host. In Backup Exec 12.5 you have three types of backup that can be performed. Here they are:

1. You can do a SAN based backup
2. You can do a LAN based backup
3. You can do a Hot Add backup.

If you are running Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 on any of the platforms listed below, and you try to browse it for backup using Backup Exec 12.5, you will see a message in the browse list that says “Query Failed”. This is because Microsoft did not install the VSS Writer called “Microsoft Virtual Server Writer” when you do a “Vssadmin list writers” from the cmd line. I’m assuming that the workstation platforms are listed as “non-Production Only” because the writers are not compatible with those platforms. And as such, the installer does not install and register the writer, yielding a functioning virtual server platform, but making it impossible to reliably backup.

Here are the platforms listed as Non-Production:
  Windows XP Professional SP2 (non-Production only)
  Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (non-Production only)
  Windows Vista Ultimate (non-Production only)
  Windows Vista Business (non-Production only)
  Windows Vista Enterprise (non-Production only)

If you are in this scenario, you should probably move the virtual servers over to a server platform so that your backups can be performed using the remote agent.

If you are running Virtual Server 2005 R2 without SP1 or later on a server platform, you will receive a message that says “Unable to initialize the VSS provider”, or something similar. This is because the VSS Writer is not installed unless you are running SP1 or later. In this case you should make sure and install the SP1 update, and then try and create your backup jobs again.

I hope this helps those running into this issue with Virtual Server and Backup Exec 12.5. If this solves your issue, leave me a comment and let me know.

If you are trying to run a custom report on a cluster node, you may see an error saying that job initialization failed. If you edit the job and save it again, then the jobs will run correctly. It appears that editing the job causes the RDP file to get recreated on the node and the job runs. From my testing it seems as though the RDP files are incorrectly getting saved on the local nodes and not on the cluster shared drive. Editing the job on a node that did not originally create the job causes the file to get recreated locally.

A workaround for this would be to copy the RDP file to secondary nodes, so that should a fail-over occur, the jobs will run on secondary nodes.

I was reading articles related to Backup Exec tonight looking for a good topic that would be worth delving into. I ran across this post where a customer cannot install. From the referenced technote on the support site, it appear as though he is getting a failure opening the MSI package. Typically the following error is logged in the bkupinst.htm file:

V-225-185: An error was encountered while trying to load the install package. Review the install log and contact your system administrator or re-run the setup with administrator privileges.

 Some good troubleshooting suggestions when this occurs:

1. Verify that the file exists in the same directory where setup.exe is being started.
2. If installing from a CD, verify that its clean and not scratched causing the system to fail to correctly read the MSI file from disk.
3. If installing from a network location, verify the file is not corrupt and that you can access it. (Make sure you are copying the same version of the file by checking the modified date/time if its corrupt!)
4. Copy the install media locally and re-run the install.
5. If on Windows 2000 Terminal Services, there is a known issue with installing via terminal services over a network drive. Copy the media locally and try again, or use a UNC path and not a mapped drive.
6. Verify that the folder structure that existed on the CD or originally downloaded media has not changed. The install reference directory locations, and if they get moved, that will cause unnecessary failures.
7. Re-download the file if it was downloaded from the website.
8. Verify that another version of setup is not already running on the system accessing the file. When you run an install and the dialog sequence opens up, it opens a handle to the MSI. As long as the dialog sequence is running on the system, you will receive this error. (Example: Another terminal session has the dialog sequence open).
9. LiveUpdate may be patching the system causing the file to be locked. Look for “PatchSetup.exe” in your process list.
10. Verify that another user has not logged into the system in another terminal server session and left Setup.exe running.
11. If you are running in Terminal Server Sessions, or Remote Desktop, its a good idea to log in locally on the system to see if the error persists. Often times there are restrictions on remote connection privileges.
12. Verify that if you are running on Vista/2008 that you are running a supported version of the product on that system. Older products are not compatible and will not run with the necessary rights when executing, preventing correct behavior.
13. Verify that a security policy has not restricted your administrator privileges.
14. Open Task Manager and select “Show processes from all users”, and verify that there are no other copies of setup.exe or patchsetup.exe running in another session. If there are, go to that session and close the installer.
15. And lastly, if none of the above work, download process monitor from the sysinternals website and see what has the file locked.

NOTES:
If you have already installed the product on your server/workstation, there are additional things you should consider. (Advanced Users Only)

• Once Backup Exec is installed, the install is cached on the system in the %windir%\installer directory. This is a hidden directory and unless you have your system set to “Show all files”, including “System Files”, then it will not be visible by default in explorer.
• When the install is cached, the root of the \Windows\Installer folder has files that look like “2b3454f.msi”. This is where the “Symantec Backup Exec for Windows Installer.msi” package gets stored when its cached. The file name is randomly determined by the Windows Installer Service during the install. To determine the file name will require some registry diving. If your not familiar with the Windows Installer Service and its associated packages, you should get help from the support department at Symantec. You need to know the package code for the version your installing to determine the cached file name. You can usually locate it by searching through the folders in \Windows\Installer\{GUID}. There will be a directory similar to the following: C:\windows\Installer\{CA648C72-66AB-4652-A825-9994AB5F6D15}. In that directory you will know is the Backup Exec Cache dir when you see files similar to “setup.exe, 1033.MST, IfRes.DLL, BeInstParams.prm, and a bin folder with additional files” Take the {CA648C72-66AB-4652-A825-9994AB5F6D15} name and copy it, then search the registry subkey [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
  Installer\UserData] for the above GUID. You will find a subkey that has a value like the following: “LocalPackage”=”C:\\WINDOWS\\Installer\\25400b.msi”. This is the cached install msi file. This file is used whenever the user runs setup.exe post installation. If this file is not locked by another instance of setup.exe running, and you are certain that this file is corrupt, then hopefully you have a backup to restore from.

If this solves your problem, please let me know by taking a minute to send me a comment.

Welcome to the Backup Exec Blog. This blog focuses primarily on Backup Exec for Windows Servers. My hopes with this site is to answer questions, provide useful information and more. I have worked with Backup Exec since version 6.x. My experience goes further back to Backup Exec for DOS when I used to protect my BBS server with a 20MB QIC cartridge, but thats a story for another day.

If you are looking for understanding, answers to hard to find questions, install problems clustering issues, patching questions, and the like, send me your feedback and I’ll due my best to get answers for everyone’s benefit. Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy the information presented today and in the future.

With that being said, have you heard about the new release of Backup Exec 12.5? If you haven’t, its the latest buzz. Although its a minor release, there is a host of reasons to upgrade. With Virtualization being the so important to reducing carbon footprints these days, it will surely be in demand!

New Features:

• Microsoft SQL 2008 Database agent support
• Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 support
• Microsoft Essential Business Server 2008 integration and support
• Granular Restore Technology(GRT) support for Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server.
• Support for backing up VmWare Servers
• Support for backing up Hyper-V servers
• Improved NDMP support (scalability improvements, SAN Support, data duplication to tape)
• Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager Support*

Licensing Changes:

• Advanced Open File Option (AOFO) now included with base product
• Intelligent Disaster Recovery Option (IDR) now included with base product

Microsoft SQL 2008 Database agent support
If your using SQL in your environment, you will want to use the SQL agent to protect your databases. It allows you to backup the databases in real time without having to shutdown the services or disrupt up-time. It provides point in time recovery that is a must have in the enterprise.

Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 support
For customers using Small Business Server (SBS) 2008, this release adds support for protecting the installed applications, and server overall.

Microsoft Essential Business Server 2008
The latest release from Microsoft installs three servers. A Windows 2008 Domain Controller, an Windows 2008 server that hosts an Exchange 2008 server,  and a Windows 2008 server that hosts SQL Server 2008 Instance. Its designed for those customers who need more than what SBS provides. Backup Exec now adds support for this release with 12.5.

Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server
Backup Exec’s patent pending Granular Restore Technology has been added to the SharePoint Portal Server agent. Few applications have the ability to do real granular recovery of a SharePoint database. This technology is already being used by customers backing up Active Directory and Exchange servers.

VmWare Server Support
If you have a VmWare ESX server that hosts multiple virtual servers, this agent provides a way to completely protect the ESX server and its guests.

Hyper-V server Support
If you are running Hyper Visor instead of VmWare, then you will surely need a way to protect those hosts without running an Remote Agent on every virtual server.

Improved NDMP Support
Backup Exec has extended their NDMP support. Performance has been improved, as well as the ability to perform backups to tape and disk simultaneously.

Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager
Customers who use Altirs will benefit from this offering when its made available later this year.

Licensing Changes
If you use the AOFO option, or the IDR option, you will be please to learn that its now included with the base product. Great for protecting those open .PST files, or other applications that have files locked.

Please send your questions, feedback and or comments, I look forward reading and responding to them.