Microsoft Windows 7 Backup is Getting Trashed
Microsoft Windows 7 Backup is getting trashed in a Microsoft forum for being unbelievably bad and slow.
Like this comes as such a surprise … Windows Backup? “It is an insult.” Jon Hell on a Microsoft Forum: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsbackup/thread/3e08fc65-52f5-48ca-ae13-321cdfc44fbd … “Windows Backup is an embarrassment.” Said another.
Why everyone isn’t using Backup Exec System Recovery Desktop Edition 2010 (BESR 2010) for their desktops and laptops beats me. Really simple to use as either a backup or disaster recovery tool, BESR 2010 is a cost-effective solution that helps minimise downtime and avoid disaster – it’s like Zero to DR in 10 minutes. You can recover individual data files/folders or complete Windows desktops or laptops in minutes.
I use it on my machine and mount the backups on a 500 GB USB drive (no power required) and take an off-site copy to our file servers at the same time. I never see any system impact – there is a slider that allows you to reduce the impact if you do see some degradation. It’s really simple to install, licence and set up. In fact, to be honest it’s easier to schedule your backups with BESR than it is to set up a meeting in Outlook, and recovery is just as simple.
With an off-site copy I can ensure that even if I lose my external drive I can get my data or systems back and backing up to a USB drive means I can restore data from anywhere even if I’m not connected to the Symantec network. Easy, simple, effective. New machine with Windows 7 O/S, no problem restoring data to different hardware … you can store your backups in a virtual environment which makes sense.
It’s a standalone solution as well as a 1+1=3 component of a larger data protection strategy, in fact I know of NetBackup customers who use BESR Server Edition to give themselves DR capabilities for their Windows Servers as well as using BESR Desktop to backup their employees laptops and desktops.
So, there’s no need to rely on Windows 7 Backup … given that Symantec has just won Best of Tech Ed Award fBackup and Reco.very
Full article in The Register can be found at:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/22/windows_7_backup/
Questions to ask yourself:
- How long does it take you to recover a desktop or laptop?
- How long does it take you to recover a Windows system?
- Can you recover a system to dissimilar hardware?
- Can you recover a complete system?
- How easily can you recover a virtual system?
Introducing Backup Exec 2010
Today is a big day for us at Symantec – huge launch of our backup products, NetBackup 7 and Backup Exec 2010, offering a unified backup and recovery portfolio that reaches from the smallest businesses to the largest enterprises.
We are really excited about this launch which must be one of the most significant in the last few years, and there is a considerable amount of interest in the industry.
Businesses today rely on information technology and systems to run their businesses; help to drive new opportunities; operate efficiently and comply appropriately with governance. Most organisations today are organised around servers, storage and applications with islands of static information. The sheer volume of data and its continued growth means that IT is struggling to keep up with growth with the added pressure to do more with less.
The new products are really impressive with integrated deduplication everywhere and archiving, reducing the complexity of storage management, as well as centralised information management and enhanced virtualisation capabilities.
Small Business: Symantec Backup Exec 2010 and Backup Exec System Recovery 2010 provide a simple, cost-effective backup and recovery solution that helps minimise downtime and avoid disaster by easily recovering individual data files/folders or complete Windows systems in minutes even to different hardware, virtual environments, or remote locations – for a multitude of SB environments.
Small and Medium Businesses: Symantec delivers reliable backup and recovery designed for growing businesses. Backup Exec 2010 helps protect more, store less and save more by reducing storage and management costs through integrated deduplication and archiving technology on both virtual or physical systems.
Enterprise: Symantec NetBackup 7 simplifies the protection of heterogeneous enterprise information by automating advanced technologies across applications, platforms, and virtual environments. Integrated deduplication, replication, and virtual machine protection improves storage efficiency, infrastructure use, and recovery times through one console.
Benefits of Next Generation Information Management from Symantec
- Reduce Costs: Gain 10-20 percent net savings from a single platform
- Recover data up to 5 times faster for less downtime
- Reduce unstructured data storage 40-60%
- Compress remote office backups up to 95%
- Protect virtual and physical machines
It doesn’t matter what is the issue – the answer is Symantec!
General availablity 1st February 2010
New support for Windows 2008 R2
I’m at to TechED in Berlin … great party for the fall of the Berlin Wall 2009 (shameful timing) – once again Microsoft mess up my weekend. Windows Server 2008 R2 is pretty bold and it will have a significant impact on the market. Piles of guys I have spoken to are interested in the new capabilities.
There are some significant features in the R2 operating system that can help to boost productivity and help administrators gain more management control. It will be of specific interest to companies that have an extensive investment, or plans a complex deployment, of Hyper-V-based virtualisation; any company that has vast swaths of Windows servers in data centres where space, power or both are becoming tight; as well as any company that is planning to deploy Windows 7 on a wide scale in the near future.
In terms of support for R2 BE is already there with Backup Exec 12.5 for Windows Servers revision 2213 Hotfix 331998. This hot-fix contains recommended fixes for Backup Exec for Windows Servers version 12.5 revision 2213. New support for Windows 2008 R2 (RAWS – Remote Agent Support Only) and a Agent for VMware Virtual Infrastructure fix (AVVI).
Affected versions
- Backup Exec 12.5 revision 2213 32bit Media Servers
- Backup Exec 12.5 revision 2213 x64bit Media Servers
Prerequisites
Before installing this hotfix, Backup Exec for Windows 12.5 Service Pack 2 must be installed. Service Pack 2 can be obtained here: http://library.veritas.com/docs/334937. Administrative privileges are required to install this hotfix.
Post requisites
A full backup is recommended after installing this hotfix. Backup Exec Remote Agents must be updated
Download links
- Backup Exec 12.5 or Windows Servers revision 2213 Hotfix 327135 – 32 bit download: http://support.veritas.com/docs/334937
- Backup Exec 12.5 for Windows Servers revision 2213 Hotfix 327135 – 64 bit download: http://support.veritas.com/docs/334938
Issue(s) resolved
After applying Backup Exec 12.5 Hotfix 328462, an Agent for VMWare Virtual Infrastructure (AVVI) backup job with the “Granular Recovery Technology” (GRT) option enabled, completes with the exception “Failed to mount one or more virtual disk images” (For more details please refer to this document: http://support.veritas.com/docs/331927)
Installation Guide – The installation guide here contains general information for installing Backup Exec product updates as well as special instructions for configurations including CPS, Remote Agents for Windows Servers, Remote Agent for Linux/Unix/Macintosh Server (RALUS/RAMS), Clustered Backup Exec, Shared Storage (SSO) installations, Central Admin Servers (CASO) installations, and SAP/R3 Oracle Agents. http://support.veritas.com/docs/300795
What does Data Domain mean to EMC?
I don’t know about you but I’ve been following the EMC vs NetApps Data Domain saga with some interest. Well, the waiting eventually ended with EMC stealing Data Domain from under NetApps nose for a measly $2.4B ( a mere bagatelle?). Earlier this year EMC announced the pulling together of all its “data reduction” technologies to give it some sort of coherence. A great strategy but one that is pretty difficult to accomplish with so many disparate technologies in the EMC portfolio. By adding Data Domain to the mix the chances of this happening gets even more unlikely. Which is unfortunate when you consider that for most customers date deduplication is a pretty important requirement.
In reality it is important for EMC to ensure that the substantial Data Domain/EMC integration effort will take precedence to short term data deduplication integration and so EMC will do whatever it takes to show how effortlessly the integration of Data Domain has been. Data Domain sales teams are likely to be incredibly aggressive pushing their deduplication capabilities at the expense of everything. I would be pretty careful about what you purchase from EMC and why.
From Symantec’s point of view Backup Exec is looking to manage all these points. For BE customers it’s going to be dead simple. If your problem is you want to improve recovery and manage tape and disk based backup, as well as system recovery and virtualisation technologies and you’ve already got Backup Exec you will be able to simply plug a solution into your existing processes using an agent for deduplication. Remember, if you are considering moving your backup solution to anything but BE you’ll have to do some serious thinking about your backup architecture and you’ll not be simply plugging into your existing backup software.
The conversations you should be having with your IT partner are around strategic fit. What’s the right technology to solve my business problem. You need a tool that does the job or all the jobs you need it to do. Not something that falls short in one or more areas . So, whatever the question is … the answer is The Backup Exec Family.
Special pricing on Backup Exec 12.5 Virtual Agents!
Extended to October 2nd, 2009 Upgrade to Backup Exec 12.5 or switch from a competitor’s solution and save up to 35% of MSRP on Backup Exec 12.5 virtual agents for VMware or Microsoft Hyper-V.
Comprehensive Data Protection for VMware Infrastructures and Microsoft Virtual Servers
How are you backing up your virtual environment today? Are you applying an antiquated and time consuming backup approach to your new virtual server environment? Having to juggle multiple agents to protect your virtual machines while also managing different backup products for both your physical and virtual environments can be painful.
Expanded virtual server data protection with two new virtual Agents! Backup Exec Agent for VMware Virtual Infrastructures and Backup Exec Agent for Microsoft Virtual Servers (including Hyper-V)
- Quickly restore virtual server files and folders from a single pass backup – save time and storage costs by eliminating a redundant file level backup
- Easily backup an unlimited number of virtual guest machines to disk or tape for added flexibility and savings
- Fast, efficient data protection for physical and virtual server environments from a single console
The BE 12.5 Agent for Microsoft Virtual Servers (AVVI) provides a single agent to support an unlimited number of virtual guests running on a Windows Server 2008 machines while protecting existing physical server files and Windows applications. Backup Exec 12.5 can quickly restore individual virtual files and folders from a single image-level backup – eliminating the time and storage requirements of a second file level backup
- Complete Windows data protection for new Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V systems and virtual systems running Windows Server 2000 and 2003 environments
- One agent delivering affordable data protection to an unlimited number of Microsoft virtual systems
- Comprehensive backup application for virtual systems and physical systems supporting disk and tape storage environments
Server Sales – Worst First Quarter in 12 Years
I don’t know if any of you have noticed but the first fiscal quarter of this year has been pretty bad for server sales. It doesn’t matter what the pundits say, however, it is important for all of us to save money, cut costs – but absolutely not at the expense of our backup.
Whatever else you gamble with, backup shouldn’t be one of them. IDC recently reported that server sales from January to March was the worst quarter in the dozen years that they have been releasing quarterly server figures. The current economic crisis has injected a disconcerting amount of uncertainty into the business climate. Organisations are loath to spend any more money than is absolutely necessary.
The silver lining here is that IT departments can use this opportunity to consolidate existing projects and focus on optimising existing backup systems . Backup Exec 12.5 and Backup Exec System Recovery 8.5 are built on complete protection and recovery providing central management protection for both virtual and physical systems – everything from multiple virtual servers to individual directories and files; a new generation of data protection management tools, powered by Altiris technology, for both Backup Exec and Backup Exec System Recovery.
BE delivers unmatched granular recovery capabilities for Exchange, Active Directory and SharePoint environments reducing the overheads associated with managing Exchange mailbox backups, restoring Active Directory user preferences and attributes without multiple reboots and overall simplifying the recovery process for critical Microsoft applications.
With BE you can ensure fast, efficient recovery of individual emails or documents from a full or incremental backup. Why take the time to recovery an entire database when all you need is an individual document or email?
Backup Exec System Recovery has offered capability to quickly convert physical systems to virtual environments for several years now. BESR enables immediate system recovery to virtual systems by allowing IT administrators to schedule physical to virtual conversions. Through a virtual conversion wizard an IT administrator can schedule P2V conversions to occur monthly, daily, weekly even hourly if desired so that in the event of a failure, you have a virtual system ready to go. In addition to dramatically reducing system downtime, this reduces management time and set-up for IT organisations as well.
Also new to this release is support for the latest virtual environments including VMware ESX 3.5, Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer 4.x (when using VMDK or VHD file types). When you add this functionality to the off-site copy capability it really helps organisations address their disaster recovery needs.
If someone wants a high availability solution without investing in a lot of clustering or replication software that are outside their budget BESR technology is a great way to copy these images to other locations, convert them on a schedule, and if the original server goes down those images can be brought up immediately for high availability purposes.
IT has to make do with what they have – what they need to do is make sure that they are “making do” as efficiently as possible, tweaking here and there, centralising management, adding agents and options to optimise the backup and recovery of critical data and applications and slim-lining processes to improve backup process efficiencies.
You might want to take another look at Backup Exec and Backup Exec System Recovery …
VCB (VMware Consolidated Backup)
Protecting the VMware environment has its own unique set of data protection challenges. There are basically three ways to protect VMware: the guest OS method, the console backup method and the VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) method. The guest OS method treats each virtual machine as a standalone server and backups take place as usual as if the virtual is physical server. The second practice is the console backup practice, in which virtualisation administrators back up the VMware ESX Server with no regard of the underlying virtual machines in the ESX environment. (There is a “free” product, ESXi, but it has no console, and requires add-ons to manage.)
VCB Backup requires VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3) and initially SAN attached disk (iSCSI or Fibre Chanel) but now supports VMFS with local, JBOD, iSCSI and Fibre-Channel-attached disk, network file system (NFS) and virtual compatibility mode raw device mapping (RDM). The only mode not currently supported is physical compatibility mode RDM, together with a dedicated Windows Server 2003 acts as the backup proxy. You then install the VCB software on the Windows Server and provide access to the same SAN Logical Unit Number (LUN) used for the VMware Virtual Disk Files.
The Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 Agent for VMware Virtual Infrastructure (AVVI) is specifically related to the VMware Consolidated Backup framework and is designed and built to communicate directly with VMware ESX and VirtualCenter.VCB was originally introduced in 2006 as nothing more than a collection of interfaces and utilities that backup vendors could exploit. Since then VCB itself and backup vendor support has expanded considerably. The many different code levels for both VCB and backup applications have caused considerable confusion around what environments are supported and what VCB is today.
It is best to think of VCB as a backup framework with a collection of VMware utilities that facilitates backups. Today VCB utilises standard backup products together with snapshot capabilities. It uses command line interface (CLI) capabilities in VMware to take a VM snapshot of Windows-based VMs to offload a copy of the data for the backup product which Backup Exec then mounts and backs up.
Effectively, VCB provides a centralised backup facility that enables you to use Backup Exec to protect system, application, and user data in your virtual machines while reducing the load on virtualised servers. This allows you to backup your virtual machines without disrupting users and applications. So, VCB provides a way to do server-free and LAN-free backup and VM snapshots can be NFS mounted for quicker recovery and GRT as well as centrally manage backups to simplify management of IT resources.
Cool so far?
If you are not using VCB you do not need the BE 12.5 AVVI. Most organisations not using VCB are likely to be using ESXi. Although ESXi is free, there is no service console anymore. So you can’t use local agents on your ESXi host. Everything needs to be able to communicate with the VI API or any other remote connect method to gather information – not so cool.
So, the bottom line is AVVI is only needed when there is a VCB framework around the Virtual infrastructure.
VMware’s Virtual Infrastructure 3 (VI3) family includes: VMware ESX, VirtualCenter, VCB, VMware Converter & VMotion. Backup Exec 12.5′s Agent for VMware Virtual Infrastructure (AVVI) can leverage all of these components of VMware VI3 to automatically discover, protect, and recover virtual machines and their data. All Guest virtual machines (VM’s) hosted by V3I, including Windows and Linux virtual machines, can be protected using Backup Exec’s AVVI integrated support of VCB.
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