A Few Things …
1. BE SP2 Release
There are a number of fixes around GRT including up to a 90% decrease in the time taken to run an incremental GRT backup. Please see the following technote which provides links to and details around the changes and fixes in SP2
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/324918.htm
Release notes are here:
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/323735.htm
2. You know I keep banging on about AD … well it’s not just me:
Optimizing Exchange and Active Directory Backup and Recovery – Thursday, 28 May 2009, Written by Pat Hanavan
http://datacenterjournal.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2855&Itemid=40
… and Pat seems to express the whole subject rather better than I do …
3. Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery 8.5 Technical Exam and Assessment
Although each product varies in complexity and depth of technical knowledge, all Symantec Technical Specialist accreditation exams (not to be confused with customer certification), are designed for partners and cover core elements measuring technical knowledge against factors such as planning, installation, implementation and high level troubleshooting. Symantec Partners: See Symantec University for Partners and product Training Path to access the exam and recommended courses.
4. Backup Exec 12.5 Video Product Review by David Strom
The video highlights the key features/benefits of the product.
youtube.com – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DhrpeQ9jAM
Date Posted: February 23, 09
Microsoft Active Directory Data Protection
I know I keep banging on about this but it really does bother me that we are not adequately protecting Active Directory (AD) as the primary directory service in Windows. Microsoft Exchange, SQL, and SharePoint all depend on efficient backup and quick recovery of AD. So if you have any of these business applications you should be thinking about how you backup, and more to the point, restore AD. We all know that AD data has a bad habit of corruption which can have a disastrous affect across the Windows environment.
AD objects can get modified or deleted by mistake, faulty scripts accidentally overwrite key AD attributes. Since it is a replicated database an accidentally deleted user account can result in a lengthy process while someone struggles to recover the AD environment. Ultimately, we can end up at the mercy of AD. Anyone who has ever had to recover AD understands the frustration and time involved with what should be a basic recovery process – but isn’t.
Enter the BE Agent for AD
Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 Agent for Microsoft Active Directory is designed to overcome these recovery limitations. It can dramatically reduce the time to recover, leveraging Granular Recovery Technology (GRT) which give you the ability to restore individual AD items, while Active Directory is online, including:
- Individual User Accounts
- Organizational Units (OU’s)
- Printer Objects
- Even Individual AD attributes and values including names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, etc. all from a fast single-pass database level backup of Active Directory.
Key Benefits of Backup Exec 12.5 Agent for Microsoft Active Directory
- Centralised System State and Active Directory protection
- Online, granular recovery of individual Active Directory objects
- Point and Click restores
- Restore objects without rebooting AD Domain Controllers
- Single Pass Backups for complete AD or object level recovery from single backup
The embedded Granular Restore Technology gives you the ability to restore individual AD objects down to the individual attribute level without restoring the entire AD. Single-Pass Backup with GRT Eliminate separate slow individual object level AD backups forever. Complete data protection requires only one backup job saving space on vital disk and/or tape media and ensure each backup completes quickly.
- Online AD Recovery (no reboots required)
- Recover important Active Directory information while Active Directory is online
- Completely Automated Object Recovery
- Ensure deleted AD objects to be recovered with their original IDs and correct links to other Active Directory objects, eliminating the need to re-create the IDs and broken links
- Disk to Disk or Disk to Tape Backup and Recovery
- Flexible backup and recovery capabilities allow for backup to disk for fast recovery or backup to tape for long-term storage
So anyone who is running Exchange, SQL, or SharePoint would quite naturally have the BE application or database agent as appropriate. In which case it makes absolute sense that you would also have the Agent for AD … wouldn’t it?
Protecting Active Directory is more difficult than it first appears
Active Directory (AD) is now the standard directory service in the Windows O/S. Exchange, SharePoint and SQL, all of whom are dependent on its on-going good health, and yet, we protect our databases, email systems, applications – all of which are reliant on AD in the Windows O/S, but don’t do anything specific to protect AD? Hmmm, not clever nor grown-up.
Now, backing up Active Directory is pretty simple. However, everyone appreciates that an efficient backup and quick recovery of AD to maintain business productivity is essential and any administrator who has ever had to attempt to recover Active Directory (AD) data is well versed on how frustrating and time consuming just the basic recovery process can be.
Should data in Active Directory corrupt – which can happen – it can have a ripple effect across the Windows environment including down to the application level of Microsoft Exchange, SQL, and SharePoint. Because AD is a replicated database any human error, hardware or software failures, incorrectly modified or deleted objects, faulty scripts accidentally overwrite key AD attributes can have a disastrous affect.
So, with no specific backup and recovery tool for managing AD:
- The recovery process for AD is tedious and difficult
- AD restores require command-line system tools like Microsoft NTDSUTIL
- Requires a full restore of System State which increases downtime
- Authoritative restores also require you to disconnect the Domain Controller from the network which prevents users from accessing network resources during the recovery.
- The domain controller must be rebooted at least twice, creating additional downtime and risk.
- After full recovery, Active Directory installations that have redundancy, becasue of replication, and must wait for large portions of the directory to replicate inbound and outbound, creating additional downtime.
So, all-in-all, not good. Most AD recovery jobs are for minor disasters, but these can quickly escalate into larger issues. In situations where an individual user account, object, or even an individual attribute is lost or corrupted, recovery of the entire Active Directory database is not an efficient use of time for the Administrator since recovery is only needed for individual objects.
Why not utilise the BE Agent for Microsoft AD?
Key Business Benefits
- Online, granular recovery of individual Active Directory objects
- Restore objects without rebooting AD Domain Controllers
- Single Pass Backups for complete AD or object level recovery from single backup
- Point and Click restores.
- Centralised System State and Active Directory protection
Platform Support
- Microsoft Windows 2008 Family
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Family (including R2)
- Microsoft SBS 2008 Family
- Microsoft SBS 2003 Family (including R2)
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Family (SP4)
