Best way to backup Equallogic using Backup Exec 2010?

Hi,

This sounds a amazing!  Out file server is Win 2008 R2 and the so is the Backup Exec 2010 server.  I already have the Host Integration Toolkit already installed on the file server too.  The backup server has the ADBO license installed too, so I think I'm ready.

Problem I have is no snapshots are turned on with in the Dell Equallogic SAN manager, what percentage should I give each partition?

Thanks

The file servers uses 2 PS6000's I have created a big storage group which has about 2-3TB left of free space.  I only want to use snapshots for backups, so differential Monday -Thursday and Friday night a full backup.

I have tried using using the off host back option and get these 2 errors, just can't figure it out:

Differential backups I got: V-79-10000-11217 - VSS Snapshot error. The Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshot failed. Make sure that all provider services and tasks are running. Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.  I think it is trying to use the Window 2008's VSS, should I also use the off host snapshot option?

But the main full backup I get:

VSS Snapshot error. The Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshot failed. Make sure that all provider services and tasks are running. Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.

V-79-57344-34109 - ADBO: One or more of the volume snapshots could not be transported to the media server. The selection that failed was \\svr-fileserver.gb.vo.local\H:.  Manual resynchronization of the volumes might be required.

V-79-57344-34108 - An unexpected error occurred when cleaning up snapshot volumes. Confirm that all snapped volumes are correctly resynchronized with the original volumes.

Would really appreciate you thoughts on this Don.
 

1.)  To create the snapshot reserve I simply go into the Equallogic SAN manager and highlight the partitions one by one and select modify snapshot reserve.  How do I create the snapshot on the array instead?  I'm not sure of the difference.

2.)  BUE seems to show vss connected via the iSCSI initiator, I don't see it as a accessible partition though, if I go into disk manager I see the vss partiton there but can't do anything with it.

3.)  What is ASM/ME GUI? How can I create a snapshot this way?

4.)  BUE has access to the volume and snapshot, I will change this to just snapshots.

Hope that helps, looking forward to your answers as I you understand both systems well.   

1.)  ASM/ME via the file server worked (shoes an offline snapshot via the Equallogic SAN manager).

2.)  When I try the Advance Disk-based Backup again from the BUE I can see on the Equallogic SAN manager that the snapshot gets created and shows as offline, should they be online?  I guess it shows the BUE getting through to the SAN and requesting a snapshot?

3.)  How can I get the BUE to browse to the snapshot?

Thanks again 

Hi,

Just spoke to Symantec and they have escalated it to there next level support, what the tech guy said was should the snapshots be offline as they appear offline and not online?

Thanks 

I will call them later today about snapshots being offline.

Hello,

Seems I wasn't using BUE properly, BUE was trying to do a software and hardware backup at the same time, I really hope you can have a look at these questions as you are most helpful!!

(Tell me if I'm wrong)

1.) Off Hosts backups - The BUE tells the Equallogic to snapshot the volume straight to the BUE server media (tape or disk)

2.) No using the Off Host option (regualr snapshots) - The BUE server snapshots the volume but uses the OS of the server the volumes are connected to to do this apparently this is slower, but I haven't seen this.

3.) Strange this the the Off Host back only works if I set the snapshot size on the volume via the Equallogic SAN to 0%, Symantec say this is right, I guess it must be my understanding.  If we don't use the Off Host backup option we have to set the snapshot size to about 20%??

4.) On one the volumes of the server is backup up really slowly recently to tape, it use to take 20 hours but now 50 hours! (1.5tb), I don't think it is any of the Dell tape drives or the network as the other partitions backup fast.  Could not setting the snapshot size high enough slow the backup speed down?

Many Thanks in advance

Regarding question 4 on the last replay, I didn't think there was another way to backup other than having the agent on the file server?  I must be my lack of understanding, so can I backup straight from the Equallogic?  What I do at the moment to backup the servers partitions is go to the backup server and browse to Active Directory and expand the file server I want to back to tape to see the partitions and select them and then choose to back up to tape.

I did call Dell, but the chap said he knows nothing about BEU and cant help - great!

Regards

i spoke to a guy called anaulde based in the dell office, cork ireland, because he didnt know backup exec he couldnt help further so he didnt open a call.

seem today my restores in beu are showing as snapshots which is new, but the speed was still slow.  how should i be selecting my fileserver partitions to backup, i am just browsing to the server?

what i am do is cloning one of these partitions so i can run tests in the day.

After reading through this thread, I think it might be worth mentioning that you might have to make a bit of an adjustment in thinking when it comes to data protection.  Remember that tape backups and the like are serialized, and file based.  This linear type of backup is all us Administrators had for years.  What you'll find is that the the tremendous "point-in-time" protection that snapshots create, that you'll have the ability to augment your traditional backups in a way that uses them less.  So in other words, if you do it right, you can have your snapshots protect you for each day, then use symantecs ADBO to perform a serialized backup to those tapes. 

Snapshots created by ASM/ME gives you the ability to protect data almost instantly, while making it truly an "application aware" backup.  Use them as much as possible.  The nature of your storage though is that they are not indefinite, and you will need to create long term backups, you'll need to use these other methods.

It has completely changed (for the better) my ability to protect the data and the systems that serve up the data.  I cringe when I hear about these tools not being utilized as much as they should be.  I had to chime in because ASM/ME works so very well.

Seems to me that too many people get caught up in the symantecs of what a backup is.  Ultimately we are all trying to protect the data for short term (onsite) recovery scenarios, while also protecting the data in an offsite and/or long term archiving.  All of this gets lost when someone is frustrated while trying to do some onhost backup of some system and not understanding what that isn't giving them.

- Pete

...and yes, I love ASM/ME's ability for a mailbox recovery.  I was so excited the first time I had to use it, I wrote about it here.