Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager 12.5 FAQ

Transcription

1 Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager 12.5 FAQ Contents Overview... 1 Supported Backup Exec Configurations... 4 Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager Installation and Configuration... 6 Backup Exec Upgrades and Patching via BEIM... 9 Licensing Future Enhancements Additional Resources Overview 1. What is the Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager? The Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager (BEIM) is a new offering from Symantec. In an era of continuing data growth and the need for simple, centralized, scalable management, the Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager lowers the total cost of ownership of Backup Exec by automating the initial and ongoing tasks of discovering, inventorying, deploying, updating, and monitoring of your Backup Exec infrastructure. BEIM is recommended to be used in combination with the Backup Exec Central Admin Server Option (CASO), which gives organizations the ability to manage backup and restore operations across a distributed environment while leveraging BEIM to manage the actual components of Backup Exec, including Central Admin Servers, Media Servers, Agents, and Options across an organization. 2. Why was the Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager developed? BEIM was simply created to help organizations reduce the total cost of ownership of Backup Exec. It was designed to reduce the time involved in deploying, patching, upgrading, troubleshooting, and monitoring the various components of Backup Exec in large organizations or across smaller organizational distributed sites. 3. How is BEIM different than the Backup Exec Central Admin Server Option (CASO)?

2 BEIM works separately from the Central Administration Option (CASO), which provides active management of Backup Exec operations across multiple Backup Exec servers, while BEIM delivers a new level of centralized standardization for deploying, upgrading, and patching Backup Exec installations for CASO to manage. This combination of CASO and BEIM is ideal for remote branch offices where network connectivity may be intermittent, but standardization is needed. Specifically, the Backup Exec Central Admin Server Option (CASO) is focused on providing operational management of day-to-day Backup Exec activities such as backup/restore jobs, alerts, notifications, device and media management from a central Backup Exec console. The Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager was designed to reduce the time involved in deploying, patching, upgrading, troubleshooting, and monitoring the various components of Backup Exec in large organizations to be then managed by the Backup Exec Central Admin Server Option (CASO). 4. What specific problems does BEIM solve for a Backup Exec environment? Many organizations run a mixed environment of many different versions of Backup Exec and at different patch levels. When managing a large Backup Exec installation, it may not be clear; Which versions of Backup Exec are installed and on which systems? What patch level are my Backup Exec Servers and Agents at? How can I quickly update and upgrade multiple Backup Exec installations when standardization is needed? What Backup Exec license keys have been installed and for which Agents and Options? Which machines are currently not protected by any Backup Exec software on my network? How much disk space do I need for Backup Exec? How can I gather diagnostics and logs of all my Backup Exec servers if I have a problem? BEIM can help organizations with these questions by managing the lifecycle of the Backup Exec components. 5. What are the main features of Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager? Backup Exec 12.5 Infrastructure Manager is powered by Altiris technology to provide a number of features designed to solve the major problems of managing a large scale deployment of Backup Exec, including: Centralized discovery and inventory of Backup Exec Servers, Agents, and Options Centralized creation and management of standardized Backup Exec installation packages for your specific environment Centralized creation and management of Backup Exec version upgrade packages

3 Centralized view of protected vs. unprotected systems by Backup Exec to determine which systems are at risk Centralized creation and management of Backup Exec patches and updates to all remote systems, including Backup Exec Agents on Windows, Linux, MAC, UNIX Centralized Backup Exec license usage management and reporting Centralized Backup Exec disk consumption monitoring of Backup Exec catalog and backup-to-disk (B2D) folder storage Centralized command-line script management for automating Backup Exec tasks remotely without the need for command-line text entry Centralized Backup Exec diagnostics and log gathering for troubleshooting and Technical Support assistance 6. What does powered by Altiris technology mean? Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager (BEIM) introduces the specialized management tools needed for multiple Backup Exec installations across large organizations and multiple sites. Leveraging the award-winning Symantec Notification Server s Configuration Management Database (CMDB) technology, BEIM delivers a highly scalable solution for complete Backup Exec lifecycle management, just as Altiris does for thousands of other existing applications already. In fact, the benefits of Altiris are already utilized by many Backup Exec customers today, who use Altiris to manage thousands of systems and their applications worldwide. Additional information on Altiris CMDB technology is available at the following link: 7. Do I need to install Altiris to use BEIM? BEIM is built on top of the newest version of the Altiris 7 platform, now known as the Symantec Management Platform. BEIM automatically installs all of the necessary components of the Symantec Management Platform, including: Symantec Management Console Symantec Management Platform Configuration Management Database Symantec Management Agents Symantec Notification Server Microsoft SQL Express (existing Microsoft SQL Server installations can also be used) 8. How does BEIM use Altiris technology? BEIM utilizes the Symantec Management Platform to gather, store, and analyze data obtained about your Backup Exec configuration from systems it has discovered and inventoried using the Symantec Management Agent (SMA). Once the Symantec Management Agent has been installed on Backup Exec systems to be managed, all of the BEIM features can then be enabled to provide management the lifecycle of that Backup Exec installation. This includes deploying updates or upgrades to your existing Backup

4 Exec Servers and Agents or deploy new customized installations of Backup Exec to anywhere in your environment. 9. Can other Altiris 7 products be used together with BEIM? The Symantec Management Platform can be leveraged for centralized management of large number of Solutions and Suites from Symantec using the same Symantec Management Console. This includes centralized management of Backup Exec System Recovery installations. For more information on the variety of other products, solutions, and suites available to be installed and managed via the Symantec Management Platform, please see Altiris Notification Server 6.5-based Solutions cannot be used on the same system as BEIM and cannot be used to manage the same resources. 10. Can BEIM also integrate with the Dell Management Console? Yes, the Symantec Management Platform is the basis for the Dell Management Console and solutions like Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager and Backup Exec System Recovery Solution can be leveraged using the Dell Management Console. 11. How can I obtain BEIM? BEIM can actually be obtained three different ways. BEIM can be obtained from the site as a 60 day evaluation trial ware version. For new installations, the download of BEIM will also contain the entire Symantec Management Platform 7 and can be quite large For existing Symantec Management Platform 7 installations, BEIM can be downloaded directly from within using the Symantec Installation Manager (SIM) that was originally used to install the Symantec Management Platform. BEIM will then be displayed for separate download from within SIM along with other Solutions and Suites from Symantec and its Partners. Additionally, BEIM DVD media will also be eventually included into Backup Exec for Windows Servers Media Kits to avoid having to download the product. Supported Backup Exec Configurations 1. What versions of Backup Exec does BEIM support?

5 BEIM provides different feature level support for different versions of Backup Exec. For automated discovery, inventory, and license key management of Backup Exec, BEIM supports Backup Exec versions: d (10.1) 11d (11.0) For upgrade deployments, BEIM supports deploying upgrades to version 12.5 from the following previous versions of Backup Exec: d (10.1) 11d (11.0) 12.0 For patch and update deployments, BEIM supports patching Backup Exec version 12.5 media servers and agents only. For disk space monitoring, BEIM supports disk space monitoring of Backup Exec version 12.5 media servers. 2. What Backup Exec Agents and Options does BEIM manage? BEIM supports management of almost all Backup Exec Agents and Options including: Backup Exec Agent for Windows Systems (AWS) Backup Exec Agent for Remote Linux and Unix Servers (RALUS) Backup Exec Agent for Macintosh Systems (AMS) Backup Exec Remote Media Agent for Linux (RMAL) Backup Exec Central Admin Server Option (CASO) Backup Exec Shared Storage Option (SSO) Backup Exec NDMP Option All Backup Exec Database and Application Agents such as the Agent for Microsoft Exchange, SQL, SharePoint, etc all are supported as well as they are based on the Backup Exec Agent for Windows Systems or the Remote Agent for Linux and Unix Servers technology can be managed and deployed via BEIM. Please see the Backup Exec Software Compatibility List for complete details on supported operating systems and any limitations 3. Are there any Backup Exec Agents or Options that BEIM does not support?

6 BEIM does not currently provide any management support for the following Agents and Options including: Backup Exec Desktop and Laptop Option (DLO) Backup Exec Continuous Protection Agent (CPA) Backup Exec Remote Agent for NetWare (RANW) Backup Exec System Recovery Option (BESRO) Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager Installation and Configuration 1. What components are installed on a BEIM server? BEIM leverages a number of Symantec and Microsoft technologies when installed. A typical BEIM installation would include: The Symantec Management Platform (Altiris Notification Server 7.0) The Symantec Management Console (Altiris Notification Sever 7.0) Microsoft IIS Microsoft.NET framework Microsoft SQL Express 2005 (an existing SQL Server database can also be used) 2. Can BEIM use a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 database? No, BEIM is currently on supported SQL Server 2005 and SQL Express 2005 databases only. 3. What components of BEIM are installed on a Backup Exec Media Server or Backup Exec Remote Agent being protected by Backup Exec? BEIM requires two components to be installed on any server being managed by BEIM. This includes: Symantec Management Agent (SMA) BEIM Agent Plug-in The NS Agent and BEIM Plug-In are jointly installed via push deployment during the installation of BEIM to remote systems. These two components are installed together through the BEIM console alongside the Backup Exec Agents installed in an environment on any remote Backup Exec server, agent, or option installation to be managed by BEIM. 4. How many systems with Backup Exec components installed on them can be managed by a single BEIM server?

7 Testing is currently underway to provide specific scalability results for BEIM s management of Backup Exec installations. See below for general recommendations on hardware requirements for small and large scale BEIM installations. 5. What versions of Altiris Notification Server does BEIM work with? Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager is supported on version 7 of the Symantec Management Platform (formerly known as Altiris Notification Server) only and is not backward compatible with Altiris Notification Server 6.x installations. 6. How should the hardware for the BEIM server be configured for best performance? BEIM performance will be largely determined by: The number of Backup Exec infrastructure components being managed in an environment The hardware configuration of the BEIM server Additional Altiris Suites and Solutions if they are also installed in conjunction with BEIM on the same server Two sets of recommendations are provided based on the need to deploy management services for either small-scale or large-scale environments. A key to choosing hardware and database requirements for any given installation of BEIM is to plan for the number of Backup Exec components to be managed included media servers, agents, Central Admin Servers, Shared Storage servers, and other resources to be managed. In addition, the choice of the SQL Server version or whether SQL Server will be on the same physical system will impact your choice of hardware and the setup configuration. Smaller Environments Recommended BEIM server hardware requirements for small-scale environments are listed below: Hardware CPU CPU Speed Memory Cache Network Hard Disk SQL Configuration Recommendation Core 2 Duo processor server or equivalent 2.53 GHz 4 GB, DDR2 3 MB L2 Gigabit Mirrored 10,000 RPM SCSI or better. Recommended 10 GB of free disk space. See Microsoft KB for optimal SQL Express Configuration: Minimally recommend optimizing disk/file configurations of SQL Express. Recommended BEIM server hardware requirements for large-scale environments are significantly higher than for small-scale environments to ensure adequate user performance and data loading processes. Large-scale environments are supported for up

8 to 10,000 managed clients and 5000 software resources. In such large environments, SQL Server design should be an off-box configuration. Larger Environments The recommended BEIM server and the separate SQL Server hardware requirements for a large environment are listed below: Notification Server Hardware CPU CPU Speed Memory Cache Network Hard Disk SQL Configuration Recommendation Dual Proc Quad Core 2.53 GHz 8 GB, DDR2 6 MB L2 Gigabit 10,000 RPM SCSI or better for RAID 1, 4 or 10. Additional space recommendations are dependent on implementation choice of site services, location of the software library, and other considerations. See below SQL Server Hardware CPU CPU Speed Memory Cache Network Hard Disk SQL Configuration Recommendation Dual Proc Quad Core 2.53 GHz 8 GB, DDR2 using 3GB switch and AWE 6 MB L2 Gigabit Multiple RAID 10 Disks of 10,000 RPM SCSI or better. See Microsoft KB for optimal SQL Server Configuration. Minimally, recommend configurations similar to the following: Virtual Disk 1 Operating System and SQL Server (RAID 1, 5, or 10). Virtual Disk 2 Data (36 GB minimum disk size) see MS best practices for disk, file growth and, maintenance strategies. Virtual Disk 3 Logs (36 GB minimum disk size) see MS best practices for disk, file growth and, maintenance strategies. Virtual Disk 4 Tempdb(36 GB minimum disk size) see MS best practices for disk, file growth and, maintenance strategies. Large scale environment databases with managed clients, software, and solutions can grow to be 15 GB or more. Additional growth is dependent on the purging strategy and

9 database maintenance plan for the SQL Server installation. To maintain optimal performance of the Symantec Management Platform, it is highly recommended to implement a database maintenance plan that includes database defragmentation and reindexing. This provides a reduction in database size anytime significant resource or data changes have taken place in the server. Examples include: after installation, import or discovery of computer resources, import of software resources, etc. 7. What Operating Systems can the BEIM server be installed on? The Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager and the Symantec Management Platform itself can only be installed on 32-bit Windows 2003 operating systems at this time. However, Symantec Management Agents exist for a wide variety of Windows, Linux, Unix, and MAC operating systems that can be installed on Backup Exec installations on those platforms. Please see the Backup Exec Software Compatibility List for updated information on supported operating systems and any limitations for BEIM 8. Can the BEIM server be virtualized on a Guest virtual machine? For test deployments, the BEIM server and Symantec Management Platform can be installed and run from within a Guest Virtual Machine. However, for best performance in a production environment, running the BEIM server and Symantec Management Platform on a Guest virtual machine (VM) in a production environment is not recommended or supported at this time. Backup Exec Upgrades and Patching via BEIM 1. How does BEIM upgrade older versions of Backup Exec to 12.5? With BEIM, custom upgrade packages can be created and deployed to upgrade older versions of Backup Exec to version Multiple upgrade packages can be automated to occur in order to ensure that older versions of Backup Exec starting with version 9.1 can be upgraded to 12.5 even if no direct 9.1 to 12.5 upgrade path exists. BEIM even provides access to older versions of Backup Exec media to create the interim multi-stage upgrade packages from. 2. Where are older versions of Backup Exec media located to create the upgrade packages with for BEIM? BEIM can automatically download these Backup Exec packages by re-running the BEIM installation via the same Symantec Installation Manager (SIM) that was used originally to install BEIM. BEIM packages will be displayed, available for download, and automatically imported into BEIM once the download has completed. 3. How does BEIM patch Backup Exec?

10 Backup Exec 12.5 updates and patches can be downloaded to the BEIM server using the same Symantec Installation Manager that was used to install BEIM. These packages can then automatically deployed remotely to any number of Backup Exec 12.5 installations, including Backup Exec Agent deployments on Windows, Linux, Unix, and MAC. With BEIM, there is no need to reinstall or redeploy Backup Exec Agents on Windows, Linux, MAC, and UNIX systems each time an update is required. BEIM can deploy just the needed updates where they are required. 4. Is LiveUpdate required or used for BEIM patches and updates? No, LiveUpdate is not required nor used by BEIM to obtain or install Backup Exec updates or patches. The Symantec Installation Manager can be run each time you wish to download a new Backup Exec update or upgrade package. Licensing 1. How is Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager licensed? Backup Exec 12.5 AMVS is licensed simply on a per Backup Exec environment basis. A single license of the Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager supports management of an unlimited number of Backup Exec components. There is no per Backup Exec Server or per Backup Exec Agent licenses required. 2. How Is Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager licensed in a Managed Service Provider or Symantec Partner environment when there are multiple remote Backup Exec customer environments being centrally managed? BEIM licensing is very favorable in these configurations. BEIM licensing does not differentiate between one large customer environment where many different sites of Backup Exec may be managed or many separate remote customer environments all being managed from a single central location by a Managed Services Provider or Partner. Only a single BEIM license would be required for Managed Services Providers or Partners looking to manage multiple Backup Exec installations at remote sites from a single centralized location. Symantec would like Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager to be able to benefit as many Backup Exec installations as possible and has licensed and priced BEIM toward that goal. 3. How do I evaluate Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager? Like all Backup Exec products, BEIM is available for a 60day trial period from and has no feature restrictions during that 60day period. At the end

11 of the 60day evaluation period, a BEIM license key can be enabled to active BEIM without having to reinstall BEIM. 4. How does BEIM manage other Backup Exec license keys? BEIM will inventory, collect, and provide reporting on Backup Exec licenses in an environment including the Backup Exec Server, Agents, Options, license keys, with the version number and actual license key itself. This information can then be used to ensure the correct number of Backup Exec licenses are being used to avoid over-deployment situations. Future Enhancements 1. Will there be any future enhancements for Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager? Yes, absolutely. If you have suggestions on what features and functionality you would like to see for future versions, please feel free to submit your requests for Backup Exec Infrastructure Manager at Additional Resources 1. Where can I find additional information on the Symantec Management Platform and the Symantec (formerly Altiris) Notification Server 7.0? These resources will assist you in becoming more familiar with Altiris concepts and planning. The Altiris Notification Server 7.0 Planning and Deployment Guide The Altiris Software Compatibility List