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Is Backup Exec The Most Troublesome Software Ever

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ElijahBaley

IS-IT--Management
May 4, 2001
1,598
GB

Or What.


G
"r tape loading error"
 
Yea, I head a rumor BackupExec 9 worker great also.

Just install BE v9 on NetWare 6, everything loads fine and I can attach to the server using the Administration Console. I can go through the config and make sure everything is fine. I can authenticate with out issue and build a backup job and submit it.

The job just sits there in an active state when you view all job, does not show up in the active jobs window, and you can get rid of the job unless you down the backup server and delete the jobqueue.xxx files.

Veritas does not support thier software with out a service contract; this includes new purchases. You MUST purchase a service contract in addition to the cost of the software it's self if you need help getting it to work as I do.

CAI Brightstore (aka Arcserve) may also be a piece of crap and can give you problems; and thier tech support is in India; and the techs have a strong indian accent; BUT you have 30day of FREE support to get the product working.

One hint; complain and climb up the ladder as you complain. After b&%c&ing to managers I was finally able to get a single free incident so I could talk to tech support to get help to get the stupid software to run Brent Schmidt CNE, Network +
Senior Network Engineer

Why do user go into a panic when a NetWare server goes down, but accept it as normal when a Windows server goes down?
 
Backup Exec has been a "hit and miss" program for us. Our current problem is that we can not get the software to recognize tapes 1 through 4. It will not do backups to these tapes nor will read the tapes to restore from.

Slots 5-8 are for the differential jobs and they run perfect. Veritas, which is just up the street from us, never saw a problem like this.

Hopefully the steps we are about to undertake will work.
 
I would have to agree that Backup Exec is terrible but dont know of anything better yet. We always get weird errors and backup fails. I have rebooted our servers several times and some of the errors just mysteriously disappear during the next backup. I get the most errors when I backup through the network to drives versus just backing up the local drive. Systems Engineer
MCSE Win2k
 
I agree -- one of the most frustrating pieces of software I've ever used.

Here's an example: it does not have compare functionality. All it does is a simple checksum that a tape (or backup folder) is readable. The earlier Seagate Backup had this, and the compare after backup was very useful. Even the tech support people get this wrong -- claimed they had it, until I pushed back a couple of times and got the right answer.

What kind of product management would drop a function like that?
 
check out baremetal dpu over at unitrends backup. it's disk to disk 1U and I hung my tape drive off of it for archiving only. it's faster than any tape device I have here in the DC.

 
Jspirit:
Did you ever fix your issue?
I am having the identical issue but my files that are "corrupt" change with each backup. Makes for very lenghty backups!!

-JN
 
I also agree with zoethecat. I have Arcserve and now use Backup Exec. I have has some trouble with it, but I have resolved them. I will never go back to Arcserve.
 
Possibly it's troublesome, but it saved my butt last weekend. :)
IDR was a no-brainer (ie really simple) to restore a corrupted Win2k system (installed a driver, reboot, BSOD on startup (NTOSKRNL.EXE, from memory)) and saved me much heart-ache and job-seeking.

So, painful at times, but it works...
 
i'd have to say that i like BENT

i've used it pretty extensively over the past year, and while it has it's bizarre quirks (Exchange/Anonymous Logon Error anyone?), it has saved my butt several times when users "accidentally" delete an entire folder off of a shared drive. a few clicks and it's restored.

i thought i hated it for a while, but then had to setup a rotation scheme for a business on the side, and they had bought ARCServe2000.

that had to be the WORST software package i had ever seen. i wrote better programs for my freshmen year projects than that.

still, BENT and ARCServe can't beat a decently shell script :)
 
The more I learn about this software, the more I'm confused as to why it does some of the things it does.

And their manual is as cryptic as the software itself!
 
jspirit & techjulie,

I too have had "failed" backups because of "corrupt" emails. Luckily, all of the emails being listed as "corrupt" are SPAM! Here's what I've done:

1) There is an email patch that seemed to help Alot:
bnt86mboxfix_250666.exe

2) Anytime I get a failed backup from corrupt SPAM I just uncheck it in the selections>[mailbox]>top of information store>inbox / deleted items
(Have to do this for all job definitions. We just have weekday, friday and monthly backups though).

Now I go several days between "failed" backups. My byte counts are always good and I've successfully restored deleted items from tape.

I like Veritas even with all its quirks. Sounds like the alternatives are much, much worse.

Trent
Network admin
 
I have often wondered how many technical people have quit in frustration and went into a different line of work because of Veritas Backup Exec. Anyone who has never had a problem with this product, or any other backup product for that matter, has never asked it to do much. Veritas sucks, always has and apparently always will. I cannot believe something more reliable and usable can't be developed. Software developers! Sieze this opportunity!

"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important."
- Bertrand Russell
 
If you could still get it, I'd recommend BENT 6.11.

We still have several servers running this version trouble free, but experience plenty of problems with all of our later versions. Seems everything started to go downhill from there.

P.S. The performance of 6.11 on an ancient server with a DLT 10/20 regularly beats the pants off 8.5 on modern kit with a DLT7000 (Explain that please Veritas).

 
part of the problem with Veritas backup is terminology; what BUexec calls a failed job is very often what Arcserve would call an 'incomplete' job; it fails to back up all files and is therefore a 'failed' job - this does not mean you cannot restore most information from the backup job. As to the incomplete jobs; you may want to be sure that the driver you are using is a Veritas driver (While BUexec will perform with Windows drivers, it will fail far more often if it uses them). Also, the Veritas site is very helpful if you are experiencing difficulties with BUexec. Try going to the knowledge base; I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
 
Sorry Dusme, but I beg to differ about the Veritas website, or their support in general. They may have sufficient help for some of the more basic issues (like incorrect drivers etc), but there has been nothing there for the majority of issues that I've ever been looking for.

I once had a veritas support engineer denying that an Active-Active cluster was a valid configuration because his Microsoft exam referred to a very basic Active-Passive configuration (you know the two nodes with a single shared disk). He was adamant that this was the only valid definition of a cluster, which (in his mind) meant that Veritas did not have to support any other configuration.

So not a lot of help there!!!
 
i have used this fix/bodge before and it seems to have worked - no complaints so far

pasted from a post found on the internet :-

ACtually yes I recently had the same trouble. Apparently a PAB that is currently being accessed when BackupExec tries to backup will register as a corrupt file that gets backed up. This labels the backup job as failed. There is a registry key you can edit (I found this on the Veritas webSite) that won't fix the problem, but the backup won't fail on corrupt files.

The Key is:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VERITAS\Backup Exec\Engine\Backup]"Fail Jobs On Corrupt Files"

set the dword value to 0

hope it works
 
Hi,

I had exactly the same problem with the corrupt mail messages, deleting them didnt fix it.

What fixed it for me was going into the bit where you specify which mail boxes to backup, and unselecting some of the system ones (in particular I believe the IMC mail connector itself had a box which it was attempting to back up).. maybe the av software had one too.

I think the corrupt files are occuring as BUEX tries to backu up messages moving through the imc...

dunno, worked for me anyway. good luck.
 
I just wanted to sign the anti-vertias petition as well

I mean, even Veritas support team can't find the answer to my problem, but then again, they had trouble reading my emails too so....
 
This should be titled: Is this the most pointless post ever.

If you do not like backup Exec do not use it, there are alternatives.
 
Let me put my three cents in.

I had a lot of problems with Backup Exec, but as long as you get support from peers and management and explain the benefits and limitations, then BE is the way to go.

You need to have additional tape units, so that one can be used for backup and one for restoring.

Speaking of which, have any of you dealt with corrupt files and how to circumvent it? Even with the fix Veritas gave us, it does not always prevent a backup from cancelling a set.

 
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