Proper SAN Setup for Backup Exec 9.1?

[DaveNYC]

Backup Exec 9.1 on Dell Win 2k SAN, with Dell 136T tape libraries fibre-attached. We had some problems at first, but after several swaps of fibre-channel/scsi bridges and cables, backups worked for about 5 months.

We have had lots of problems the last few months, and this past weekend a Dell tech was onsite doing an upgrade to our SAN. He said that in his experience, a Veritas SAN backup should have one master server with a full install, and all other servers would have only the remote agent. We have one master server, BUT all our other servers have full installs also. I have been looking on Veritas's site, but I can't find an answer. What is the proper way to install Veritas Backup Exec on a SAN?

Thanks,

Dave

 

[bentley45]

The Veritas recommendation is to have 1 master (Adamm) server with the remote agent installed on everything else. I have 2 different setups.

The first has a Dell 2650 server with a local scsi attached dual 132t autloader. This server has full copy BE, and backs up about 20 servers via remote agents.

The second setup involves a Dell fiber channel switch configuration (56F) that is loaded up with hba's attached to servers running full copies of BE. There is one master server that all the others look to for drive info. However, each server backs up itself.

Both configurations run perfectly fine. Of course, the first option is much simpler to maintain and troubleshoot.

We set up option 2 a couple years before option 1, so if I had it to do over, I would probably go with the single backup server all around. Especially, since our staffing has been cut to the bone and I now have to maintain both systems in addition to my myriad of 'other duties as assigned'. Hope this helps.

 

[DaveNYC]

Thanks, Bentley45 -- I got the following from a Veritas Tech person attached to Dell Computer Co.:
"As for BE in your SAN, you need a licensed copy of BE/SSO on each server in the SAN that is going to share the tape library.

Ex1: Tape library/drives are connected to a switch- all servers on the SAN can see/leverage the drives for thier backups. Each server backs itself up (possibly other LAN clients as well.) In this instance, you would need a copy of BEWS and SSO on each server in the SAN.

Ex2: If you put a server on the SAN that will NOT be directly backing itself up to the shared tape library/drives, then it would not require a copy of BEWS/SSO. That server could be backed up by one of your existing BEWS servers on the SAN, but the data would be backed up over the lan not through the SAN."

To me, that says that I want to have a full install of Backup Exec on each of my SAN servers, so I back up via the SAN, and not over my ethernet network.

Thanks for your input on this.