Prev: migrating server 2k3 SBS to 2008
Next: Terminal Servers in Cluster - Login/Profile Issues - Please Help!
From: Sarah Kingswell on 6 Apr 2010 15:58
Am I correct in thinking you cannot add tape backup drivers to a virtual
machine? I want to be able to use backup exec on a virtual machine running
windows 2008 but I have no way of installing the drivers. I can use the
backup on the Hyper-V Host computer without a problem.

I have a Small Business Edition of the Backup software which came with the
drive. My problem is I can only install on the SBS server which is
installed on one of the virtual servers. Microsoft have taken out the tape
backup option from the windows backup program.. now I am little stuck what
to do unless I buy a different copy of backup exec. Never known this to be
so flipping complicated.

Any ideas

From: Phillip Windell on 6 Apr 2010 17:12
"Sarah Kingswell" <sarahkingswell(a)hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:eQq6LSc1KHA.4724(a)TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Am I correct in thinking you cannot add tape backup drivers to a virtual
> machine? I want to be able to use backup exec on a virtual machine
> running windows 2008 but I have no way of installing the drivers. I can
> use the backup on the Hyper-V Host computer without a problem.

Backing up the VHD image file is not a real "backup",...it is consider
"imaging",...like if you used Ghost or some other image tool on a physical
machine. This is not a suitable approach. Even if you restore from an
image you should then follow it up with a regular type of Restore taken from
a Backup that is newer than the image. Improper steps taken on Restoring a
DC ends up as a total disaster that can be worse than the original disaster
that you started with.

> installed on one of the virtual servers. Microsoft have taken out the
> tape backup option from the windows backup program.

I never heard of that. I doubt that is the situation,...most likely the
Drivers won't activate because the VM does not have a Virtualized Tape Drive
that the Drivers will match to. VMs see the "virtualized hardware",...not
the physical hardware.

Another thing to think about is that tapes drives are getting to be a thing
of the past. VMs can be backed up via mechanisms build into the VM System
that created them,...some of them will mirror live VMs (I think VMWare does
that). Then true VM Systems will use SAN Storage with RAIDed SANs which
are then mirrored against second SAN. So the only thing that may get backed
up in a more traditional manner is the Data from the machines so that Data
can be restored to a VM when the Data suffered loss but the VM is still
intact and undamaged.

> Never known this to be so flipping complicated.

You ain't seen nothin' yet. Most likely it is even worse than you think.
Wait till people start talking about Virtualized File Storage on SANs with
those abilities built into them,...and then there are things like MS's Date
Recovery Manager (or whatever marketing name they have for it today), where
backups are based on HD "blocks" and everthing is "hot" and "live". Tapes
only end up being used periodically for long-term storage.


At our place I do all nightly backups "to file" and stored on an External
Drive shared from one machine. Then weekly I run just the traditional old
NTBackup to backup those files from the External Drive to tape.


--
Phillip Windell

The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft,
or anyone else associated with me, including my cats.
-----------------------------------------------------


From: kj [SBS MVP] on 6 Apr 2010 19:25
Sarah Kingswell wrote:
> Am I correct in thinking you cannot add tape backup drivers to a
> virtual machine? I want to be able to use backup exec on a virtual
> machine running windows 2008 but I have no way of installing the
> drivers. I can use the backup on the Hyper-V Host computer without a
> problem.
> I have a Small Business Edition of the Backup software which came
> with the drive. My problem is I can only install on the SBS server
> which is installed on one of the virtual servers. Microsoft have
> taken out the tape backup option from the windows backup program..
> now I am little stuck what to do unless I buy a different copy of
> backup exec. Never known this to be so flipping complicated.
>
> Any ideas

Hyper-V guests would need to use iSCSI to get to the tape drives - if at
all.

If this is BackupExec it's reported to work and be supported solution. Check
with the vendor for supported configurations


--
/kj


From: Andrew Morton on 7 Apr 2010 04:33
Phillip Windell wrote:
> "Sarah Kingswell" wrote
>> installed on one of the virtual servers. Microsoft have taken out
>> the tape backup option from the windows backup program.
>
> I never heard of that. I doubt that is the situation,...most likely
> the Drivers won't activate because the VM does not have a Virtualized
> Tape Drive that the Drivers will match to. VMs see the "virtualized
> hardware",...not the physical hardware.

It is true:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770266%28WS.10%29.aspx

Section "Special considerations", point 4: "You can no longer back up to
tape. (However, support of tape storage drivers is still included in Windows
Server 2008.) Windows Server Backup supports backing up to external and
internal disks, DVDs, and shared folders."

--
Andrew


From: Phillip Windell on 7 Apr 2010 10:12

"Andrew Morton" <akm(a)in-press.co.uk.invalid> wrote in message
news:822ub9F5efU1(a)mid.individual.net...

> It is true:
> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770266%28WS.10%29.aspx
>
> Section "Special considerations", point 4: "You can no longer back up to
> tape. (However, support of tape storage drivers is still included in
> Windows Server 2008.) Windows Server Backup supports backing up to
> external and internal disks, DVDs, and shared folders."

OK

Phil


 |  Next  |  Last
Pages: 1 2 3
Prev: migrating server 2k3 SBS to 2008
Next: Terminal Servers in Cluster - Login/Profile Issues - Please Help!