Timothy
Parker Consulting Incorporated
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Veritas Backup Exec Veritas’ Backup Exec (which used to be Seagate’s Backup
Exec) is a Windows NT and Windows 2000 backup and restore facility.
According to the company, Backup Exec is the world’s most widely used
NT backup package, displacing products like ArcServe from the throne.
Version 8 is the latest release of the product, arriving too late for
inclusion in our wrap-up of backup and restore software in the last issue. I’m very familiar with Backup Exec because I use it on my
own network and have done so for over a year now. Every day, four backups are produced by the package, as well
as occasional restores. In the year
since Backup Exec replaced Computer Associate’s ArcServe IT as my primary
backup solution, I’ve grown to both like and dislike Backup Exec.
Here’s both sides of the story. To begin with, Backup Exec is a simple to use backup and
restore system. The software comes
with a wizard that can guide you through the steps of producing a backup, as
well as restoring from a backup. The
wizard is a good tool to use when you’re learning the package, but I found
after a few days I ignored it completely as everything you can do from the
wizard you can do in half the time from the main menu.
Still, as a front-end for inexperienced users, the wizard is a good tool.
The documentation that accompanies Backup
Exec is excellent: a thick perfect bound Administrator’s manual adds all the
information you’ll need. Backups can be orchestrated to any device connected to the
Windows NT or 2000 system, but not to remote devices without a lot of remapping.
During the backup procedure, a status window can be displayed that shows
the progress. By default, there is
no indication of the percentage complete because there is no estimate of the
amount of time or the amount of data required to backup.
This feature can be turned on with a menu option, and is highly
recommended as it gives you a good idea of the progress at the expense of only a
few minutes delay at the start of the backup.
Backups can be easily scheduled for any time, recurring intervals, or
immediate procedure. Restores are
easy to do, as well, and can be redirected anywhere you want. When Backup Exec processes a tape for the first time, it
assigns a unique identifier to that tape. If
you forget the label your tapes, you will regret the omission when it comes to
restoring, as the default behavior of Backup Exec is to prompt for a tape
identifier. You can catalog the
tapes if you are not sure of the contents or their identifiers, but this is
time-consuming. Also, by default,
Backup Exec doesn’t keep track of the contents of a backup tape, just the
directory names. If you want to restore one or two files from a backup, this is
a major inconvenience. Cataloging
the tape doesn’t solve this problem either.
In the end, I just restore the whole tape and allow it to replace
whatever is missing (a poor solution, but the easiest). Backup Exec supports SANs (Storage Area Networks) as well
as a wide variety of new devices. The latest release adds some handy features,
such as automatic holiday scheduling capabilities, as well as SNMP notification.
A virus scan has been added to the package, but this will need frequent data
upgrades to stay current. Performance of Backup Exec is good, but not stellar.
I back up about 25GB of material four times a day from four different
video production machines. A typical backup of 25GB to a Sony AIT 50/25GB cartridge can
take four to six hours, which is slower than the same configuration running
ArcServe IT. The network traffic
can’t be blamed, because the backup machine and four video authoring systems
are on a dedicated 100Mbps Ethernet network. The software compression scheme
used by Backup Exec doesn’t seem too efficient, as there is usually no
compression effect noticed on the video files.
Granted, video files don’t compress too much, but even on a regular
Windows NT main drive (operating system and applications), compression is
usually less than 10%. There’s a lot to like with Backup Exec: the menus are
easy to work with, the windows are clear and usually helpful (although the
restore process could be streamlined and more informative), and the system works
reliably. In testing over 100
backups with Version 8, though, we had eight failures of a backup, only to be
repeated with exactly the same directories and tapes and have them succeed.
The error messages from Backup Exec usually indicated access errors to
the networked drives being backed up, but the repeated process worked fine.
Further, after 20 restores with Version 8, three didn’t restore
completely, indicating invalid file types (usually .avi files).
Again, repeating the restore cycle resulted in success, although one tape
required four tries for a successful restore. We’re not sure why the aberrations, but they are annoying. Version 8 of Backup Exec includes a RedHat client which
allows you to control backup and restores from a RedHat Linux system (no other
version of Linux is supported). The
client still has to connect to the Windows NT server, but you could control most
aspects of Backup Exec’s routines from the client without problem.
If you need dedicated Linux backups with no NT host, Veritas also offers
a package called NetBackup that alloiws network-wide Linux-based backups, albeit
at a very expensive price. NetBackup
is intended for large corporate use, while Backup Exec can be used on smaller
networks. Whether Backup Exec suits your needs depends on two things: do you need simple, almost ignorable backups of network drives, and are you willing to put up with the occasional hassle in a backup or restore (about 4% of the time). Backup Exec isn’t the only package to have idiosyncrasies, as ArcServe IT had similar traits. Backup Exec is easier to use than ArcServe and is friendlier. These are not inexpensive products, and they are Windows-only, but backups are a critical part of all system administration procedures. Finding the right tool to do the job often involves compromises. I’ve tested all the NT backup packages available and still use Backup Exec. $795 (basic server version) Summary: Windows NT and Windows 2000 backup routine. Excellent documentation and useful wizard for newbies. A few annoyances, but still the best NT tool available. |
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