Ubuntu NFS Target for Symantec BE 12.5

Clearly Symantec is NOT open source. The solution to a common data backup problem can be found with open source tools however.

Issue: Backup2Tape provided long backup windows and an unreliable media. Soloution must use open source tools and existing hardware.

Solution: Ubuntu 9.04 (64-bit) NFS share running on Dell 2950 with six Seagate 1.5TB SATA drives in RAID5 configuration. Windows Services for Unix installed on Windows 2003 Server with Symantec Backup Exec 12.5.

NOTE: This will not work without this Symantec command: (verified in BE 11d and 12.5)
bemcmd -o116 -v -f”Name of your backup to disk folder” -e0 -m1 -d\\NFS-Server-Name\export-name

While the backup2disk is running fine, backups of Exchange Storage Groups are currently failing. All other data writes to the NFS share with no errors. Research continues…

Visit Righteous Hack Blog for a complete recap of the project: http://www.righteoushack.net/?p=384

VMware User Group Meeting in Tampa, FL

Drove up to Tampa today to attend my first VMUG (VMware User Group) meet-up. The meeting was held at Southwest Florida Water Management District’s Tampa location and was really good. Representatives from SWFLWMD, VMware, EMC, Data Domain, Veeam!, and Symantec were present. The presentations were kicked off by the Senior System Administrator of SWFLWMD which was followed by presentations by VMware, EMC, and Data Domain. Overall the meeting was neat for me because it wasn’t the normal sales pitch / PowerPoint you to death onslaught that is normally standard fair for these type of gatherings. Apparently the Tampa area VMUG meetings are held quarterly. I am going to be attending more of these meetings in the future, it is worth the drive.

–Himuraken

Openfiler – Symantec CPS Destination

I have been testing Openfiler 2.3 iSCSI as a Backup Destination for Symantec CPS 12.5 using Microsoft software iSCSI initiator as the connector. It is working great! I am using Cisco Gigabit switchports with jumbo frames enabled and the performance seems to be fine. Getting ready to add some additional servers to really test the load.

Key Point: in the MS iSCSI config, MAKE SURE the auto-connect on reboot box is checked.

http://www.openfiler.com