PC Pro - UK 2021-12)

@PCPRO FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO TheNetworkBBuussiinneessssFFooccuuss

VeritasBackup

Exec 21. 3

Adependableonsitebackup

platformwithcloudsupport,

extensiverecoveryfeatures

andSMB-friendlylicensing

PRICE1yrBronzesubscription,£370per

TB(excVAT)fromspan.com

B

ackupExecisanotherwell-

establisheddata-protection

solutionthat’srecentlybeen

updated.Inthiscase,BackupExec

21.3(BE21)bringsmorea sprinklingof

newfeaturesthana deluge,butthe

improvementsarestillwelcome.

Inparticular,it’sgreatthatdata

deduplicationservicesnowextendto

cloudbackuprepositories, to help

yougetthebestvaluefromyour

storage. There’ssupportformore

cloudstorageregions,too, andBE21

cannow backupWindows Server

2022 systems(althoughthesearen’t

yetsupportedas backuphosts).

There’sa choiceofthreelicensing

tiers,eachonepricedaccordingtothe

amountofdatabacked up,priorto

deduplicationandcompression. The

priceshownaboveisperterabyteof

dataon a Bronzesubcription;this

supportsallphysical,virtualand

cloudservers,whilea Silverlicence

addsLinux andappsupport,along

withgranularrecoveryforindividual

objectssuchas databases.TheGold

licence,asyou’dimagine,activates

everythingVeritashas to offer.

InstallingBE21ona Windows

Server 2019 hosttookusaround 20

minutes,andwewerethenableto use

theconsole to deployagentstothe

physicalserversinthelab.Forvirtual

SilverorGold licenceand a local

foldertoserveasa cache. We hadno

problemsettingthisup,andafter

enablingencryptionandprovidingan

AmazonS3key,ourdeduplicated

cloudrepository waspresentedasa

newbackupdestination.

Whenitcomestocreatingbackup

jobs,youcangetstartedbyselecting

yoursourcesystemsinthe console,

thenchoosing a predefinedstrategy

fromitsdrop-downmenu.Multiple

stagescanbe addedtoimplementa

hybridstrategythatbacksuptoboth

localandcloudlocations, as wellas

replicatingtootherdisk stores.

Forrestoration,youcanbrowse

thefiles,foldersorvolumesofa

selectedsource,picka recoverypoint

andchoosewheretosend

them.InstantGRTtakes

careofSQLdatabasesand

Exchangeitems,whilefor

biggerrecoverytasksyou

canusetheinstantVM

Recoveryoption,which

turnsa backupinto a new

VM.Weselected a backup of ourSQL

Serverhostandhaditrunningin

VMwarein only 80 seconds.BE21

alsointegrateswithMicrosoftAzure

SiteRecovery,allowingVMstobe

replicated to thecloudandrestored

inseconds.Forphysicalclients,

bare-metalrecoverycanrestorea

systemontonewhardware,

BackupExecreallycoversevery

databackupandrecoveryangle,with

a superbrangeoffeatures. It’s great

forprotecting virtualenvironments,

cloudsupportisexcellentandyou

canchooseexactly thecapacity and

featuresyouwanttopayfor.

ABOVEBackupjobs

aresimpletocreate

andcustomise

“BackupExecintegrates

withMicrosoftAzureSite

Recovery,allowingVMsto

bereplicatedtothecloud

andrestoredinseconds”

SCORE

systems youcanuseagentless

backup, or installtheremoteagent to

enablefullgranular recoveryfrom

Windows VMs.WeaddedourVMware

vSpherehostbyprovidingitsIP

addressandcredentials,whileour

Hyper-Vhostreceivedtheremote

agentassoonasitwasdeclared.

BE21givesyouplentyofoptions

forbackupstorage,supporting

physicalandvirtualdisks,cloud

services,tapedrives, deduplicating

storesandnetworkshares.Weused

aniSCSItargetona SynologyNASfor

ourtestvault,whichweadded by

simplyprovidingitslocaldriveletter.

Forcloud storage,we merelyhad

toprovideourAmazonS3accountID

andkeyandchoose a bucket.BE 21

doesn’tcurrentlysupporttheObject

Lockoption,butitapplieshome-

grownransomwareprotectionby

blockinganyotherprocess from

writing to itsdatastores.

Ifyou wanttousethenewcloud

deduplicationfeature,you’llneeda

REQUIREMENTSWindowsServer 2012

andupwards

LEFTThemain

consoleprovidesa

dashboardthatcanbe

customisedtosuit