Backup Exec – the bane of my existence. Part 1.

This is one of those times I'm glad to have a blog - a place that I can write down my thoughts for Google eternity to go back on.

Backup Exec. I've been using it since version 9 when it was still Veritas and unlike a fine wine, it has not been getting better with age. 9 was the last good version. I never had any problems with it and backups and restores were never a hassle.Version 9 and I were friends.

I don't remember 10 and 10d very well, but I do remember the amount of pain they caused me. 10d was also when Symantec re-branded the product and marks when the software really started to take a nose dive.

Fast forward to 11. It's now Symantec Backup exec. Symantec adds a really nice (sounding) feature called GRT, or Granular Restore Technology. In previous versions, Backup Exec had to back up the entire mail store and you had to go through a lengthy process if you wanted to restore individual mailboxes or email messages. Not so with GRT.

I remember being very excited about this feature and the moment I got the upgrade I turned it on. Backups worked well enough. The usual random failures for no particular reason.

One day I received a call from my boss asking if I could restore a mailbox for an ex-employee.  The ex-employee needed a couple of emails for a personal matter and had left on good terms. I said "No problem boss, I'll get right on it," like the good PFY I was.

I set up the restore job, ran it, and Backup Exec told me which tape to insert. I slapped the tape the tape drive. The job starts, gets almost all the way to the end and then fails. Oh crap.

Typical error message from hell... you know, the one that doesn't actually tell you anything. This was before they had a functional knowledge base.

I called Symantec for support and was connected to the usual under-trained tech support employee. To make a long story short, after a fair amount of troubleshooting the guy said that it was a known issue. What was a known issue? You couldn't restore a mailbox if the mailbox owner had an email signature. Right.

In the next part of this series, I go over Backup Exec 12.5 and my constant battle for working backups as well as outline a few fixes that seem to resolve most Backup Exec errors.