We are currently using backup exec 11d to backup data to tape. I'm thinking about either upgrading to 12.5 or switching to Acronis.
It would be nice to be able to create images of servers
I also want to use the software to do daily backups of data
I might consider backing up to an SFTP server
We might upgrade our tape drive to an RDX drive or an auto loader, not sure yet.
It looks like Acronis already has deduplication technology built in and backup exec won't have it until version 2010.
We have one SBS server and two windows 2003 standard servers. We also have two sql databases that need to be backuped up.
I have used Acronis for creating images of PC's and find the software more user friendly than symantec 11d. It would be nice to have one product to take care of everything. Any recommendations or concerns?
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Same boat as jimbecher, no more BackupExec. Acronis has some additional features that are great! It's True Image backup is an actual Shadow Copy. This file can then be converted to a Virtual Hard Drive for almost any VM platform.
That is what I call disaster recovery. I have even used it to go P2V on the wonderfully picky Microsoft SBS platform.
Veritas was never the same after Symantec bought them...
Sorry. Hit the submit button by mistake :) Anyway ... at the same time I was looking for some more bang for the buck as far as high capacity backup soultions go. I looked at the RDX drives and OMG! $500 for a 250GB hard drive? Ouch! That is about all the RDX drives amount to. What I went with was Acronis Echo Server and Seagate FreeAgent Go external USB hard drives with their docking station. Laugh it you want but it is a match made in heaven and virtually flawless!
The external USB hard drives back up about four times faster then tape drives, they are hot swappable and you you get a native 500GB backup for $139! Similar LTO drives cost thousands! I evean have enough room on these USB drives to make images of some critical workstations to boot.
The downside, if you want to call it that, is that Acronis Tech Support is about as effective as a screen door on a submarine. A total waste of time and they are clueless about their own product. There have been a couple issues but nothing that wasn't solved with a little googling.
Here is a prime example. Acronis just came out with Advanced Backup & Recovery 10. STAY AWAY! They pull stupid stunts like not letting you specify the backup image name. Of duh! and it is bug filled. They have a history of doing that. New releases and major upgrades are junk. They throw it out and let the public debug it for them. If you purchase ABR 10 it is downgrageable to Echo Server. All in all it is a great product with moments of pain and suffering. None of which has been a show stopped. Even with those problems it is much better then BE.
Im going to throw my hat in the ring here as well and put another vote against symantec. I have used backupexec from version 8 onward and in my opinion it has gotten worse with each revision. backupexec used to be the king of the hill but it seems like people are finally getting tired of all the problems with failed backups, cryptic error messages, job failures for no apparent reason. In my opinion backupexec is just not worth the money or the hassle.
Now onto the good I have used acronis for both image deployment and archival data storage (imaging fo legal hold, compliance, etc.) I can honestly say that their prodcuts, i use echo server, are for the most part easy to use and well worth the cost. Unlike symantec acronis appears to want to keep innovating with new features. My favorite at this time has to be the restore to unlike hardware. This can really make your life easier in the event of a disaster.
I have pretty much come to the conclusion that I will never purchase another symantec product again.
I was a Acronis person until there last version 10. I went to StorageCraft. http://www.storagecraft.co
It does all that Acronis does but faster and it includes the Acronis universal restore add on.
When I had Acronis I paid for 24/7 tech suppor and it took 2 day for them to get back to me.
With StorageCraft it was fixed in the first 20 minutes.
I have been happier with StorageCraft and tech support in the u.s and are very helpful.
CT
Thanks ComputerTechie. I am glad I have a concurring opion about their Tech Support and new releases. I can't believe they, on occassion, pull such bone headed stunts. I'll take a look at StorageCraft but .. am a little hesitant to switch. As xxdcmast pointed out I have restored images of servers to dis-similar hardware and it is another feather in Acronis's cap.
You have to weigh industry standards against functionality. Once again as xxdcmast pointed out BE was THE industry standard but the functionality became so poor it was no longer worth sticking with the industry standard.
Acronis has their issues but none of them have been show stoppers. If I had to pick a industry standard it would be Acronis. Too early in the game to jump ship.
Thanks for the comments so far. At this point I'm leaning toward Acronis. I dumped Symantec AV a couple years ago and wouldn't mind dumping backup exec as well. I also have the occasional services not starting issue as mentioned by jimbecher. The RDX drives definitely do seem expensive. It seems strange that they don't have any competition. All the rest of the solutions out there either don't go up to 500gb or are designed for the retail market. I have not heard of storagecraft until now. I'll check it out but I feel like I need to go with a bigger player to backup critical data.
I dumped Symantec AV about 4 years ago. Even today I am occasionally hit on some workstations that it didn't uninstall correctly on. It rears its ugly head after being gone for four years and it is back in to the registry I go.
RDX is a great concept. Especially when you look at the price of a native 500GB LTO drive and the cost of the media. You are right about the competition. RDX has been out for maybe a year now and there are still only about 4 or 5 people making them. You know they are only paying $60-$70 for the 500GB hard drive so where do they get off charging $400 to put it in a plastic case? Had it been more reasonable I probably would have tried it and stayed away from the external USB drives. Hind sight being 20-20 I have no regrets. Those FreeAgent Go drives haven't missed. I have about 10 customers to-date using the Acronis/FreeAgent combination and my only regret has been not doing it sooner :)
My next "play things" is going to be experimenting with Acronis and hot swappable eSATA drives. My guess is that I would pick up a ton of speed but it should be interesting to see. One last note on Acronis. I have a SBS 28008 server. Echo Server was working like a champ but I decided to upgrade to ABR 10. ABR 10 isn't ready for production. I un-installed it and put Echo Server back on. Echo Server crashed. Of course Acronis Tech Support had no clue. I do. ABR 10 put some registry entries in that are un-deletable and it didn't un-install itself cleanly so Echo Server wouldn't re-install properly. Sounds like Symantec :) I was forced to put BR 10 back on. Not thrilled with it at all but I guess I have no other option but to debug it for them. I am, at least, getting backups.
Thanks for the tips. It's a shame they don't have good tech support. They do have a Forum so at least I can get help on there if I need it. I tend to avoid companies that don't have a public forum. If I do go with Acronis, I'll definitely wait for a few bug releases before installing a new version.
Will Acronis backup to my existing LTO 2 tapes with out a problem? Does the deduplication work good? I might upgrade to Acronis and then upgrade the LTO drive at a later date. I have about 270gig of data and it no longer fits on the LTO2 tape. Compressed it's about 209gig. I'm wondering if Acronis compression would work better and in addition to the deduplication, possibly reduce the backup size and give me more time to upgrade the tape drive.
Will the speed be comparable to backup exec? Right now it takes about 6 hours to backup to the LTO2 tape. I wouldn't want it to take much longer than that.
Hit Acronis's web page. www.acronis.com They do have seperate "add ons" for SQL and Exchange server but my understanding is that they are more for a restore convienence then anything else.
Thanks for the comments. I might take another look at StorageCraft. http://storagecraft.com before purchasing anything.
Some things that scare me about Acronis,
1. lots of problems with new releases. Not that I would install a new release right away but it seems they could work out some of those bugs first.
2. lots of other issues on their forum. I know that's what the forum is for but reading about BSOD on upgrades etc. is kind of scary.
3. I'm not sure I want to buy Russian software. I would rather give my dollars to a US company.
Either way, I would like to drop symantec so I am still considering Acronis or StorageCraft. Thanks
Calling any big company as being of a nationality sounds a bit ignorant to me (sorry if its offensive, its not ment to be).
The companies are owned by international money, they move work and resources all over the planet, lately specifically away from the US. They employ people worldwide, some even switched their HQ location to a non US Domicile to evade US taxes. How can you call IBM, HP, Symantec, ... US Companies?
And, well, also, the Russians are still able to send people to space with ancient hardware, they don't crash, they don't explode and they don't have delays.
All the while the US is having trouble getting any launch on schedule these days.
Russians definitely know how to make something stable and reliable, the single most important thing when selecting backup systems.
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by: jimbecherPosted on 2009-08-31 at 15:06:53ID: 25226964
I have been migrating my customers off BackupExec over to Acronis for the last year or so. I got sick and tired of BE services not starting, error messages that you can't debug, etc, etc. Just like everything else Symantec has touched it has turned to carp. That is just my opinion.