is backup exec able to run on vmware server ?

It will work. But it is not officially supported by Symantec. Symantec only support Backup Exec 10 when you use VMWare GSX.
The performance may not be great either.

to get it to work, you will need to install the drivers for the robot and 2 drives on the host OS.
Then when you define the VM, you will need to add 3 "Generic SCSI devices" to the VM. One generic SCSI device for every for the 3 devices (Changer0, Tape0, Tape1).
Then add drivers for robot and drives to the guest OS as well.

Make sure to stop the "Removable Storage Service" on both the host OS and the guest OS.

I sure wouldn't recommend doing to scsi pass-through either - as honmapog says, the performance is going to stink, and if you're running other VMs on the box they'll probably be negatively effected as well.  BackupExec is the one thing I wouldn't run in a VM.  Maybe you can flip-flop your design and run BE on the host and run whatever was going to be on the host in the guest?

thank you honmapog for that info.

will it be more easy to install backup exec on the host OS then build all my other guest OS with vmware ?

or it is not recomended to install any software on the host OS ?

Hi

Do you have server with Virtual Center? If so, install your Exec here.

Jail

Forgot one thing

The recommendation is that Backup(whatever soft backup you use) on VMware Server, must be installed in a independent box. The software and the SCSI connection, must be installed in a separated server.

Jail

Hi,

Running Backupexec or any other backup software on a OS running on virtualization is possible. The reason being the virtualization of SCSI devices is not possible. You cannot connect your SCSI tape drive/library to the virtual OS.

If you want to run disk based backups then it is fine.

You certainly backup the OS running on VM ware using backup exec clients on the virtual OS images or you can power off the images and take a backup of the virtual images.

bhanu

I've taken this from

http://www.vmware.com/support/gsx3/doc/devices_genscsi_win_gsx.html

This is for GSX, but it applies here.


"You added a generic SCSI device to the virtual machine's configuration file (.vmx) as instructed in step 3, but GSX Server does not recognize the device in the Add Hardware Wizard. You may experience this issue with tape drives and tape changers.

In this case, look for the line in the configuration file that looks like:

scsiZ:Y.fileName = "scsiX:Y"

Change the line to:

scsiZ:Y.fileName = "<deviceName>"

Example device names include Tape0 and Changer0"


Here is an example of what the important section of your .vmx config might look like:


scsi1.present = "TRUE"
scsi1:0.present = "TRUE"
scsi1:0.deviceType = "scsi-passthru"
scsi1:0.fileName = "Tape0"
scsi1.virtualDev = "buslogic"

Give this is a shot and let me know.