Backwards Compatibility for NAS Backups

 it is not on the Backup Exec 2012 HCL http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH175582 

or on the Overland Compatibility Guide   http://www.overlandstorage.com/PDFs/Overland-Matrix-SnapServer.pdf

Thank you for those helpful links! You are correct that our server isn't listed on either of those documents, however I don't see SnapServer DX1 or DX2 (on BE2012 HCL) and Overland tells me both of those are definitely compatible.

I still have the question whether our server, running BE2012 will be able to talk to BE2010R3 agent (which is on the HCL)?

For upgrading purposes there is some limited compatibility as stated in the Backup Exec 2012 SCL http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH175581 "Backup Exec 12.5, 2010, 2010 R2, and 2010 R3 Agents are compatible with 2012 Servers for the purpose of upgrades only. This configuration is not recommended or supported for extended periods. Every effort should be made to get all Backup Exec components to the same version as soon as possible. Please refer to  <http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH39208> for more details."  

If you want to run in this configuration it would be best to use Backup Exec 2010 R3 as the media server. You can contact licensing for information about downgrading from Backup Exec 2012.

You can use that BE 2010 R3 RALUS with BE 2012.  There is no need to downgrade your entire BE just for this one device.

Since the device is not on the HCL, test its functionality with this utility and make sure that all the tests pass.

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH69107

Also make sure you have a RALUS licence on the media server for this device.

That is good info, however downgrading our entire backup system for one server is not ideal. By "media server" I assume you mean "server where backup storage is kept"? Is it advisable to store backups on the same device it is backing up? We do have some machines running Windows Server 2000, SP4. BE2012 doesn't like those machines either.

I'm now wondering if we should purchase licenses for BE2010 R3, install the backup server on one of our Windows Server 2000 machines and use that to backup the NAS device (Snapserver N2000).

Would that work?

Hi Timothy,

Media server = the server on which Backup Exec is installed.

Ideally you don't want to store backups on the same device being backed up. If that array fails and any RAID configurations are broken, you risk losing your on-disk backups as well, meaning no recovery possible.

If you're using a tape-out procedure after backing up to disk then recovery would be possible, but it would take a while.

BE 2010 R3 won't install on Windows 2000 Server...2003 and up.

Thanks!

Since BE 2010 R3 won't work on Windows Server 2000, is it possible to run both BE 2012 and 2010 R3 on the same media server (in our case Windows Server 2008 R2)? Or will that cause conflicts?