SuperTekBoy

UPDATED: This same option also exists in Backup Exec 2014. These instructions are also the same for 2014. However, in 2014 there is also a checkbox where you can disable this feature. Click here for a screenshot.

I ran across this issue recently when troubleshooting why four removable backup drives in a drive pool kept going into read-only mode at seemingly random intervals. Initially, I would go into the drive properties, switch the drive to allow write operations, only for it go back to read-only just a few weeks later.

My client was using 4 removable USB drives in rotation. These drives were all in one drive pool in Backup Exec. They would swap the drives out weekly, so each drive would be offline for as much as 3 weeks.

What I found, which appears to be new to Backup Exec 2012, is a setting that automatically switches any removable disk to read-only mode after a set number of days. The default is 14 days. I’ve since increased this number past 3 weeks and had no problems.

I thought I would post on this feature because it seems it is often overlooked and not everyone is aware it exists. This feature is the Global Exclusions Selection List in Backup Exec and it has been around for a very long time.

This global selection list allows you to exclude a path or file just once and this exclusion will automatically apply to every job you create. This is a lot easier than deselecting the same checkbox for a common exclusion across dozens of servers and jobs.

This came to light recently because I had to add global exclusions for the Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1 client, which kept causing dozens of exceptions in my job and I really didn’t need to recover this program data in the event of a catastrophic event. I could simply reinstall the client if needed.

I know most of my posts have been on Backup Exec 2012, and I know a lot of people are still using Backup Exec 2010, so I thought I would design this article for setting this up in Backup Exec 2010.

I have a couple of earlier posts from January and February that discuss Symantec looking at bringing back Job-Centric jobs back as an option in Backup Exec 2012. However, it seems like this won’t be happening in the next major service pack. Symantec has announced beta testing for Service Pack 2 for Backup Exec 2012 (and Service Pack 3 for the former Backup Exec 2010).

Aside from the standard slew of hotfixes, it appears the following, at first glance, will be officially supported in both Backup Exec 2010 and 2012.

• Windows Server 2012
• SQL 2012 Service Pack 1
• SQL 2008 R2 Service Pack 2
• Exchange 2010 Service Pack 3
• VMWare VSphere 5.1

In addition Backup Exec 2012 Service Pack 2 will also support: (Backup Exec 2010 will not support these features.)

• SharePoint 2013
• Exchange 2013

Let’s hope job-centric returns in the next major release!