Have you ever wondered if your appliance issues can be resolved even before they appear at your end? ( i.e a system that proactively monitors your appliances and automates issue resolution.)  Symantec is committed to simplifying and improving support experiences for its customers. Built on the service automation strategy, Symantec AutoSupport framework provides proactive and automated support services to its appliance customers.

Starting February 4, Symantec Secure Operations Center ( SOC), an integral part of AutoSupport, began monitoring backup appliances all over the world, processing the alerts received from Symantec NetBackup and Backup Exec appliances, creating support tickets with field services for hardware related issues and Enterprise Support Services for non-hardware related issues. Symantec AutoSupport needs the CallHome functionality be enabled on the backup appliances and a registration of the appliance at the MyAppliance web portal (https://my.appliance.symantec.com/).  

Enable Symantec AutoSupport today and enjoy the benefits of proactive support.

For detailed information: AutoSupport Overview | AutoSupport FAQ

On February 20, 2013, Symantec completed another release of Symantec Operations Readiness Tool (SORT)! With SORT’s focus of improving the total customer experience for Storage Foundation and NetBackup customers, we’ve added the following Storage Foundation High Availability Solutions features and improvements to the website:

• A new section available only in the SORT I&U Checklist report titled, 'NetBackup Planned Future OS/Platform Feature/Functionality Technology Improvement and Discontinuation Notification'. This section will alert our customers to future proliferation and platform end of life information.
• Inclusion of the latest NetBackup, PureDisk, NetBackup Appliance, PureDisk Appliance and OpsCenter hot fix information
• Support for NetBackup & OpsCenter 7.5.0.5 maintenance release

Visit SORT at http://sort.symantec.com to see why thousands of Symantec customers continue to gain value from the site.

Are you interested in seeing first hand the new advancements around virtualization backup and recovery coming in NetBackup 7.6?  Well, we've decided to host a Google Hangout as a sneakpeak into the latest and greatest, and broadcast it live from Vision 2013 in Las Vegas on 4/17.  This Hangout is open to the public and we're encouraging everyone to come check it out!

We'll be showing you things like how to backup 300 VMs in 3 minutes, backing up 3TB of data in 15 minutes, and much more.

Broadcasting live from the Expo Hall floor of the MGM Grand on April 17th from 12:00pm to 1:15pm Pacific time.  

RSVP on our Google + page:Protecting 300 VMs in 3 min

We'll be taking questions from panel members as well as those submitted through Google + and Twitter.  So, add us to your G+ circles and follow us on Twitter to take part in the discussions.

'See' you there!

Disclaimer:

Any forward-looking indication of plans for products is preliminary and all future release dates are tentative and are subject to change. Any future release of the product or planned modifications to product capability, functionality, or feature are subject to ongoing evaluation by Symantec, and may or may not be implemented and should not be considered firm commitments by Symantec and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions.

Big Data is an emerging, evolving technology. It’s the new thing holding the promise to help make sense of the terabytes, petabytes, and exabytes of data being generated. In today’s 24 hours a day, seven days a week information driven economy, how can they quickly find and extract those key strategic nuggets of data to make their business more agile, make better business decisions, and give them that next competitive advantage?

Big Data today, as expressed by many, is simply the daily challenge virtually every enterprise IT organization faces when managing the protection of exploding data growth within shrinking backup windows, growing compliance requirements, and working hard to transform their data centers. Whether it’s growing multi-terabyte databases, data warehouse appliances bursting at the seams, or simply 100s of millions, or billions of files that need both fast protection and recovery, big data is Big

Data and in its many forms and applications, needs to be protected.

But like any amount of information, what is deemed necessary to back up?  How much of it do you need to protect? Can you even back it up?

Come to Symantec Vision 2013 in Las Vegas the week of April 15th, and in our session “Is Big Data too Big to be Backed Up”, we will challenge school of thought saying this is not possible, and will show how the NetBackup platform can help you secure all of the data, regardless of the volume, velocity and variety. Watch demonstrations to see increased performance, lower cost and simplified backup of large data sets. In addition, hear about NetBackup being the first backup vendor certified for backing up SAP HANA, an In Memory Database (IMDB) appliance capable of ultra-high performance for real-time analytics, generating large amounts of data that need protection.

The session time is:

• Tuesday April 16th at 5:00-6:00pm PST

For more details on this session and others, please visit our Vision Session site at:

Symantec Vision 2013 Session Search Catalog

Action Plan:

1. This week:  Attend our session
2. 30 days:  Stay tuned for collateral and information about what’s coming in NetBackup 7.6.  Look for our new collateral on our new 5030 and 5230 appliances available May 6th   
3. 60 days: Engage your Symantec Sales and Specialist teams for discussions and lunch and learns around how NetBackup for SAP HANA can benefit your Big Data strategy.

Not attending Vision?  There’s still time to register here:

http://www.symantec.com/vision/registration/?locid=las_vegas

More Information on NetBackup 7.5:

http://www.symantec.com/netbackup

www.netbackupdemo.com

http://www.symantec.com/backup-appliance

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/downloads/netbackup-activities-vision-2013-las-vegas-nv-april-15th-18th

Enterprises have been going through numerous transformations over the years to save on storage costs, energy costs, administrative overhead, mistakes…anything that lowers their risk and responsibility as well as overall CapEx and OpEx.  Many are now looking to offload some of their data center responsibilities to service organizations, while others are moving not just some, but ALL of it to the cloud. 

If you’ve thought about moving your data to the cloud, you’ve probably asked yourself the questions " How will I get my data back?” and “Will I be able to protect my applications in the cloud?”. NetBackup can help.  Why should you think about NetBackup and the cloud?

• Industry trends show cloud as a popular emerging technology that many are adopting for reasons mentioned above
• NetBackup’s platform approach for cloud can help solve your fundamental data protection challenges
• NetBackup offers unified integration with industry-leading cloud storage providers Amazon Web Services (AWS), AT&T, Nirvanix, and Rackspace

Come to Symantec Vision 2013 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas the week of April 15th, and learn more about NetBackup’s cloud story.  In this session “Get Your Head in the Cloud with NetBackup”, we’ll explain how end users and service providers can confidently move to the cloud with NetBackup. Learn about our solutions that help move protected data to the cloud, protect applications in the cloud and allow service providers to provide comprehensive data protection to their customers. The session time is:

• Wednesday April 17th, 3:45-4:45pm PST

For more details on this session and others, please visit our Vision Session site at:

Symantec Vision 2013 Session Search Catalog

Action Plan:

1. This week:  Attend our session
2. 30 days:  Stay tuned for collateral and information about what’s coming in NetBackup 7.6.  Look for our new collateral on cloud integration and features within the cloud.
3. 60 days: Engage your Symantec Sales and Specialist teams for discussions and lunch and learns around how NetBackup cloud features and partnerships can benefit your business.

Not attending Vision?  There’s still time to register here:

http://www.symantec.com/vision/registration/?locid=las_vegas

More Information on NetBackup 7.5:

http://www.symantec.com/netbackup

www.netbackupdemo.com

http://www.symantec.com/cloud-storage-backup

http://www.symantec.com/backup-appliance

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/downloads/netbackup-activities-vision-2013-las-vegas-nv-april-15th-18th

In large environments, it’s imperative to have a sound reporting and monitoring strategy around your backup and recovery infrastructure.  You need to know if your backups are running successfully, your boss needs to be able to show management that the company has a working solution that is delivering protection results, and in many cases, passing audit. If you don’t have this ability, then how do you know you’re getting a good return on your investment?  How can management justify that they are running the right solution? Here are a few valuable NetBackup OpsCenter benefits:

• Better predict backup storage consumption across multiple locations through maintained historical backup and archive job information.
• Reports can be created around one of the most highly managed areas of NetBackup: the policy and schedule engine.
• People can be less removed from day to day operations, and have centralized reporting for backup and archive operations.
• Business reporting previously available with VBR - including historical trending and predictive forecasting, cost analysis reports, complete report customization and support for 3rd party data protection products - now included in the OpsCenter package.

At Symantec Vision 2013 the week of April 15th in Las Vegas, come learn about one of NetBackup’s most ambitious and exciting changes in how you monitor and manage your NetBackup environment.  In this session, “Moving Beyond “Dudes with Spreadsheets”:  Monitor and Report on Your NetBackup Environment with OpsCenter”, we will enable you with information on how NetBackup customers are using OpsCenter to gain increased efficiency in their backup and recovery operations. We will take a deep dive into the roadmap covering how Symantec is bringing together optimal functionality across NetBackup, OpsCenter, and NetBackup Appliances into one platform. See our upcoming designs and have a chance to provide direct feedback to our Engineering team. The session time is:

• Thursday April 18th, 9:00-10:00am PST

For more details on this session and others, please visit our Vision Session site at:

Symantec Vision 2013 Session Search Catalog

Action Plan:

1. This week:  Attend our session
2. 30 days:  Stay tuned for collateral and information about what’s coming in NetBackup 7.6., and look for our new collateral available for enhancements to OpsCenter.     
3. 60 days: Engage your Symantec Sales and Specialist teams for discussions and lunch and learns around how NetBackup monitoring and reporting can benefit your business.

Not attending Vision?  There’s still time to register here:

http://www.symantec.com/vision/registration/?locid=las_vegas

More Information on NetBackup 7.5:

http://www.symantec.com/netbackup

www.netbackupdemo.com

http://www.symantec.com/opscenter-analytics

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/downloads/netbackup-activities-vision-2013-las-vegas-nv-april-15th-18th

Virtualization has been a red hot initiative in corporate data centers for years now, and it’s changed the way we plan, build and operate our data centers.  “Going Green” by eliminating the physical foot print and saving on energy costs are two of many big reasons customers are adopting the virtual machine.  So easy to add, power-up and plug into production, it’s easy to see why VM’s are so popular.  But with popularity comes complexity around virtual machine sprawl, resource utilization, performance and just as important, backup and recovery protection.   Do you put a backup agent in EVERY virtual machine?  How do you protect application and file data for all VM’s including the ability to have granular file recovery?  What about meeting backup SLA’s and critical recovery SLA’s? On top of that, customers want deduplication, backup to many types of media/disk, and DR capabilities.  Can point products do all that? 

If you’re still backing up VMs like physical machines, you’re probably wondering if there is a better way.  Some of our virtual benefits include:

• Patented V-Ray technology (see deeper into VM’s than our competition, and therefore backup what’s important)
• Deduplication across Virtual and Physical environments
• Granular recovery capabilities with a true single pass backup
• No proxy server requirement
• VADP integration and agent-less backup options

Come join us at Symantec Vision 2013 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and attend our “NetBackup for VMware” session.  Here you can learn the latest best practices for backing up and recovering VMware and see what you've been missing. Session time is:

• Tuesday April 16th 3:45-4:45pm PST

For more details on this session and others, please visit our Vision Session site at:

Symantec Vision 2013 Session Search Catalog

Action Plan:

1. This week:  Attend our session
2. 30 days:  Stay tuned for collateral and information about what’s coming in NetBackup 7.6.  Look for our new collateral on VMware protection with 7.6 for both NetBackup and NetBackup appliances.
3. 60 days: Engage your Symantec Sales and Specialist teams for discussions and lunch and learns around how V-Ray and NetBackup’s virtual protection features can benefit your business.

Not attending Vision?  There’s still time to register here:

http://www.symantec.com/vision/registration/?locid=las_vegas

More Information on NetBackup 7.5:

http://www.symantec.com/netbackup

www.netbackupdemo.com

http://www.symantec.com/theme.jsp?themeid=netbackup-with-vray

http://www.symantec.com/backup-appliance

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/downloads/netbackup-activities-vision-2013-las-vegas-nv-april-15th-18th

No company has protected more virtual machines than Symantec over the years, but that doesn’t mean we’ll rest or become complacent.  We know that technology is ever changing, and we have to keep up by providing new feature sets and functionality that will always keep your virtual enterprise protected.  Point products just don’t cut it when it comes to protecting your overall enterprise environment.  Why use multiple solutions when NetBackup can offer the best protection and performance all by itself?

If you are not yet using NetBackup for VMware, these new capabilities will convince you otherwise! Come visit us at Symantec Vision 2013 in Las Vegas the week of April 15th.  We’ll show you first-hand what enterprise VMware protection is all about.  In this session “NetBackup 7.6 for VMware – Taking VMware Data Protection to New Levels“, learn about the simplicity and value of six important new NetBackup technologies for VM protection. The session time is:

• Monday April 15th 1:00-2:00pm PST

For more details on this session and others, please visit our Vision Session site at:

Symantec Vision 2013 Session Search Catalog

Action Plan:

1. This week:  Attend our session
2. 30 days:  Stay tuned for collateral and information about what’s coming in NetBackup 7.6.  Look for our new collateral on VMware protection with 7.6 for both NetBackup and NetBackup appliances.
3. 60 days: Engage your Symantec Sales and Specialist teams for discussions and lunch and learns around how V-Ray and NetBackup’s virtual protection features can benefit your business.

Not attending Vision?  There’s still time to register here:

http://www.symantec.com/vision/registration/?locid=las_vegas

More Information on NetBackup 7.5:

http://www.symantec.com/netbackup

www.netbackupdemo.com

http://www.symantec.com/theme.jsp?themeid=netbackup-with-vray

http://www.symantec.com/backup-appliance

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/downloads/netbackup-activities-vision-2013-las-vegas-nv-april-15th-18th

What was once a hot new feature being data deduplication many years ago, has become a commoditized given in today’s data center.  That being said, deduplication performance is still not always equal or efficient from vendor to vendor.  Not by a long shot.  Some vendors’ strategies actually fall well short of an enterprise dedupe solution, and fail to provide their customers any benefits or automation whatsoever.

But how do you know if you’re getting the deduplication you deserve and if it’s configured and performing optimally?  Where’s the best place to deduplicate?  Is it the client, the media server, the target?  What can you do to make sure your organization is getting their money’s worth and optimal storage savings?  It’s time to realize the benefit of NetBackup deduplication and how you can also leverage that power on our appliances.

At Symantec Vision 2013, we'll show you how to remove the mystery of client side, media server, and target deduplication, and teach you about the differences, types, and benefits of deduplication to maximize your return on investment.  Some benefits around NetBackup deduplication are:

• Duduplication Everywhere (physical and virtual, V-Ray technology)
• NetBackup Accelerator
• Flexibility (one size of deduplication does NOT fit all)
• Choice of form factor (all the dedupe options and benefits in our software or appliances, with optimal performance. What best fits your infrastructure?)

Come see our session “Maximizing Deduplication with NetBackup and NetBackup Appliances” the week of April 15th, 2013 during the following time:

• Wednesday April 17th, 5:00-6:00pm PST

For more details on this session and others, please visit our Vision Session site at:

Symantec Vision 2013 Session Search Catalog

Action Plan:

1. This week:  Attend our session
2. 30 days:  Stay tuned for collateral and information about what’s coming in NetBackup 7.6.  Look for our new collateral on our new 5030 and 5230 appliances available May 6th   
3. 60 days: Engage your Symantec Sales and Specialist teams for discussions and lunch and learns around how NetBackup deduplication and the appliances can benefit your business.

Not attending Vision?  There’s still time to register here:

http://www.symantec.com/vision/registration/?locid=las_vegas

More Information on NetBackup 7.5:

http://www.symantec.com/netbackup

www.netbackupdemo.com

http://www.symantec.com/backup-appliance

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/downloads/netbackup-activities-vision-2013-las-vegas-nv-april-15th-18th

As data centers evolve, backup and recovery operations and infrastructure become more complex to maintain and manage.  Increased costs around upgrading hardware and software, additional storage, and manpower to administer and maintain everything are unavoidable.  But there is a better way.  What if you could lower the CapEx and OpEx of your backup and recovery infrastructure, maintain the latest technology and feature set the solution has to offer, and even better, not have to construct your backup servers manually from the ground up?  Welcome to the award winning world of the NetBackup Appliances!

For several years now, Symantec has had great success with the NetBackup Appliances, offering customers a choice in form factor without compromising performance and functionality.  In fact, they are fine tuned to provide maximum NetBackup performance for the enterprise environment. Whether it’s the 50x0 series for optimal deduplication, or the 52x0 series providing efficient media and master server functionality, there are plenty of benefits to having these in your data center.  While the 50x0 series focuses on deduplication performance, some of the specific features of the 52x0 series are:

• Backup VMware without Windows proxy servers
• Deliver up to 36x faster backups with Intelligent end-to-end deduplication
• Increase scalability to 72TB of usable capacity, or 64TB of deduplication capacity
• Protect NetBackup 5220 Appliance against zero day attacks and malicious insider threats
• Up to 10X faster backups to cloud and replication with WAN Optimization
• Leverage NetBackup 7.5 software features including NetBackup Accelerator, Replication Director, and Heterogeneous Cloud Support

While our appliances have already won many awards and accolades from customers, analysts and experts in the industry, we’re continuously looking to provide new, cutting edge features and performance. Come see us the week of April 15th at Symantec Vision 2013 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, where you can see what’s new with our appliance strategy and future roadmap for the upcoming NetBackup 7.6 release.  Session times for “What’s New with NetBackup Appliances” are:

• Monday April 15th 3:30-4:30pm PST
• Wednesday April 15th 1:15-2:15pm PST

For more details on this session and others, please visit our Vision Session site at:

Symantec Vision 2013 Session Search Catalog

Action Plan:

1. This week:  Attend our session
2. 30 days:  Stay tuned for collateral and information about what’s coming in NetBackup 7.6.  Look for our new collateral on our new 5030 and 5230 appliances available May 6th
3. 60 days: Engage your Symantec Sales and Specialist teams for discussions and lunch and learns around how the appliances can benefit your business.

Not attending Vision?  There’s still time to register here:

http://www.symantec.com/vision/registration/?locid=las_vegas

More Information on NetBackup 7.5:

http://www.symantec.com/netbackup

www.netbackupdemo.com

http://www.symantec.com/backup-appliance

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/downloads/netbackup-activities-vision-2013-las-vegas-nv-april-15th-18th

NetBackup Appliances have been a big hit with our customers over the past few years, but people always want to know what the next set of popular features and functionality will be. They also want know the nuts and bolts under the cover of the appliance.  What will NetBackup and its appliances be able to do beyond the primary data center? What about enhancements to our impressive Auto Image Replication (AIR) feature?  How does it all come together from a technical perspective?

At Symantec Vision 2013 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, get an overview of the new NetBackup appliance hardware platforms, upcoming software features and call-home support capabilities.  We'll also be presenting a customer tested blueprint for implementing DR strategies for the appliance, with full support for onsite and offsite disaster recovery using Auto Image Replication.  Key features for the appliances are:

• Lowering customers CapEx and OpEx
• Efficient and easy scalability and server refresh
• Simplifying your data protection environment
• Optimal DR configuration for backup and recovery
• Protects your physical and virtual environements

Come see our session “NetBackup Appliances Technical Deep Dive”on :

• Wednesday April 17th, 3:45-4:45pm PST

For more details on this session and others, please visit our Vision Session site at:

Symantec Vision 2013 Session Search Catalog

Action Plan:

1. This week:  Attend our session
2. 30 days:  Stay tuned for collateral and information about what’s coming in NetBackup 7.6.  Look for our new collateral on our new 5030 and 5230 appliances available May 6th   
3. 60 days: Engage your Symantec Sales and Specialist teams for discussions and lunch and learns around how NetBackup DR and the appliances can benefit your business.

Not attending Vision?  There’s still time to register here:

http://www.symantec.com/vision/registration/?locid=las_vegas

More Information on NetBackup 7.5:

http://www.symantec.com/netbackup

www.netbackupdemo.com

http://www.symantec.com/backup-appliance

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/downloads/netbackup-activities-vision-2013-las-vegas-nv-april-15th-18th

This article gives you a single point of access for help with NetBackup Appliance known issues, best practices, and troubleshooting tips for common Appliance problems such installation and configuration. The Symantec Technical Support team has found these KB articles to be especially helpful to NetBackup Appliance customers. Links to NetBackup downloads and documentation are also included. Let us know if you have any comments or questions! 

Thank You.

NetBackup Appliance Installation and Configuration Issues

• After upgrading to NetBackup 7.5.0.x, VMware Backups are slower than expected (TECH191183) 
• NetBackup Java Console installation on Windows fails and rolls back (TECH191731)
• Configuring Optimized Synthetic Backups to NetBackup Deduplication Pools (TECH77767)
• Installing EEBs on a NetBackup 5200/5220 Appliance (TECH183663)
• Upgrades of NetBackup 52x0 Appliances configured as master servers from version 2.0.x to version 2.5.x may experience catalog issues. These patches have been replaced. (TECH198390)
• Login credentials verification failed for server configuring NetBackup 5000 Appliance storage server (TECH147706)
• Catalog Backup DR file and notification is not sent as email when the Master server is configured on NetBackup 52x0 Appliances (TECH188948)

NetBackup Appliance Known Issues

• BUG REPORT: At NetBackup versions 6.5.5, 6.5.6, 7.0, 7.0.1, and 7.1, ghost jobs or numerous jobs with Status 50's may be seen in the activity monitor that can't be deleted (TECH146990) 
• A firmware update is available for NetBackup 5000, 5020, and 5200 Appliances which resolves an issue where the failure of a single disk could cause a cascading failure on multiple (good) drives (TECH192604) 
• A hot fix is available to prevent an issue where Call Home data may fill the root partition of NetBackup and Deduplication Appliances (TECH199364) 
• Upgrades of NetBackup 52x0 Appliances configured as master servers from version 2.0.x to version 2.5.x may experience catalog issues. These patches have been replaced. (TECH198390) 
• DOCUMENTATION: Issues resolved in bundle for MSDP included in Etrack 2412409 (TECH167950) 
• BUG REPORT: NetBackup backup/duplications fail Status 83/84/2074. NetBackup nbrmms log reports 'No slots are available anymore' (TECH176616) 
• Recommended NetBackup and PureDisk software versions and EEBs for use with Auto Image Replication (TECH200177)
• NetBackup deduplication disk pool/disk volume intermittently goes to a DOWN state. Backups/duplications can fail with Status 213 no storage units is available and 2074 (TECH176451)
• The spoold process crashes during rebasing (TECH199067)
• Optimized duplications between NetBackup 7.1 Media Server Deduplication (MSDP) disk pools report media writer error Status 84 after hanging for 12 hours (TECH160202)
• Duplicated copies managed by a Storage Lifecycle Policy created with expiration dates beyond the UNIX epoch (January 19, 2038 03:14:07 UTC) are prematurely expired. this condition does not occur when a retention level set to "infinity" is used (TECH200501)

NetBackup Appliance Best Practices

• Best practices for changing the root password on a NBU5020 PureDisk Appliance (TECH162529) 
• Best Practices: NetBackup PureDisk 6.6.1.x/663a or 50x0 1.4.1.1 Appliance Content Router Rerouting Checklist (TECH168356) 
• Collecting Appliance 'DataCollect' logs to troubleshoot hardware and disk related issues (TECH173208) 
• Best practices when receiving Email Alerts for BBU failure on specific adapter (TECH196432) 
• Crcontrol commands fail with Error 53 ( Connection refused ) (TECH188614) 
• Lower-than-expected transfer rates when duplicating to tape or performing large scale restores from deduplication storage (TECH154166)
• NetBackup Appliance Log Collection Commands (for 5000 and 5020) (TECH147673)

NetBackup Appliance Documentation and Downloads

• Symantec NetBackup Appliance Troubleshooting Guide - Release 2.5.1 (DOC6033) 
• Links to the Symantec NetBackup 52xx Appliance Documentation (DOC2792)
• List of Patch downloads for NetBackup Appliances 5000, 5020, 5200, and 5220 (TECH150251)
• Links to NetBackup 5000/5020 Appliance Documentation (TECH145661)
• NetBackup 5xxx Appliance Compatibility (TECH136970)

Article URL http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO83986

On May 6, 2013 Symantec announced the third-generation of the NetBackup Appliances:  NetBackup 5230 Backup Appliance and the NetBackup 5030 Deduplication Appliance. These enterprise appliances are changing how customers backup and recover to virtual and physical environments. 

A question I was asked by a customer at Symantec Vision 2013 was if this is the third generation of the appliances, what were the first two generations?  Here is a brief look at the history of both the NetBackup appliance series. 

• NetBackup 5200 Series:  intelligent purpose-built backup appliances (PBBA) that combines NetBackup software, server, and storage to protect both virtual and physical environments. 
• NetBackup 5000 Series:  target deduplication appliances that offer content aware, end-to-end data deduplication.

NetBackup Backup Appliance: 5200 model                            NetBackup Backup Appliance:  5230 Model     

As seen from the chart and images above, the NetBackup appliances have undergone significant changes over the years; from a fixed configuration with set capacity, to a modular design with variable capacity and connectivity options. The NetBackup 5030 Deduplication and 5230 Backup Appliances continue the great tradition of offering next generation hardware designed for increased reliability, availability, and serviceability – purpose-built for backup and recovery and ready for future NetBackup releases. 

Built on the strength of NetBackup 7.5 software, these enterprise class appliances continue to lead the integrated purpose-built backup appliance (PBBA) market offering solutions to lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and higher levels of reliability. 

For additional information on the newest NetBackup Appliance family members, refer to the:

• NetBackup 5230 backup appliance data sheet and the
• NetBackup 5030 dedupe appliance data sheet. 

NetBackup Appliances have been enjoying great success. I recently wrote about the tremendous growth of NetBackup Appliances, “Are we witnessing the transformation from Target to Integrated PBBAs?” by examining the purpose-built backup appliance market data as reported by IDC. 

While it is great to see market data highlighting our success, we need to peel away the layers and understand what is truly driving this growth. It is our Customers! NetBackup Appliances address the challenges organizations have to deal with today, and need to be prepared for in the future. 

Let’s look at how four (4) customers who are using NetBackup Appliance to solve their challenges; Arsys, CSX, PostFinance, and State of Michigan. The customer stories are detailed n CIO Digest, April 2013 issue, CSX in Laying the Tracks of Protection; and Arsys, PostFinance, and State of Michigan in Integrated Swiss Army Knife: Six Use Cases for Data Protection Appliances. 

NetBackup Appliances:  Uses Cases

The challenges of these four customers are typical of many of our customers:      

• Hardware Consolidation:  NetBackup appliances deliver OpEx savings through the integrated appliance format compared to a build your own media server. Also, organizations are able to consolidate other backup point products (i.e. VTLs, tape libraries, and dedupe target appliances) into the NetBackup appliance form factor to provide even greater OpEx and CapEx savings.  At Arsys, Olaf Sandstrom, COO, and team re-architected the company’s storage environment to create a more dynamic storage infrastructure, migrating from tape and VTL over to disk: “Beyond the CAPEX reductions from hardware, we also achieved significant OPEX savings around maintenance and power”. 
• Remote Office/Branch Office:  NetBackup appliances integrated form factor allows for the consolidation of disparate backup products (tape, dedupe, VTL, media server). This provides centralized management and enables replication to a corporate site. Dan Parks’ (Technology Director, Infrastructure Provisioning, CSX), team is in the final stages of consolidating and centralizing backups for CSX’s remote offices using NetBackup. “These previously required dedicated servers and storage, not to mention someone to run them,” he says. “We’ve significantly reduced the number of required locations and plan to continue our consolidation efforts. In addition to the cost savings, we have reduced risk.”
• Virtualization:  a key benefit of NetBackup and NetBackup appliances is to manage data protection in both virtual and physical environments with a single solution. Having multiple backup point products across the organization increases the cost and complexity when organizations can least afford it. “Having a single tool for managing data protection across both physical and virtual environments is very important,” according to Lynn Draschil, Director, Customer Service, Department of Technology Management and Budget, State of Michigan. 
• Manage data growth:  NetBackup appliances support deduplication. Whether it occurs at the source or target, deduplication enables organization to better manage their data growth, reduce the amount and cost of tape and disk storage, and deliver both CapEx and OpEx savings. “Client-side deduplication is providing PostFinance with tangible advantages. Andreas Christen, Sr, Backup and Storage Engineer, PostFinance, indicates that the financial services firm can store up to six times as much data from its Oracle database environment and as much as 20 times for its server environment.”

NetBackup 5200 Series appliances, both the NetBackup 5230 and NetBackup 5220 backup appliances, address the challenges that organizations are facing today and tomorrow. Check out and subscribe to CIO Digest to learn more about these customers and their solutions with NetBackup Appliances. 

Dear NetBackup Users,

I came across an awesome story about how one company used NetBackup AIR to save them in a disaster recovery scenario.  I was pretty impressed with how they used the technology, and more so by how much it saved them in a real DR situation.  Here's the super consolidated and simplified version (or watch the VIDEO):

Super Cool Industries (real names have been changed) had recently upgraded their backup solution to NetBackup 7.5, which features a slick replication technology called AIR (Auto Image Replication).  They immediately began using AIR to replicate backup images from one of their plants to another.  One day, a crazy ice storm knocked the power out at the first plant, which left both it, and another plant that relied on one of its servers, stranded.

Now, previous to this upgrade, their old way of doing DR was to load up the backup tapes in a truck and send them over to a DR location.  If they had to employ this method to get their server back up and running again - in the middle of an ice storm and while roads were frozen over and closed, they literally could've been stranded for weeks, if not longer.  However, because they were "AIR -ing" their backup images to the second plant, they simply stood up a virtual machine there, recovered all their data to it, and were back in business the very next morning.

When I heard about the story, I thought to myself, there must be a ton of other folks out there with similar experiences!  Right? 

And why not have a little fun to tease the best stories out?

So here's what I'm asking:

• Share your story in the comments section of this blog down below (2 paragraphs max please)

• We also encourage you to share your story on our Facebook page (not required to win, but encouraged)

• We'll have our internal teams look through the stories below and judge them based on: 1) creativity, 2) WOW factor, 3) relative impact on the buisness' up time and 4) the number of 'thumbs up' on the comment you leave (this would indicate that others dig your story too!).  See official contest rules here.

• On July 1st we'll announce the winner (via direct message on connect and social media channels), who'll take home a brand new Symantec-branded ZBOARD electric skateboard!

• If your stories really stand out, we may ask for your permission to create a short animated video (without any identifiable information) out of your story to share with the world (see Super Cool Industries VIDEO example below)

• Sound good? 

And BTW, the ZBOARD we're giving away is the Pro Model that goes up to 17 mph and can travel up to 10 miles on a single charge (ZBOARDSHOP.COM)!  Check it out:

Symantec Branded ZBOARD

VIDEO: NetBackup AIR Saves the Day for Super Cool Industries (Click the image below)

Here are some quick questions that can help frame your comment below (focused on AIR, but feel free to share any DR experience), and remember, brevity is your friend.

• What was the OLD way of doing things before NetBackup or before NetBackup AIR?
• What were some of the benefits you saw once NetBackup AIR or other NetBackup DR-focused technology was implemented?
• What kind of disaster put the solution to the test (this could be man-made or natural)?
• What was the WOW factor (if any) from seeing NetBackup at work in a real DR situation?
• Any technical details you'd like to share?

Thanks and I hope you enjoy this fun little contest!

All the best,

Alex Sakaguchi, Product Marketing Manager, NetBackup

@ASakaguchi | +Alex Sakaguchi | +NetBackup | Symantec Connect

Read the official rules of the contest here

Virtualization isn’t new.  For many years now organizations have been taking advantage of the increased flexibility and cost savings virtualizing servers and applications offers.  However, when it comes to deploying backup and recovery solutions to protect the virtual environment, things are very different from what organizations may be used to – and if not done correctly, backups can fail, performance can wane, and recoverability can go out the window.  In essence, virtual machine backup can suck.

At Symantec Vision 2013, Symantec virtualization gurus Jim Olson and George Winter took a deep dive into best practices for backup and recovery of VMware, walking through critical steps to ensuring maximum benefit, while also reminding folks of the basics.  If you missed it, don’t worry! Join the Symantec NetBackup team on Wednesday, June 12 at 9:30am PT for an On Air Google+ Hangout and learn how to get the most out of NetBackup's integration with VMware's VADP including vCloud Director integration and vSphere 5.1.

Mark your calendars:

Title:  Best Practices for VMware Protection Google+ Hangout

Date: Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Time: Starts at 9:30 a.m. PT / 12:30 p.m. ET

Length: 1 hour

Where:  Google+ Hangout: http://bit.ly/14DS49q

Didn't get to attend a session at Vision 2013 that you wanted to? 

Or maybe this year you didn't get to attend Vision at all?  We've decided to take some of our top non-security Vision sessions and make them available through Google+ Hangouts On Air. Topics will focus on backup and recovery, archiving and eDiscovery, and business continuity and disaster recovery.

Each session will be broadcasted free to give you an opportunity to hear about the technology from the experts, get some insight into the roadmap and futures, and get your questions answered live.

Here's what you should do:

Click on the links in the Google+ Event Page column that corresponds with a session you're interested in.  The link will provide more information about the session, including participants, the date and time of the Hangout. It will also provide information so you can RSVP to attend the event, which will allow us to send you a reminder the day of the event, making it easy to join and participate.

If you forget to RSVP, don’t worry. Just tune in to the link provided below at the date and time of the event to participate.

If there isn’t additional information about the session you want to join, bookmark this page and check back often. We’ll be adding information regularly. Or, you can follow @Symantec on Twitter, add +Symantec to your Google+ Circles or like us on Facebook for the latest updates.

During the event you can use Twitter and/or Google+ to submit your questions to the hash tag #SYMCHangout so the panelists can answer them live.

It's pretty simple.

If you have questions or comments, please reach out to me either by leaving a comment below, sending me a direct message on Symantec Connect, or through one of my other social networks listed below.

Thanks!

Alex Sakaguchi, Product Marketing Manager, NetBackup

@ASakaguchi | +Alex Sakaguchi | +NetBackup | Symantec Connect

Today’s businesses require access to their information on a 24x7 basis, not to mention the ability to protect that data in the event of unplanned interruptions which leads to complexities in their IT infrastructure.

For many IT leaders, moving to Symantec appliances for their backup issues to protect data means reducing cost, complexity and operational risks in their IT environment. Symantec understands that a properly planned out data protection strategy enables customers continuous access to their information. To that end, Symantec has gone a step further to simplify, automate and enhance the support experiences for its appliance customers with its latest functionality in appliances, Symantec AutoSupport.                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Symantec AutoSupport proactively identifies issues, automates support, and enables faster resolution with the aim of lowering customer’s total cost of ownership of their appliance environment. As a result, appliance downtime is minimized, product reliability and serviceability is enhanced, storage capacity planning and management is simplified, and who doesn’t want their issues resolved before the customer is aware of any problems. To find out how Symantec AutoSupport can help, check out this video http://bit.ly/EnableAutoSupport

Symantec is excited to announce that our certified integration with SAP HANA will be available to our customers Monday,June 24th as this is the official release date for the new NetBackup 7.5.0.6!

SAP HANA is a high performance In-Memory Database (IMDB) that takes Business Intelligence and Analytics to a whole new level.  Companies can do real-time analytics on huge amounts of data with lightning speed.  What used to take weeks to church through so much information has been whittled down to minutes.  But with so much data, how do you back it up?

NetBackup has become the first vendor to certify with SAP HANA’s BACKINT process.  This means that SAP HANA Studio which manages the HANA database can stream backups live to NetBackup.  There are many benefits to this method over the dump-to-disk method all other vendors must do.  Here are some important points to know:

• Certified is different than “supported”.  If a vendor says supported, they are simply doing the dump-to-disk method and don’t have the streaming integration.
• Streaming integration with BACKINT is important because SAP HANA will always have an updated catalog that is aware of each backup, and streaming also bypasses the unnecessary step of backing up the data from disk.
• Disk based backups are much slower than live streaming, and the data is stale.
• The NetBackup integration is easy—you just install the NetBackup SAP HANA agent on the SAP HANA appliance and license it!
• Nothing changes for the HANA admin or NetBackup admin.  They don’t have to learn anything new.  It’s an easy solution to manage.
• A disaster recovery strategy is NOT a replacement for a backup strategy.  They complement each other.  Make sure your customers know that DR replication doesn’t account for corruption or human error, and those types of changes get carried over with DR.  Backups provide the ability to overcome such issues, as well as many other benefits.

Stay tuned for more official information and documentation as the June 24th date approaches.

Have you ever visited the Common Topics page for NetBackup Enterprise Server?  (I hope you have - its URL is in the signature of every reply I've left on the NetBackup forum!)  If you HAVEN'T, go ahead and click on this link right now...don't worry; I'll still be here when you get back:

 http://go.symantec.com/nbu

The reason I'm asking you about this right now is that in the near future, Symantec is looking to make this page even better when it comes to getting you from Point A (having a problem) to Point B (problem solved!) - and to that effort, we're trying to gather some meaningful input from our user community to determine both the existing value of this resource as well as the potential opportunities to make it an even better resource.

With that in mind, could you please consider the following questions and chime in with your responses?

Do you find this page useful right now?  If so, what do you find useful?  If not, what could make it more useful?

Do you find the links we provide on this page useful, or do you find yourself almost immediately going straight to the SymWISE search box?  Would you prefer to see any particular links which you frequently visit but which are not currently on the page?  Do you care how many links are (or aren't) on the page?  Would you prefer some links be more prominent than others? Are links taking you to where you expect to go?

How would you feel about more pictures or videos and/or less text?

You may leave your response here or join the discussion over on the copy of this post I have posted to NetBackup forum - OR, if you would prefer to make a private comment, feel free to send me a private message by clicking on my username (or right here) and using one of the Contact links.

Thank you!

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