Opinions on Symantec V-Ray vs Veeam

[BrendanMarmont]

We are looking at both of the products in the subject line for our DR solution. I can read all the marketing material till I'm blue in the face, however I wanted to here from people who are using them in the real world with why we should take one over the other.

Veeam has Surebackup and vPower, which I found quiet cool. We liked Symantec as it's a one tool fits all (physical and virtual). Veeam also has to use third party to spool backups off to tape.

Any opinions either way would be appreciated!

Cheers

Brendan

[ldelloca]

Hi Brendan,

I have no handson comparison between the two products, but if the problem is only the tape offloading, there are many ways to workaround it even with Veeam like post-job scripting or others, but most of all in their public forums Veeam has confirmed they are working for tape integration in the next 7.0 version. It will not be a complete tape management solution like robotic libraries or other advanced stuff, but mainly aimed at backup file offloading, thus creating a coplete D2D2T solution.

Regards,

Luca.

[brandonmosak]

Hey Brendan...

Just as Luca – I do not possess comprehensive experience with both products – so I will also be unable to provide info as to a direct comparison as well.  I did do a little homework on the Veeam offering – and while it does look to be a very solid product – without knowing any additional specifics of your environment (other than it appears you need tape support to some degree) it is hard to make a recommendation at face value.  So I’ll share what I happen to know about Backup Exec as it applies to my environment.  Maybe you’ll take away something that’ll help you make a decision.

Full disclosure… I love Backup Exec – I have for many years.

For starters to answer your tape inquiry:  I can, with a high degree of certainty, assert that Backup Exec handles tape with the best of them.  Be it b2d2t or straight to tape - if you have a tape requirement, whether robotic or single – you will be in good hands with Backup Exec.

You also mention that you appreciate the “all in one nature” of V-ray tech / Backup Exec.  The aforementioned statement rings true for me. Depending on your ratio of physical to virtual (or if you have a burden that includes physical at all) – Backup Exec is a good choice as you’ll only need one piece of software to take care of your load of servers.  As an enabling technology, V-ray truly saved me a bunch of time – along with providing better protection than what I was previously accomplishing. Prior to V-ray, I was spending the better part of a full day backing up all the servers on my farm as individual VMWare-only jobs – and electing to do file-level full/diff agent backups for the remainder of the week.  With v-ray, I am now able to base my weekly full/diff backup plan off of the full VMWare backups which now contain enumerated filesystem objects and app server data (exchange, sharepoint, sql, ad, etc.).  V-ray was nothing short of a paradigm shift for how I approached my backups.

Another thing to consider: depending on how large your data protection burden is – there also exists a possibility that you might be able to fit into the new 3600 series appliance.  Had I not had such oddball retention requirements coupled with data that doesn’t de-duplicate optimally, I would have likely converted my site over to it.  The 3600 comes loaded with features that you’d normally have to pay a premium for with the standalone product and represents a pretty solid bargain IMO.  Unfortunately, I’m stuck with a 4u-whitebox jam-packed full of cheap-o disks ready to facilitate quick restores – while the long term items are spooled to a tape library.

If you’d like to discuss further – we can certainly continue here – or you’re welcome to dm me some contact info on twitter @brandonmosak.  I’m more than happy to drill deeper to help you arrive at a more informed decision from a Backup Exec perspective.

./brandonmosak

[sparrowangelste]

Veeam is a well known tool for vmbackups among vmware enthusiasts, in general everyone seems to like it, easy setup, easy restores.

I am am fan of backup exec but havent worked with v-ray. I am sure they made a good product and would be interested in trying a demo.

Veeam offers are demo as well.

Try both and see what works for you in style of use and price.

Syamantec has been in the backup game for a long time so they are usualy a great choice.

[Michael3434]

Hello everyone,

It was really interesting to go thorough your discussion about Veeam and vRanger.

Actually I did not try vRanger, but I tried Veeam. Everything was pretty well, but...TOO COMPLICATED.

Veeam does not have intuitive web interface and it is pretty annoying.

It is impossible to install Veeam on Linux ( pretty strange, because I was sure that such product will have cross platform deployment...).

After that I was trying to google smth like "Alternatives to Veeam".

And on the first page I found and interesting product, NAKIVO Backup&Replication.

I`ve never heard about it before so I started going through the forums before trying.

I was really surprised that many companies chose this product to protect their VI.

after that I decided to give it a try.

I`ve already done my primary tests and I can say that it looks really promising.

The price is really affordable, but the it seems to be really reliable product.

To my mind it is a good alternative to other backup products.

I`ll do my next post when I`ll finish all the tests.

Anyway you can have look NAKIVO Inc. | Home

[Gostev]

Michael3434 wrote:

To my mind it is a good alternative to other backup products.

Of course it is, considering that you work for this company :smileywink: