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Veritas Backup Exec

Veritas Backup Exec

Overview

What is Veritas Backup Exec?

Veritas Backup Exec is a backup and disaster recovery solution. It works in virtual, physical, and multi-cloud environments and integrates with several third-party software releases and applications.

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Recent Reviews
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Awards

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Popular Features

View all 14 features
  • Management dashboard (20)
    9.0
    90%
  • Incremental backup identification (22)
    8.0
    80%
  • Recovery verification (20)
    8.0
    80%
  • Multiple backup destinations (21)
    6.5
    65%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology
Information Technology & Services Company, 201-500 employees
Verified User
Employee in Information Technology
Mechanical Or Industrial Engineering Company, 51-200 employees
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Pricing

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Veritas Backup Exec

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Cloud

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

[testpassport.de] Anteil der Demo VCS-318 Administration of Veritas Backup Exec 2014

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Veritas Backup Exec - Part 5 Demo Restore Backup User pada Active Directory

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16 Instant Recovery Exchange for Example Demo

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Usage Insights - Backup Exec Demo

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Veritas Backup Exec Webinar

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Veritas Backup Exec 16 and Microsoft Azure

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Features

Data Center Backup

Data center backup tools send data to a secure storage location after encryption and de-duplication

8.6
Avg 8.1
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Product Details

What is Veritas Backup Exec?

Veritas Backup Exec
Veritas Backup Exec is a backup and disaster recovery solution. It works in virtual, physical, and multi-cloud environments and integrates with several third-party software releases and applications.

Backup Exec is designed for small to medium-sized business, not enterprise, for streamlining data backup and recovery into one product and interface. It also does not support sending data streams from multiple parallel backup jobs to a single tape drive, called multiplexing, however, Veritas’s other backup product, NetBackup, has this capability.

Key Features

  • Virtual, physical and multi-cloud environment support
  • Full integration with Azure Site Recovery for data and application availability with minimal RTO and RPO
  • Integration with most popular third-party software releases, including Microsoft® Server, Microsoft® Hyper-V and VMware® vSphere®
  • Backup Exec can be seamlessly scaled to the cloud with a range of certified, integrated cloud connectors for various cloud environments, including AWS S3, Microsoft® Azure and Google Cloud Platform Storage
  • Users can locate and visualize their data estate to support General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other privacy regulations, using Veritas Information Map™
  • End-to-end deduplication performance to on-premise storage, as well as to public and hybrid cloud

Veritas Backup Exec Competitors

Veritas Backup Exec Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Veritas Backup Exec is a backup and disaster recovery solution. It works in virtual, physical, and multi-cloud environments and integrates with several third-party software releases and applications.

NovaBACKUP are common alternatives for Veritas Backup Exec.

Reviewers rate Universal recovery and Business application protection and Backup to the cloud highest, with a score of 10.

The most common users of Veritas Backup Exec are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(160)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-3 of 3)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
January 11, 2024

Veritas backup exec 20.6 my saving experience.

Verified User
Employee in Information Technology
Mechanical Or Industrial Engineering Company, 51-200 employees
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We use it to back up our servers with virtual machines on HyperV. The scenario is very simple: save the server on different media for hot and cold storage, plus another one outside of the office. We have an agent for HyperV. No need for a Microsoft SQL agent. Simple Disaster Recovery (SDR) is on.
Pros and Cons
  • Save
  • logs
  • Summary of last backup.
  • More easy connection to a NAS.
  • Stability of save is some scenario.
  • Open an old save that is not in the backup exec database.
Likelihood to Recommend
Globally, it's good backup software, but there are a lot of little things that handicap the experience. You don't know why, but sometimes the saving process bugs during the night and works perfectly tomorrow or after a manual reload. Saving to a NAS is difficult in comparison with Veeam backup.
Other Software Used
Veritas Backup Exec Feature Ratings
Data Center Backup (10)
67%
6.7
Instant recovery
80%
8.0
Recovery verification
60%
6.0
Multiple backup destinations
30%
3.0
Incremental backup identification
60%
6.0
Deduplication and file compression
50%
5.0
Snapshots
70%
7.0
Flexible deployment
80%
8.0
Management dashboard
90%
9.0
Platform support
80%
8.0
Retention options
70%
7.0
Return on Investment
  • restoring file quickly.
  • SDR unusual with Hyper-V.
  • Don't use a lot of processor and ram.
Alternatives Considered
The user interface is accurate, and you have the information you need on the screen.
Products Replaced
No
Key Differentiators
  • Ease of Use
  • Other
I used for a very long time backup exec 2010, so I continued with backup exec 20.6. I was familiar with it.
Evaluation Lessons Learned
It's very long and time-consuming to do that, but backup is life-saving. My selection process is good so i keep it.
Support Rating
5
The official internet website isn't very useful, and you search in other forums to have answers. I only used the support one time (and the last) to have a DLL file that repairs a bug during the saving process. They never gave it because I was out of support for one month, a ten-year customer. Bye, veritas.
Premium Support
Yes, for 3 years to have peace of mind.
Bug Resolution
No
Exceptional Examples of Veritas Backup Exec Support
Never.
Scalability
7
We only use it on the on-premise version on a single site.
Reliability and Availability
4
The weekly error on save needs a manual reload from me. The SDR can't restore the virtual machine of hyperV during a test.
Performance
8
No problem for this point it is in the average.
May 19, 2021

Veritas Backup Exec solutions versus cost and ease of use.

Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Education Management Company, 501-1000 employees
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Originally we used Veritas Backup Exec for all servers in our district. We have since moved away from it and currently it is being used only on a remote backup server. The product does function well and it performed fine for the purpose of providing full and partial backups. We were predominantly a Netware shop with approximately 32 Netware servers, with 14 stand alone Windows based servers. With our move to a virtual environment our backup solution needs changed.
Pros and Cons
  • Backup Exec does do an excellent job of backing up all data on both Netware (which is no longer a pressing issue) and Windows based machines.
  • As long as you are licensed correctly Backup Exec does a good job of backing up SQL instances, but the key is you must be properly licensed.
  • Restoring files back to the original server and format is done fairly easy with Backup Exec. It is actually easier than Unitrends which requires a slightly different and less logical method.
  • Backup Exec is painful regarding licensing their products and solutions especially if you are in a scattered environment with many physical servers to protect. Then through in SQL backup solutions and depending on who your sales rep is you may have a nightmare to manage. We actually purchased the product through Dell when we bought the servers, then upon renewal we used a different vendor. Backup Exec does not track these keys well when different vendors are in the mix. We lost our licenses on several servers for weeks until the issue was finally resolved. I do believe if you buy and manage your Backup Exec licenses from one vendor you will not have these types of issues. You just need to be aware that there is potential for confusion.
  • Backup Exec does have some issues when servers go offline and you no longer want to have a backup instance for that server. You need to be very thorough and follow the procedures exactly or you will have backups that simply don't go away. You can remove them but it is not logical or intuitive. Simply removing the backup process and the host being backed up does not remove the stored backups.
  • This should no longer be a major issue for people archiving and using tapes, but, tape backups have a nasty habit of not being consistent or reliable unless you manually do a verify of the tape after each and every backup. We have experienced several archival restores fail when attempting to do a restore. Restores from digital hard drive format does have far fewer issues.
Likelihood to Recommend
Backup Exec works well generally in most environments or situations. The licensing can potentially be a nightmare, but manageable if you have a decent reseller. Backing up and restoring from physical tapes which is not all that common is not as reliable as when backing up and restoring from datastores that reside on hard drives or digital media. It does a good job with large or small backup jobs. Backing up and managing SQL backups requires additional licenses and be a bit clunky. If you are very careful (which you should be anyway) and document as you build these backups you will get better at managing them. Regarding a virtual environment, I have limited experience in that arena, but have done it. Backup Exec can backup VMware environments, but honestly we moved to Unitrends to backup our VM's and are much happier with the backup process. However, restoring a VM in Unitrends can be tedious compared to Backup Exec.
Veritas Backup Exec Feature Ratings
Data Center Backup (14)
70.71428571428571%
7.1
Universal recovery
100%
10.0
Instant recovery
20%
2.0
Recovery verification
100%
10.0
Business application protection
60%
6.0
Multiple backup destinations
60%
6.0
Incremental backup identification
100%
10.0
Backup to the cloud
50%
5.0
Deduplication and file compression
100%
10.0
Snapshots
80%
8.0
Flexible deployment
30%
3.0
Management dashboard
70%
7.0
Platform support
50%
5.0
Retention options
100%
10.0
Encryption
70%
7.0
Return on Investment
  • Veritas Backup Exec is an expensive alternative depending on the number of servers and services you require backups to be run on.
  • Veritas Backup Exec does perform it's duties very well and in disaster recovery situations it does very well. Regardless of it's cost, when the data MUST be restored it does that job well. It is just a touch expensive.
  • The required hardware can be expensive but it is not out of line with it's competitors. To achieve a high level of protection and dependability that is required regardless of which solution or vendor you use, it will not be cheap. If you require only a simple level the costs will reflect that.
Alternatives Considered
Veritas Backup Exec is very comparable to Unitrends and in some areas is easier to use. The license side of Veritas Backup Exec is much more difficult to manage compared to Unitrends. Unitrends seems to be a much smoother solutions to protect virtual environments. Restoring data with Veritas Backup Exec is logical and easier to achieve, Unitrends is a bit less logical or intuitive.
Other Software Used
Products Replaced
No
Key Differentiators
  • Product Reputation
Evaluation Lessons Learned
I should have looked closer to the process for backing up and restoring data especially to virtual environments.
September 17, 2020

Yesterday's Backup Solution Today

Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology
Information Technology & Services Company, 201-500 employees
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We use backup exec to backup our mostly virtual server environment.
Pros and Cons
  • It works sometimes.
  • Can't intuitively chain backup jobs.
  • Forever incremental backup feature is limited and basically useless, feels tacked on.
  • Storage based compression and de-duplication are awkward to manage compared to other backup solutions.
  • Convoluted licensing model.
  • Poor fault tolerance.
Likelihood to Recommend
Backup Exec probably works well if you're only backing up a small number of servers (around 20 at the most) locally. This seems to be the only scenario where its at least capable of doing its job.

Any kind of serious enterprise is going to want to avoid this software like the plague. Deploying this across multiple sites requires fully licensed servers at each site and a second management server at the primary site. Beyond that, running multiple backup jobs can be problematic as, per Veritas support, there is no native way to chain separate backup jobs.
Veritas Backup Exec Feature Ratings
Data Center Backup (14)
4.285714285714286%
0.4
Universal recovery
N/A
N/A
Instant recovery
N/A
N/A
Recovery verification
N/A
N/A
Business application protection
N/A
N/A
Multiple backup destinations
N/A
N/A
Incremental backup identification
10%
1.0
Backup to the cloud
N/A
N/A
Deduplication and file compression
10%
1.0
Snapshots
10%
1.0
Flexible deployment
N/A
N/A
Management dashboard
10%
1.0
Platform support
10%
1.0
Retention options
10%
1.0
Encryption
N/A
N/A
Return on Investment
  • Already looking at replacement solutions 90 days after purchase.
Alternatives Considered
Backup Exec was the cheapest out of all the other options we were looking at.

Support Rating
1
Communication with support is generally poor. I'm frankly not sure they even read the tickets at times. I work in Asia and they're calling me near midnight because they didn't check my contact times. It usually takes 2-3 days just to start troubleshooting. Tickets drag out for weeks and you'll be constantly asked to rerun the job and submit logs with no real feedback. To get any kind of serious response you basically have to become the squeaky wheel and get your tickets elevated to S1 or S2.
Usability
1
It can do a lot of things on paper and sounds terrific, but in practice it doesn't do any of them well. It can easily be sold to non-technical minds and C-levels, but of all the backup solutions I've used in the last 15 years of my career, Backup Exec is easily the least fault tolerant. Unless this software is a sunk cost and you're on a shoestring budget, I recommend almost anything else. Jobs fail often with obscure error codes and the KB articles in the Veritas support portal are a mess. Within 30 days of a fresh deployment I've logged more tickets with their support than I did in 3 years with Veeam.
Other Software Used
Veeam Backup & Replication, Quest Rapid Recovery (formerly AppAssure), Datto
Users and Roles
7
Information Technology department.
Support Headcount Required
1
A lot of patience and an ability to figure things out yourself.
Business Processes Supported
  • Backups.
  • Data recovery.
  • Disaster Recovery.
Future Planned Uses
  • We are planning on moving on from Backup Exec.
Likelihood to Renew
1
This software is a mess in my brutally honest opinion. I've spent more time babysitting this software while backing up 20 servers than I did with Veeam backing up 600+. I've had multiple jobs run fine for weeks at a time that just randomly fail out of the blue for seemingly no reason whatsoever. There's no intuitive way to chain jobs, so automation becomes somewhat more problematic if certain jobs depend on other jobs. The forever incremental feature feels tacked on since the merge operation merges all your incremental jobs into the most recent backup and doesn't have the option set a limit on how long to keep your point in time restores.
Products Replaced
No
Key Differentiators
  • Price
Price was ultimately the deciding factor for management. Backup Exec doesn't have the greatest reputation among the Sysadmin community, but it came in cheaper than all the other options. Unfortunately this was because of a licensing mistake made by the implementation planner, in part due to Veritas' convoluted licensing model. Ultimately the price was not much cheaper than the next cheapest solution we evaluated.
Evaluation Lessons Learned
Ultimately, this product was heavily favored by an influential staff member. Given a more fair shake this likely would have not have been chosen based on a more objective analysis.
Implementation Details / Implementation Partner
  • Implemented in-house
Implementation Phases
No
Change Management Lessons
Change management was minimal
Implementation Issues
  • There was a mistake made with licensing, making full implementation impossible.
Implementation Rating
3
It was pretty straightforward.
Bug Resolution
Yes
It was basically ignored since I found a workaround.
Exceptional Examples of Veritas Backup Exec Support
No, but I can give at least a dozen examples of their support being terrible.
Easy Tasks
  • Setting up basic jobs are pretty easy.
Difficult Tasks
  • Features like compression and deduplication are folder based and not job based.
  • Running multiple jobs nightly is difficult without the option to chain jobs.
Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions
No
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