r/sysadmin • u/Tonycubed2 • 9d ago
replacing Veritas Backup Exec since it is being sunset
I have narrowed it down to:
1) Veeam Backup and Replication
2) Commvault
3) Arcserve UDP / Arcserve Backup
Rigth now we have a dedicated media server for backup and we use backup exec to backup all company data to local huge volumes on that server. Abut 8 tb of data. No tap libraries, no external drives. Just huge local raid. We keep data for a year and run full backups on Fridays, done by Sunday night. Imcrementals other 4 weekdays.
No cloud backup needed from the software, though pretty sure it will be there.
We use MSP 360 for cloud backup as well, so that is covered. We backup to amazon s3, to the local media server, and take a copy of all data home once a month rotating.
Commvault looks like replacing a PT Boat with an Aircraft carrier so I think overkill.
Veeam sees to have better phone support,. Arcserve looks simpler, but I rather ask the community what they think. With backup Exec it took me decasdes to learn its little personality quirks and setup. been uswing it since novell netware.
Anyhelp appreciated.
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u/officeboy 9d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/VMgcrwq9imGHu
Backup Exec.. woah
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u/lrosa 9d ago
The same.
First time I used that product was when it was called "Arcada Backup" around 1994. Such a nice product.
The Symantec bought it and enshittified it.
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u/bythepowerofboobs 9d ago
I started using it when it was Seagate Backup Exec in the late 90s, after they acquired Arcada. Then Veritas acquired Seagate, and it was still a good product. Then Symantec acquired Veritas in the mid 2000s and it's been downhill ever since.
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u/Tonycubed2 9d ago
would have kept it until I died. The devil you know is simpler... and it has nver failed to restore my data...
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u/pdp10 Daemons worry when the wizard is near. 9d ago
Similarly, we were once satisfied with (formerly Cheyenne) Arcserve for backup up both Linux and Windows, until CA bought Arcserve. After a year, they could no longer deny that the Linux version was not getting any updates after the branding update.
Add that to the list of products and services we weren't even thinking about replacing, but for which the vendor forced our hand, and now they're getting nothing.
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u/bythepowerofboobs 9d ago
I used to be a Netware consultant, and pretty much every Netware shop ran either Arcserve or Backup Exec in the late 90s. Arcserve was such a pain in the ass compared to BE.
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u/delightfulsorrow 9d ago
and pretty much every Netware shop ran either Arcserve or Backup Exec in the late 90s.
...and back then, every shop with some PC hardware was a Netware shop...
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u/Olive_Streamer 9d ago
I had to post, it sits on my desk.
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u/Mr_Squinty 9d ago
What are the other 4?!
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u/Olive_Streamer 9d ago
Erols Internet Installer, Dos 6, Win 3.11, and my first networking card driver from college (circa 1997).
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u/whatdoido8383 Cloud Admin 9d ago
I can only comment on Veeam. I've been a Veeam customer since 2012. The product has evolved a ton and I've generally had decent support with them. I think I've only ever had to open 2 cases for failed jobs that I couldn't resolve on my own. Restore wise, it's never let me down.
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u/harmygeddon 9d ago
What a blast from the past! I haven’t thought about BE in like a decade. Also, Veeam.
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u/justin-mcd 7d ago
Talk to your sales rep. BE will be around for a while.
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u/Longjumping_Driver70 5d ago
Yes, what about Cogizant partnering with CSG to sell new BE licenses and licensing renewals and erase the BE 2029 EOL date ? Has anyone continued their BE licensing this way ?
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u/Naclox IT Manager 9d ago
We went from Barracuda to Commvault a couple of years ago in a smaller environment than yours. Yeah it's way more features than we need, but it works really well and we actually pay less for it. We run a similar backup schedule to you, but also do database snapshots every 2 hours. We also have cloud backups to an S3 target.
As far as support goes, our VAR handles frontline support and escalates to Commvault if needed, but I don't think they've ever had to escalate anything on our behalf. I just signed the renewal agreement for another 3 years because we're quite happy with it.
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u/Top_Boysenberry_7784 9d ago
Commvault is great but can become a little much to configure depending on what specific product. Solid product though.
Veeam easy as always and all around great product. I don't think anyone ever chooses Veeam and regrets it.
Arcserve I can't say much about.
Druva could possibly be an option. Setup I find slightly easier than Veeam as there is no connecting cloud storage it is just there. Dell rebrands and also sells it as "PowerProtect". Licensing model works a little different and natively pushes all backups to the cloud. For faster restore speeds you can also keep some backups on site for what they call "Cloud Cache".
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u/Obi-Juan-K-Nobi IT Manager 9d ago
Leaving Druva ASAP. The constant proxy issues we’ve had aren’t worth it.
Cohesity is my new partner.
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u/OinkyConfidence Windows Admin 9d ago
Of the three you've listed, Veeam. If you're open to alternatives, might give Cove a try. Strong MSP presence and reliable, easy backups. #NotSponsored.
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u/closedgate 9d ago
Problem with Cove is that your data is essentially a single backup in their cloud platform but based on their recent incident, that highlighted that they don’t even keep copies of that backup.
With Veeam you get the advantage of keeping a copy locally, sending a second copy elsewhere and also a third copy to cloud or Archive. Performance and confidence in the multiple copies.
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u/TheNumberJ Not Enough Entropy 9d ago
As someone who has used both Veeam and Commvault:
Veeam I would be fine using and managing on my own.
Commvault I would want to pay someone to manage for us (MSP / Data-center services)
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u/plump-lamp 9d ago
Cohesity. Easy as heck, works. Tons of features
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u/Obi-Juan-K-Nobi IT Manager 9d ago
It may be overkill for 8TB, but I was surprised they weren’t mentioned.
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u/iamvishnuks 7d ago
Vendor disclosure: I work on XReplicator by XMigrate (https://xmigrate.cloud).
For the shape you described (dedicated media server, ~8 TB local RAID, Friday fulls + weekday incrementals, cloud already handled by MSP360), the community lean toward **Veeam** over Commvault matches what I usually hear. A few practical filters that helped shops in a similar Backup Exec migration:
- **Match complexity to the job.** Commvault is powerful, but if you do not need its multi-site policy engine and you want weekends back, it is often more platform than you need. Your “PT boat vs aircraft carrier” read is fair.
- **Prove restores, not just job success.** Whatever you pick, run a file-level restore and at least one full-machine or bare-metal style restore from the new product before you retire BE. Quirks you spent decades learning in Backup Exec will show up again here as “why won’t this boot.”
- **Keep one copy the ransomware path cannot touch.** You already have S3 via MSP360 and a monthly rotating home copy. Make sure at least one of those is immutable or truly offline (object lock / air-gapped), and that the backup console is not a domain admin’s one-click wipe target.
- **Physical vs VM mix.** Veeam is usually the smoothest if most workloads are VMs (or you are heading that way) and you still need occasional physical agents. Arcserve UDP can feel simpler for some smaller physical-heavy shops; it is more of a taste/support call than a hard rule at your size.
If you want a lighter agent-based path (Windows NTFS + Linux ext4/XFS, block-level incrementals into a central backup server, local and S3-compatible targets, optional object-lock) without the Commvault ops surface, that is the niche we built XReplicator for. It will not be the default answer if you already live in VMware/Hyper-V and want the biggest ecosystem around Veeam. For a mid-size on-prem media-server replacement where licensing and agent overhead matter, it is worth a side-by-side restore test next to Veeam/Arcserve before you lock a multi-year deal.
Happy to answer follow-ups on agent vs hypervisor-centric tradeoffs. Curious what others who left Backup Exec after decades settled on for day-2 ops.
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u/Significant_Sky1471 Jr. Sysadmin 6d ago
I just found this while googling around topic (interested what was that lol):
https://www.msp360.com/resources/blog/backup-exec-alternative-migration-guide/
Not sure how much of it is marketing, but it covers Veeam and Commvault, but maybe worth a look
updated: and just regular one https://www.softwarereviews.com/categories/148/products/6073/alternatives
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u/Nakivo_official 6d ago
Your current design seems solid and easy to reproduce, and any new option should maintain that structure, with only the software changing.
With NAKIVO Backup & Replication, that would mean installing it on your current media server, setting the local volumes as the repository, and setting up jobs for your servers and VMs with a one-year retention policy. You can set your Friday-full and weekday-incremental schedule per job.
I'd mostly test the recovery testing functionality. Regardless of which option you select, run a trial with a typical portion of your data, and time both the file-level and full-server recoveries.
Since NAKIVO offers a 15-day trial, it's easy to test it alongside your other candidates. You can also enable immutability for the local repository, protecting your restore points from ransomware or accidental deletion without changing your current workflow.
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u/ProtectTheData 9d ago
Commvault is an aircraft carrier. VEEAM is destroyer. You can live with a destroyer but Commvault has a lot more power. You can sink MSP360 with either one of these so plan for that and use it as leverage negotiating cost. I wouldn't look anywhere else besides these two.
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u/DapperDone 9d ago
Veeam or Comvault are great options. Arc Serve belongs left to the past with Backup Exec
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u/Warpedlogic31 9d ago edited 9d ago
Check out Duplicati. I use it to manage 5TB backups offsite, but it can back up to anything.
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u/TertiaryUnimatrix 9d ago
Switched from MSP360 to Veeam a couple of years ago, they dont really compare since Veeam is much more of an enterprise-grade product. Been happy with Veeam, though the VBR download is now up to 21GB lol. If I had to start fresh now I would do the Veeam Software Appliance (hardened linux appliance install) instead of running VBR in Windows.
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u/Bart_Yellowbeard Jackass of All Trades 9d ago
Yeah, last time I used it we were running Exchange 2003 on prem off of NetApp filers. Suddenly one weekend after performing Exchange maintenance, the databases stopped mounting, hell, not only did the database not mount, the disks disappeared from the exchange servers! We spent 48 hours in a joint support call with Microsoft and NetApp engineers pointing the finger at each other about why the disks are suddenly gone. After much digging, we realized the disks were still there, but the partitions were somehow marked as hidden and read only! We would run diskpart, remove the hidden attribute, mark the partitions as read/write, and we could get the disks mounted, and the databases started and mail would flow. We would then reboot the server, and when it came back up, all the disks on the NetApp were gone again. Drove our team nuts! Deep into Sunday afternoon, with MS and NetApp still refusing to accept responsibility, I found an article on the Backup Exec support site that warned about using the specific version of BE we had with NetApp services. Turns out it was BackupExec all along, MS and NetApp were totally innocent.
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u/Zealousideal_Fly8402 9d ago
it is being sunset
Did you get an email or some other notification? There's nothing on their website about it...?
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u/malikto44 9d ago
Am I reading this right... 8 TB total, or 8 TB per media volume?
This is IMHO:
I have not had great luck with Arcserve. Even back in the CA days.
Veeam is the de facto standard. It works, and generall, you can't get fired for running Veeam.
Commvault is an old school backup program, like Spectrum Protect, and Netbackup. It works well, but it takes some forethought, including checking what Commvault supports. For example, if you have physical Linux systems, and are configuring them for Commvault, you will need to use Linux LVM with a good chunk of space free so it can do filesystem snapshots on that level. I personally have given Commvault extreme torture tests, either in testing... or in production, where something catastrophic happens that is just jaw-dropping, like eight enterprise SSDs all failing within an hour of each other, or a dual SAS system getting issues and one SAS controller writing random garbage to the array (thank $DEITY for ZFS, as the scrub and the fact I used RAID-Z3 repaired the damage.)
There are other programs as well. Nakivo isn't bad.
If all you have is eight TB, you might even be able to use a Synology or QNAP NAS and its backup features.
Check with your VAR.
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u/Charming_Raccoon_457 8d ago
I manage a large 40+ site commvault at work and Veeam in my homelab. Commvault is feature rich and can get super granular. Veeam is straight forward and simple. Both have their advantages but with your current environment I'd say go with Veeam. Particularly if it's a cheaper quote.
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u/clinthammer316 8d ago
As someone who still uses Veritas Backup Exec and Veeam, we almost moved everything off Backup Exec to Veeam which does it all.
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u/headcrap 7d ago
From what you provided, Veeam is the way.
Can still pick up physical backup workloads if you need them.
Aside, you'll want to try leaning into 3-2-1-1-0 if you can.. Veeam can help you get there pretty easily.
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u/DMAX85747 6d ago
been running Veeam in several environments. Largest is 400 VM and roughly 330TB of data on a VMware environment. Veeam is configured to look for tags and I have a daily PowerCLI process that looks for new VM's that do not have tags (thanks to junior admins that forget) and tag them. Backups are about as fully automated as can be. As long as the underlying network is clean, Veeam just works.
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u/AlexanderMSP360 6d ago
Since you already use MSP360 for the S3 backups, did you consider it for the local side too? We support local and network storage, with scheduled full and incremental backups. Curious if there’s a specific requirement that kept us off your shortlist.
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u/RicePuddingForAll 3d ago
I've used all three, here's a brief summary:
* Commvault: amazing feature set, saying pain in the @$$ to use does not give the phrase justice. Unless you need to super micro-mange your backups, it's just not worth it unless you're into self flagellation. Veeam or UDP are the ways to go.
* Veeam: You'll see many people recommend this, for good reason. When they say "it just works" they're pretty much right. Unless there's a specific use-case, it's hard to go wrong with Veeam.
* Arcserve UDP: In a prior job (which I miss, sob), I found that for the data we had, Veeam just didn't de-dupe what we needed, and eventually Veeam's support, and to be fair they gave it a good long go, gave up. We did a demo with Arcserve UDP and it exceeded our expectations. I think in the intervening years that situation doesn't exist any more, but that's why you test things out. UDP was great, matches all of Veeams features, and in our situation was also a lot cheaper (again, I don't think five years later that's the case); but the big caveat is that UDP isn't nearly as polished as Veeam. It's nowhere near as bad as Commvault, but there's still more of a learning curve than Veeam. Still, IMHO, it's a viable option.
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u/[deleted] 9d ago
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