How Backup Exec works

You use the Backup Exec Administration Console to submit backup, restore, and utility operations. Administrators can run the Administration Console from the media server (a Windows server on which Backup Exec is installed) or from a remote computer. After jobs are created, the Backup Exec media server processes the jobs or delegates the jobs for processing, depending on your environment.

Most interaction with Backup Exec, such as submitting jobs, viewing results, and performing device and media operations, is done through the Administration Console.

Figure: Backup and restore functionality for the entire network

Symantec Backup Exec howbeworks How Backup Exec works

Through the Administration Console, you configure the job defaults that you want Backup Exec to use for most jobs. However, you can override these default options while setting up a specific job such as a weekly backup of selected workstations, called resources. You can create a once-only job, such as the restore of a file to a server. Or, you can schedule recurring jobs, such as daily backup jobs. You can use policies to manage the recurring jobs that make up your backup strategy.

Wizards guide you through most Backup Exec operations, including the creation of a backup or restore job, setting up media rotation jobs, and setting media overwrite protection.

You can monitor a job’s progress through the Job Monitor, or use Backup Exec’s Calendar to quickly view all jobs scheduled to run for the day, week, or month.

The media server contains the media and device databases that organize and allocate the storage devices that are accessible to the media server. These databases also help prevent media from being accidentally overwritten. Through Backup Exec’s device management functions, you can logically group storage devices together in device pools to share the backup workload. Through the media management function, you can organize, track, and troubleshoot all of the media in your library.

After a job has been processed, the job’s results are stored in a job history database. A record of the data that was backed up is kept in Backup Exec’s catalog. The job history is a report of what happened during the processing of the job (statistics, errors, and so on), and the catalog file is the record from which restore selections are made.

How Backup Exec works