Installing VERITAS Backup Exec 10 agent on Debian
Blogged on 28th December 2006 at 12:54:15 in Linux
I've just placed the first Debian server for production use in the rack at work. This is running Nagios and MRTG for our Network Operations Centre.

This needs to be added to our backup schedule. We're using VERTIAS Backup Exec 10 for Windows as our media server. No problem, I though. We have the UNIX/Linux agent installation on CD. I've used the ArvServe UNIX agent in the past and this was a piece of cake to install. The VERITAS agent wasn't quite as simple.

I've typed up a few notes on how to install the VERTIAS agent under Debian. Credit to newvibes.net which helped me out initially. A few things needed to be changed...

First, install the following packages:

aptitude install libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2
aptitude install alien



Edit /etc/services and at the end should be a "Local" section. Add to this:

ndmp 12000/tcp # Network Data management Protocol (Vertias Backup Exec)
grfs 6101/tcp # Backup Exec Agent



Create a group called beoper and add root to it:

groupadd beoper
useradd root beoper



Mount the CDROM containing the UNIX agent and copy the "linux" directory to your system:

mount /media/cdrom
cp -Rp /media/cdrom/linux /tmp



Convert the RPMs to deb packages using alien and install the deb packages:

cd /tmp/linux/pkgs/linux
alien VRTSralus-10.00.5629-0.i386.rpm
alien VRTSvxmsa-4.2.1-211.i386.rpm
dpkg -i vrtsralus_10.00.5629-1_i386.deb
dpkg -i vrtsvxmsa_4.2.1-212_i386.deb



Once installed, edit the /etc/VRTSralus/ralus.cfg file to point the agent to your Windows VERITAS media server. "Server1" below can be a DNS name (ensure it can be resolved) or an IP address:

Software\VERITAS\Backup Exec\Engine\Agents\Agent Directory List A=server1



I noticed the init script didn't actually stop the beremote process. To resolve this, I had to edit /opt/VRTSralus/bin/VRTSralus.init and replace -SIGTERM for -9 at lines 76 and 78.

Set the agent to start when the system boots:

cd /etc/rc2.d
ln -s /opt/VRTSralus/bin/VRTSralus.init S30VRTSralus



Finally, keep your fingers crossed and start the agent:

/etc/rc2.d/S30VRTSralus start



Edit the backup job on the Windows VERITAS media server and drill down remote selections. "UNIX agents" should now appear. You will need to create a new logon account in VERITAS. You should be prompted to do this. Use the root account.

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Comments
Comment by Pierre on 12th February 2008 at 15:00:49
Hi,

did you find why the process doesn't stop with the pkill -15 ? I don't like to kill -9 the process, but it's my only solution today.

Pierre
 
Comment by Johan New window on 15th July 2008 at 10:31:12
It works also for Backup Exec 12, but you have to install libstdc++5 instead of libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2.

Adding root to beoper is done as

usermod -G beoper root

in the line

alien VRTSvxmsa-x.y.z-q.i386.rpm

I added

--scripts

althoug I'm not sure this is necessary.

Instead of changing '-SIGTERM' to '-9', you have to change '-15' to '-9' on the same lines (76 en 78)
 
Comment by Justin New window on 17th November 2008 at 00:49:45
The line for the backup exec 12 agent in /etc/VRTSralus/ralus.cfg is
Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\Agents\Agent Directory List A=x

where x is either the ip address or dns name of the BE media server.

Also as mentioned elsewhere this uses the same port as webmin so either uninstall that or change its port.