The following best practices help you use the Central Admin Server Option effectively:

• Ensure that no jobs are running and put scheduled jobs on hold before you perform an upgrade.

• Perform test run jobs only at a local Backup Exec server. You cannot dispatch jobs from a central administration server to a remote managed Backup Exec server.

The following best practices help you effectively optimize your network bandwidth:

• Ensure that distributed catalogs are used. CASO uses distributed catalogs by default. Catalog files are stored on the managed Backup Exec server. However, the central administration server includes some catalog metadata to enable centralized restore.

• Use the Export-BEBackupDefinition command in the Backup Exec Command Line Interface to recreate an existing backup definition on a different server. This command is similar to the Copy Job option that was available in previous versions of Backup Exec.

• Use the Copy Settings to Other Servers option to set options, such as default job options, schedules, error-handling rules, and alert configurations from one server to another server. This option can be accessed from the Backup Exec button > Configuration and Settings.

• Use the Create Simplified Disaster Recovery Disk wizard on the central administration server to create recovery media for any managed Backup Exec server or central administration server.

• Access the Settings options from the central administration server's Storage tab to reduce the frequency of job status updates that are sent from the managed Backup Exec server to the central administration server. To access the Send status updates to the central administration server every option, you must select Custom in the Connection settings field and then select Yes in the Send active job status updates to the central administration server field.

• Access the Settings options from the central administration server's Storage tab to increase the amount of time that Backup Exec waits before it changes the Backup Exec server's status if the Backup Exec server becomes unresponsive. To access the Communication stalled option, you must select Custom in the Connection settings field.

• Enable communications between the managed Backup Exec server and the central administration server before you delete a managed Backup Exec server from a CASO configuration. By enabling communications, Backup Exec can remove all of the necessary components for the deleted server from the database.

• Contact Symantec Technical Support for assistance before you reconfigure CASO. Reconfiguration errors can require a recovery of the managed Backup Exec servers, the central administration server, or the entire CASO environment.