The following best practices help you use the Agent for VMware effectively:

• Install the Backup Exec Agent for Windows on any virtual machines on which you want to use Backup Exec's Granular Recovery Technology (GRT).

• To use GRT when you create a restore job, select the individual drives, files, and folders that you want to restore.

  You cannot select individual drives, folders, and files from the virtual machines that appear when you expand VMware vCenter and ESX Servers.

• Note that if you select the vCenter server or the ESX server as a backup resource, all virtual machines are backed up. For a recurring job, any virtual machines that you add after the job is created are included in the backup.

• Note that if you select to back up the vCenter server or the ESX server, the backup job does not include the following:

  • Configuration files for the vCenter or the ESX server

  • Physical Raw Disk Mapping (RDM) devices

  • Independent disks

• Perform a weekly full backup.

• Back up to a disk-based storage device instead of a tape device.

• Ensure that the VMware Converter is installed on the Backup Exec server if you want to restore backup sets that were created with Backup Exec 12.5 for Windows Servers.

• Ensure that only one VSS Provider is installed on guest virtual machines. The VMware VSS Provider and the Symantec VSS Provider cannot reside on the same guest virtual machine.

• Back up virtual machines that do not support Granular Recovery Technology (GRT), such as Linux and Mac, in a separate job and deselect the four options to "Enable GRT for <Microsoft application name> on virtual machines".

If a virtual machine does not support GRT, but the options to enable application GRT are selected, the job will fail. Therefore, placing the virtual machines that do not support GRT in a separate backup job and deselecting the application GRT options will help to prevent job failures.

• To use Granular Recovery Technology for individual items from Microsoft Active Directory, Exchange, SharePoint, or SQL, do the following:

  • Install VMware Tools on the guest virtual machine.

  • Install the Agent for Windows on the guest virtual machine. You must install the VMware Tools before you install the Agent for Windows.

  • Ensure that you have a valid license for each application that you want to protect.

  • Ensure that the credentials for the guest virtual machine are valid for the application you want to protect.

  • Use the same requirements for backing up Microsoft Exchange on a physical computer when you back up Exchange on a virtual machine.