Backup Exec Beta FAQ

This morning the Backup Exec Beta team posted an update to their blog answering some questions they have been getting surrounding the beta program.

Here are the key points that I took away from this update.

• You must have Backup Exec 2010 or Backup Exec 2012 already installed on your system. The beta will be delivered as a Service Pack update and should be installed as such (SP3 for Backup Exec 2010 and SP2 for Backup Exec 2012).
• This initial delivery of the beta will only support remote protection (Agent for Windows) of Windows Server 2012, this means that Backup Exec must be installed on a Windows Server 2008 R2 box or lower.
• No multi-server jobs will be available in the initial release of the beta, the job monitor will also not be available..

Links to trail version of Backup Exec and Windows Server

Backup Exec 2010 https://www4.symantec.com/Vrt/offer?a_id=91912

Backup Exec 2012 https://www4.symantec.com/Vrt/offer?a_id=142338

Windows Server 2008 R2 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd459137.aspx

Windows Server 2012 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-au/evalcenter/hh670538.aspx

@PCVirus_AU
Titan Solutions

How do I know if KMS is working?

The first time I had to setup KMS I had no idea where to start. I had the KMS product key but no instructions on how to use it. Its not like your normal activation key so I had to hunt around the net to figure out what to do.

So what that in mind I bring you my quick and easy 5 second guide to knowing if KMS is working.

Firstly you will need to type the following commands from an elevated command prompt, even if you are an administrator (which I assume you would be) you need to run cmd.exe as an administrator.

Installing the KMS key

To install a KMS key type slmgr.vbs /ipk <KMS Key>
ipk stands for Install Product Key, it will also replace the exsisting key if one is already installed the server.

slmgr.vbs /dli will the Display the License Information. This includes the KMS channel, the license status, current count and total cumulative requests received from clients.

KMS in Event Viewer

KMS also logs all its activations to the Event Viewer, you can find it under Server Manager, Diagnostics, Event Viewer, Application and Services Logs, Key Management Service. This can help you with troubleshooting activation issues.

No Logon Script!

 

 

In my company, we only had 1 logon script. It was used to do the usual stuff map network drives, add printers and a couple of other little things like reg key changes.

I dont know why, but I have never been a fan of logon scripts so when I was handed this Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 R2 deployment I decided to get rid of the logon script if at all possible.

The great thing about Windows Server 2008 R2 is that Group Policy has all these great Preferences settings that you can control, and the first one that caught my attention was “User Configuration\Preferences\Windows Settings\Drive Maps”

The best thing to do when setting up a entry under the Drive Maps preferences is set the action as “Replace”, that way if you need to make changes in the future such as changing a location it will dynamically update as its replacing this setting if changed at each Group Policy refresh. We have 4 drives mapped and our users connect via VPN about 25% of the time. When they did this before, they had to run a script to remap the drives, as part of Group Policy its always mapped for them.

Under “User Configuration\Preferences\Windows Settings\Registry” you can apply any registry tweaks to workstations, which removes another use for a logon script at my company. I only have 2 reg key updates in there 1 for a communication software we use and another for the desktop wallpaper due to an issue with themes in Windows 7

Finally If you setup your sever as a Print server you can deploy your printers via Group Policy and that eliminates the need for a logon script at my workplace, while only a small thing and we only have 80 odd users I feel that it just all seems cleaner.

PCV