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Veritas Backup Exec Agent for Unix / Linux on Debian

When you are using Veritas Backup Exec on a Windows backup server you may want to install the agent on your Debian host in order to back it up onto your company's tape. Although the Debian distribution is not officially supported by Veritas a successful installation works. Look at the following steps to know how I did it.

  • First you have to get the RALUS directory from your Backup Exec Agent software CD.
  • Change to the directory with the .rpm packages:

    root@debian:~$     cd RALUS/linux/pkgs/linux

  • If you do not have already the alien package installed, do:

    root@debian:~$     apt-get install alien

  • Convert the .rpm packages to the Debian format (.deb) and install them:

    root@debian:~/RALUS/linux/pkgs/linux$ alien VRTSralus-10.00.5484-0.i386.rpm
    root@debian:~/RALUS/linux/pkgs/linux$ alien VRTSvxmsa-4.2.1-211.i386.rpm
    root@debian:~/RALUS/linux/pkgs/linux$ dpkg -i vrtsralus_10.00.5484-1_i386.deb
    root@debian:~/RALUS/linux/pkgs/linux$ dpkg -i vrtsvxmsa_4.2.1-212_i386.deb

  • Install an additional library which is needed by the remote agent (check for other missing libraries with the command ldd):

    root@debian:~$ apt-get install libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2

  • Link the start script for the daemon to /etc/init.d:

    root@debian:~$ ln -s /opt/VRTSralus/bin/VRTSralus.init /etc/init.d/

  • The program in order to generate a configuration file is not installed by the converted .deb packages. However it can be extracted from the archive ralus.tar which is located in the same directory as the .rpm packages. Below you find a basic /etc/VRTSralus/ralus.cfg: Notice that the entry "Software\VERITAS\Backup Exec\Engine\Agents\Agent Directory List 1" has to be set to the Windows Backup Server, in this case this is the IP address 10.0.0.2. You can also use a host name, however you have to make sure that the linux server can resolve the host name properly (check /etc/hosts). If you would like to generate more debug messages while running in debug mode set the entry "Software\VERITAS\Backup Exec\Engine\Logging\RANT NDMP Debug Level" to one. The rest of the entries are more or less self explanatory. For more information check the websites below.

  • If you would like to change the port over which the backup server will talk to the server you have to do two things. This could for example be the case if you have already running another daemon on the port 10000 (for example webmin). First of all you need to add the following line to the /etc/services on the linux host: 
    ndmp            12000/tcp                       # Network Data management Protocol (Veritas Backup Exec)

    Now you also need to change the port on the windows host! This can be done by adding the same line to the file C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\services.

  • Ronald van der Stam pointed out to add an additional line to /etc/services. Add the following to the file /etc/services if the installation does not work for you (actually it worked for me...): 
    grfs                   6101/tcp        # Backup Exec Agent
  • The last step is to create a group with the name beoper and to add the user under which the beremote will run to add to this newly created group. Notice that the user needs to have root privileges.



    root@debian:~$ groupadd beoper
    root@debian:~$ adduser root beoper

  • Now you can start or stop the daemon on the linux host:

    root@debian:~$ /etc/init.d/VRTSralus.init [ start ¦ stop ]

  • On the windows host you have to do another very important step in order to perform the linux host backup. You have to add the license key for the linux agent. Look at the picture below to see the end result:



  • As soon as the daemons are restarted on both the windows and the linux host you see under the remote selection place in a backup job definition field (on the windows host) an entry for your linux box.





  • If you click now on the entry for the linux host you have to enter a new user / password pair. This is the user under which the daemon runs on the linux host, i.e. probably root.





  • Then you can browse all the directories of the linux server.





  • Check this websites for more information:

    How to manually install and uninstall the Remote Agent for Linux or UNIX Servers (RALUS)
    How to hard code file and directory exclusions in Ralus.cfg
    How to run the VERITAS Backup Exec (tm) Remote Agent for UNIX or Linux server in debug mode
    How to change the default port used by the Backup Exec 9.x and 10.x Remote Agent for Windows Servers
    Troubleshooting the inability to see or attach to systems with the Backup Exec Agent for Linux / UNIX
    The Backup Exec Remote Agent for Linux/UNIX Servers is unable to browse directories on remote Linux/UNIX computers with filenames containing non EUC encoded characters.

  • Document History
    • 07.04.2006 : Modification of ralus.cfg to override localization detection
    • 06.01.2006 : Ronald van der Stam () pointed out to add an additional line to /etc/services. Thanks!
    • 14.12.2005 : Inital Document

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