Veritas NetBackup Reviews

Almost all customers use the product for backing up file systems, VMs, and Oracle or SQL databases. Our customers use the solution for data protection and managing the backups.

The solution offers the hardware and the software at the same time. It is the main advantage.

I do not like the way we currently schedule backups. The solution must provide a different way to schedule backups.

I have been working with the product since 2010.

The tool is stable. I rate the stability an eight out of ten.

I rate the tool’s scalability an eight out of ten.

I have also worked with Metallic. I was a solution architect for the customer who migrated from Veritas NetBackup to Metallic. I also have experience with TSM and Data Protector. We manage the backups and data. The solution providers manage the backup infrastructure. All the solutions are great.

If we do the deployment once, the second time will be easier. The number of people required for deployment depends on the environment and its size. One person is enough to deploy the solution if there is no hardware to deploy. Our customers use the solution in multiple locations. Our latest customer has two main data centers and branch offices worldwide. The tool requires maintenance. If there are some bugs or errors that the administrator cannot resolve, we contact support.

I have experience as a backup administrator and solution architect. I do not know whether the solution has a SaaS version. Currently, the trend is to move to a SaaS-based backup solution. I would recommend the product to others. It is used by several customers. It is a good solution. Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten.

I used the product to back up all of the major servers at my location, including operating systems: UNIX, Linux, and Windows. 

There are a little more than 100 individual systems with around 1.2 PB of which at least 250 TB is continuously backed up with this product.

It has performed as advertised and I have used it for more than 18 years without any major loss of data or problems.

The support of a large number of different operating systems and applications.

Better ways of backing up larger filesystems with many, millions of small files.

We are using Veritas NetBackup to take backups at every level, from VMware level and SQL to the bare metal level.

I like NetBackup's anomaly detection and Linux storage features. 

NetBackup's Windows-level reporting could be improved. 

I have used NetBackup for more than two years.

I rate NetBackup 10 out of 10 for stability. 

NetBackup is scalable

I rate Veritas support eight out of 10. We have issues reaching them during some hours, and we need to escalate through several levels to get a resolution. Sometimes tickets stay open for days.

Positive

NetBackup is too complex to set up. 

NetBackup isn't cheap. 

I rate Veritas NetBackup 10 out of 10. It's a flexible platform that isn't technically complex. 

I primarily use the solution to back up my customer's CMs or servers inside all of their data centers.

The VM portal and the CloudCatalyst are two of the solution's most valuable features.

The interaction of NetBackup with the cloud is not an easy process. You can't choose, for example, data optimization with the cloud. We would like to use CloudCatalyst with AWS and we can't. I don't know how to explain it, but the data file optimization is not usable everywhere. It's not a seamless solution in all instances. We'd like it to be multi-cloud and it's not there yet.

It would be helpful, in future releases, if the solution could add WORM (Write Once Read Many) support right within the product.  

The solution would benefit from the addition of disaster recovery.

I've been using the solution for five years now.

The stability is quite good. We haven't had issues with the product crashing. There aren't bugs or glitches that affect our work. It's reliable.

We're quite a sizable company. We've got maybe a 1000 operations and maybe 200 people working on projects. The solution is extensively used on a daily basis by our teams.

The solution is very scalable. We've scaled it ourselves within our organization and didn't have any issues. Other companies should feel confident that they can scale as well if they need to.

I personally have never contacted technical support, however, our operations teams have. I haven't heard anyone in our organization complain about their service which leads me to believe they've quite good. I would say overall our teams are satisfied with their level of service provided.

We previously used Dell EMC's Avamar solution. We decided to switch to Veritas after running into problems on Dell's platform and dealing with large overhead costs to have the solution.

The initial setup is not straightforward. it's quite complex. The process required a lot of engineering and had lots of components that needed to be addressed.

I don't recall the amount of time it took to deploy the solution.

The solution does require maintenance, however, I don't know too much about the process. We're a quite large company. I don't know how many people are working on this solution in total. 

The implementation was handled by us. We are a service provider for our clients. We didn't need an outside consultant or integrator to assist us. We have our own in-house team of engineers that can handle everything.

Compared to other solutions, such as Dell EMC's Avamar, the solution is reasonably priced. 

We've got a simple payment scheme set up where most of the features and the product itself are included in one single cost. It's quite straight forward in terms of pricing.

Since we are a service provider, we have a close relationship with Veritas. We offer services based on their technology and on their product.

I'd advise others considering implementing the solution to first evaluate against use cases. Depending on the use cases, the cost can change quite a lot. Overall, I'd recommend the solution, however. It's quite good and very reliable.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.

We use the solution for backup and recovery purposes. It serves as enterprise software and helps with virtualization environments, databases, and backups. It addresses our requirements for backups. 

Disaster recovery primarily involves backup usage. We employ it for both backup and recovery purposes. The backup and recovery processes have been executed multiple times, even restoring data from backups created three to four years ago.

We use the deduplication feature in Veritas NetBackup. This feature helps us to compress the information, especially when utilizing appliances, helping with our storage usage. It has been very beneficial for us. The feature has resulted in significant space savings, especially when performing daily full backups for various applications.

The product itself includes all the necessary database and data security features. Initially associated with Symantec, even after being separated, it retains all its security capabilities independently.

We are facing a challenge regarding the support for Docker and Kubernetes features. We hope for the possibility of directly backing up Kubernetes and Docker images without the necessity of taking full virtual machine backups.

I have been working with the product for ten years. 

The solution is stable and we haven't encountered any instability. 

The product is scalable, and despite experiencing data growth of around 20 to 25 percent, we have been able to handle backups without encountering any issues. Currently, we have two resources working with Veritas NetBackup. However, they are not exclusively dedicated to NetBackup; they also manage different applications. We have about 400 endpoint servers. 

When needed, we open cases within our backup team. An engineer then troubleshoots the issues and responds to any required adjustments or additional information needed for the backup system.

Positive

The initial setup process was not complex. We have gone through it multiple times and performed updates on several occasions, making the process straightforward. The deployment process for Veritas NetBackup is straightforward. It involves setting up a master server and a media server.

You can assign both roles to a single server or keep them separate. Additionally, clients, representing the machines for which backups are needed, require the installation of a client component. Ensuring open communication ports is crucial for successful backup operations. If the implementation engineer is skilled, they can handle the deployment process independently.

It's not difficult to maintain Veritas NetBackup. Maintenance mainly involves upgrades; as long as there are no issues, it runs smoothly day and night. Regular upgrades are the only maintenance requirement for the system.

At times when data is needed and not available, it becomes a significant challenge in organizations. However, with Veritas NetBackup, we haven't faced such issues. Despite being relatively expensive, it is not as complex as some other solutions, providing value for money.

The solution is expensive compared to other products. 

I would recommend Veritas NetBackup as it is relatively easy to manage and can serve as a single-vendor solution. If deployed correctly, it proves to be a good solution with integrated security and scalability. I rate it a nine out of ten. 

We use the product to backup and restore servers and applications.

The tool's most valuable feature is backups. 

The product needs to improve its GUI. It needs to make use of a web interface. 

I have been working with the product for nine years. 

We rarely have issues with the product. The last major issue happened when our infrastructure went down. I rate its stability an eight out of ten. 

The product is scalable. It is a straightforward process, and you don't need any training. I rate it an eight out of ten. 

I have worked with SolarWinds before. It focuses on server uptime. 

The tool's deployment is straightforward and gets completed in months. 

A vendor helped us with the deployment. 

After uploading servers and applications to the Veritas NetBackup application, we schedule backups to run when our applications are least active, ensuring that resources are available for the backup process. Additionally, we perform quarterly restores to validate the integrity of our backups, ensuring that all data backed up in each month of the quarter can be successfully restored.

We have backups in three different environments. We have a retention policy for our backups, typically set to three months. We also have a policy to archive the backups to our library. Even after the three-month retention on the media server, we keep a copy in our ADAP environment, which retains data for longer.

Recently, we encountered an issue where most of our DR environment went offline, resulting in the loss of several servers. Fortunately, we had the catalog from Veritas NetBackup, which allowed us to restore our environment quickly. Instead of reinstalling everything from scratch, we could pick up where we left off by restoring the backups in different environments.

New users can search for the product online, read what they want to do, and do it on their own. I rate it a nine out of ten. 

The primary use case for this solution is as a backup. We use virtual infrastructure and use it as a backup for the SQL server, for example. We provide solutions to different companies that are handling many releases and it's important to have backups for the infrastructure. 

Sometimes there are bottlenecks in the backup infrastructure or there are some profile issues. If you have big infrastructure, you need to have a team and backup infrastructure in place in order to back up smaller sites and provide better, more efficient, solutions. 

We can easily expand the ability of the solution. 

It's great that we can have a backup for the server architecture.

It works with various solutions, including VMware, SolarWinds, and all the OS you can imagine. 

The solution centralizes everything. I can do everything from one pane of glass.

If we want to, we can work with tape and make libraries for offline backups. We can do off-site backups and work with cloud services as well. 

This is a solution you can rely on. You are sure when you have a backup. When you need to restore, it's always successful. There are no inconsistency issues. 

It easily adjusts to your future needs. If you want to, you can easily change your license. You don't need to change your backup solution. It's also easy to add features. 

There may be a learning curve. It can be a bit hard to understand when you are trying to figure out how it works. The interface could be a bit more user-friendly. It would be better if it were simpler. The process workflows when working with the solution could be easier as well. 

There are a few things that could be improved from an administrator standpoint. If it could be possible to change a basic disk to an advanced disk without including the backup, for example, that would be ideal.

I've used the solution for about four years. 

I'd rate the stability ten out of ten. It's very stable. 

We have experience deploying the solution over a network of multiple sites.

There are a lot of endpoints. We have between 1,000 and 5,000 users - no more than that. We do work with servers. 

The solution scales well. As long as you have the hardware, you are fine. I'd rate scalability nine out of ten. We're working with the solution more and more. We may expand usage. 

Technical support has taken care of us very well. I don't use them a lot, however. I tend to go to my colleagues to ask questions. Technical support is kind of a last resort. 

Positive

I'm also familiar with Veritas Backup Exec. There are other solutions. However, they work in the background. We moved to this solution based on its reliability. It offers a better backup experience, and it works with our server infrastructure without any hesitation.

I was involved with the implementation. We would have to devise retention policies and strategies for our backups. After we did that, we did a central setup and implementation. We also maintain the backups. If we ran into issues, we had a clear troubleshooting process. It was a bit complex. It would take us one to two days to deploy it. 

We had two or three people involved in the deployment process. One person manages the strategy, and another checks everything and goes on to perform maintenance. 

I have some colleagues who are backup professionals, and I sometimes would ask them for assistance. There's a community out there that can help. However, my first step is to reach out to colleagues. 

We do witness an ROI in regard to being able to avoid losing data. Fear of data loss no longer exists. When you invest in backups, you are investing in your most valuable assets. 

The product is expensive. That said, it's not meant for small businesses. It's for enterprises. You can add more features to it, and those cost more.

We did evaluate other solutions. This offered good documentation that was quite accessible. 

We did look into Commvault, which is an awesome tool. However, it had some limitations with accessibility and knowledge sharing. 

For this solution, I'm not very specialized. I am a technical manager. While I'm familiar with it, I do not specifically focus on the platform. 

We are end users of the solution. 

This is the top solution on the market. 

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. Others should not hesitate to use the solution. Once you have some experience, you'll like it. 

In terms of most valuable features, I like the fact that if you have a bunch of backups, NetBackup gives you the ability to have one master and multiple media servers. What that means is you can have a bunch of sites that all have libraries and you have one master server that controls all the functionality of all the jobs. You don't have to deploy a standup NetBackup solution at each site. You can just deploy the media version for their tape library and have one master server that controls all the jobs.

What I also like about NetBackup, as opposed to most solutions like Rubrik and Cohesity, which don't really support backing up to tape environments, is that NetBackup does. If you are running on a legacy tape environment NetBackup is best. Most of the guys I've seen that use NetBackup have a tape environment.

The flip side about NetBackup is that it is not policy-based. NetBackup doesn't give you that feature. For example, Rubrik is a policy-based type of app, so when you create a backup job with it, say you have 30 servers in that backup, you can make one policy and apply it to them all. NetBackup doesn't do that. With NetBackup, you need to create a backup job for each server you want to back up and for each server you have. That is the only thing I don't really like about NetBackup. I can use Rubrik or Cohesity where you can create one policy, and apply it to many servers at one time where with NetBackup, you can't do that. You create a backup for each server. That takes more time.

If they can improve on policy-based backups, that would be great.

I have been using Veritas NetBackup for about 10 or 11 years.

I think that the last version I used was version six. They're probably up to eight or 10 now. But really nothing has changed. Maybe additional features from the last time I saw it, but not really much has changed. I think they made a version 10.

The last time I went online I didn't really see much difference from a feature perspective since I began using it. I think the GUI interface looks a little different, a little cleaner, but functionality-wise, I didn't really see much change.

In terms of stability, no problem. Like I said, if you have multiple tape libraries, you can have one master that has a bunch of multiple media services. So you can have tape libraries all scattered at different sites. The one master server you set up controls all the job functions. When you log into it, it just kicks off the jobs and you can pause jobs. For different sites, you can keep the job turned off. It controls all the functions and all the backup jobs for all the multiple sites. That's all the master server does. It doesn't actually do any backup. It's responsible for making the kicked off jobs to get backed up.

Their customer support is not bad. I don't have any issues with technical support. Technical support is okay.

The initial setup is very easy. Commvault has a lot more convoluted setup. NetBackup is really easy to set up. I've never used Commvault, but from other colleagues I know who use it, you need professional services because it's so convoluted to set up. NetBackup is not that convoluted. Commvault is nice. It's a very nice application, don't get me wrong. I'm not going to put it down or anything like that. Once it's running, it's a good product. But from being exposed to Commvault a little, I like NetBackup better. I just think the downside to NetBackup is that it's not policy driven. That's the only thing I don't like about it.

Pricing depends on the number of licenses and on the number of servers you have. It varies based on the number of servers that you're trying to back up.

My advice to anyone considering Veritas NetBackup is to validate. If you have multiple sites, it's better to have the setup. If you have multiple sites that are running a tape library and media servers, you can set up one master server. But if you only have one site, you can set up a backup as a media server and a master server. If you have multiple sites, you want to look at how many sites you are backing up. If it's multiple sites, then you want to set them up with one master server.

If you only have one site, then you have the media server and the master, and it does both. That would be my suggestion - to validate if there is more than one site you're going to be backing up. If you are going to be backing up more than one site, you want to properly set up the first time. If you only have one site you're backing up, set it up as a master media. If you have multiple sites to set up, you want to set them up as media servers and then set up one master server that controls all the functions for the remaining sites. That is really the biggest thing, to be honest with you.

You might want to confirm if it supports backing up to Azure or AWS. Some people want to do long-term archiving. You want to confirm whether or not NetBackup supports backup to Azure or Google Cloud or AWS from a long-term archiving perspective.

Some people backup to tape. Some people are going to say that you can't back up the disk with NetBackup. I just don't know if it supports backing up to cloud providers.

On a scale of one to ten, I'd say NetBackup is an eight. It's pretty strong. I don't have other problems. I would say it's definitely a strong eight. It's a pretty good product.