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Symantec 250-314 (Administration of Symantec Backup Exec 2010 for Windows Servers) exam dumps vce, practice test questions, study guide & video training course to study and pass quickly and easily. Symantec 250-314 Administration of Symantec Backup Exec 2010 for Windows Servers exam dumps & practice test questions and answers. You need avanset vce exam simulator in order to study the Symantec 250-314 certification exam dumps & Symantec 250-314 practice test questions in vce format.
The Administration of Symantec Backup Exec 12 for Windows Servers certification, validated by the 250-314 Exam, was a significant credential for IT professionals responsible for data protection during its time. This certification was designed for network administrators, systems engineers, and backup specialists, verifying their skills in installing, configuring, managing, and troubleshooting Backup Exec 12. While this specific exam and product version are now retired, the underlying principles and concepts remain highly relevant and form the foundation of modern data protection strategies.
Understanding the material covered in the 250-314 Exam provides a valuable historical context and a solid grasp of the core tenets of backup and recovery that are timeless. This five-part guide will explore the key domains of the exam, treating it as a framework for learning fundamental data protection skills. We will cover the architecture of a backup solution, job creation, restore operations, and basic troubleshooting. This knowledge is not only academically interesting but also provides a strong base for anyone entering the field of data protection today.
Before delving into the specifics of the software, it is crucial to understand the fundamental business drivers behind data protection, a core theme of the 250-314 Exam. Two key metrics govern any recovery strategy: the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and the Recovery Point Objective (RPO). RTO defines the maximum acceptable downtime for a system after a failure. RPO defines the maximum amount of data loss that can be tolerated, measured in time. For example, an RPO of one hour means the business can afford to lose no more than one hour's worth of data.
These objectives dictate the backup strategy. To meet these goals, administrators use different backup types. A full backup copies all selected data. An incremental backup copies only the data that has changed since the last backup of any type. A differential backup copies all data that has changed since the last full backup. The 250-314 Exam required a deep understanding of how these backup types work together to balance backup window times, storage consumption, and the complexity of restores.
The 250-314 Exam was centered on the architecture of Backup Exec 12. At the heart of the environment is the Backup Exec Media Server. This is the server where the main Backup Exec software is installed. It is responsible for managing all backup and restore jobs, controlling the storage devices, and maintaining the central database and catalogs. The Media Server acts as the command center for the entire backup domain.
To back up other servers on the network, a piece of software called the Remote Agent for Windows Servers (RAWS) must be installed on them. The Remote Agent is a lightweight service that allows the Media Server to access the data on the remote machine for backup or to write data back during a restore. All administrative tasks are performed through the Backup Exec Administration Console, which can be installed on the Media Server or on an administrator's workstation for remote management.
A backup solution is only as good as its storage, and the 250-314 Exam covered the configuration of various storage types. Backup Exec 12 was designed to work with a wide range of storage hardware. The most traditional form of backup storage was magnetic tape. This included standalone tape drives as well as robotic tape libraries, which are devices that can automatically load and unload multiple tape cartridges, allowing for large-scale, automated backups.
In addition to tape, disk-based storage was becoming increasingly popular. Backup Exec 12 supported this through "Backup-to-Disk" folders, often abbreviated as B2D. A B2D folder is simply a directory on a server's local disk or a network share that Backup Exec can use as a target for backup jobs. Backing up to disk offered significant speed advantages for both backup and restore operations compared to tape, making it ideal for protecting critical systems with low RTO requirements.
Effective media management is critical for ensuring data is protected and recoverable over the long term, a key knowledge area for the 250-314 Exam. Backup Exec uses a concept called "media sets" to group and manage media. A media set defines the overwrite protection period and the append period for the media assigned to it. The overwrite protection period prevents the data on a piece of media from being erased for a specified amount of time, ensuring that recent backups are always available for recovery.
To manage media systematically, administrators often use a rotation strategy. A classic example is the Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) method. In this scheme, "Son" tapes are used for daily incremental backups, "Father" tapes are used for weekly full backups, and "Grandfather" tapes are used for monthly full backups that are often archived for long-term retention. This tiered approach provides a balance of short-term and long-term recovery points while managing media usage efficiently.
The primary interface for all tasks related to the 250-314 Exam syllabus was the Backup Exec 12 Administration Console. A thorough familiarity with its layout was essential. The console was organized into a series of tabs that provided access to different functional areas. The "Job Setup" tab was where administrators created and configured backup job templates. The "Job Monitor" tab provided a real-time view of all running and completed jobs, serving as the main dashboard for daily operations.
The "Devices" tab was used to view the status of and manage all configured storage hardware, such as tape drives and B2D folders. The "Media" tab provided a detailed inventory of all media known to Backup Exec, including tapes and disk-based backup sets. Finally, the "Reports" tab contained a library of pre-configured reports that could be used to analyze job history, media usage, and the overall health of the backup environment.
The 250-314 Exam expected candidates to be proficient in the installation and initial setup of the Backup Exec environment. The process began with installing the Backup Exec Media Server software on a dedicated Windows Server. The installer would guide the administrator through various steps, including entering license keys, selecting the components to be installed, and configuring the service account credentials that Backup Exec would use to run.
After the Media Server was installed, the next step was to deploy the Remote Agent for Windows Servers to all the machines that needed to be protected. This could be done through a "push" installation directly from the Administration Console, which was a convenient way to deploy the agent to multiple servers simultaneously. Once the agents were deployed, the final initial configuration steps included configuring the storage devices and creating the necessary media sets to prepare the system for the first backup jobs.
Creating a backup job is the most fundamental task for a Backup Exec administrator, and it was a core component of the 250-314 Exam. A backup job in Backup Exec 12 is a collection of settings that defines what data to back up, where to store it, when to run the backup, and how to perform it. The process begins by creating a new job and giving it a descriptive name. The job is built using a properties-based interface, with different sections for each aspect of the configuration.
The main components of a job include the "Selections," which define the source data; the "Device and Media," which specifies the storage target; and the "Schedule," which determines when the job will run. Additionally, there are numerous options for notifications, verification, and performance tuning. The 250-314 Exam required a detailed understanding of all these settings and how they interact to create an effective and reliable backup policy.
The "Selections" section of a backup job is where you specify exactly what data you want to protect. The 250-314 Exam tested the ability to accurately define these selections. Backup Exec presents a view of the network that allows you to browse and select resources. You can select an entire server, which would include all of its local drives and its System State. Alternatively, you can be more granular and select individual drives, folders, or even specific files.
For greater control, Backup Exec also provided the ability to use include and exclude filters. For example, you could select an entire volume for backup but create an exclude rule to skip all MP3 files to save storage space. This level of granularity was important for tailoring backup jobs to meet specific business requirements and for optimizing the use of the backup window and storage capacity. An accurately configured selection list is the first step toward a successful backup.
A key knowledge area for the 250-314 Exam was the practical application of different backup methods. As discussed previously, the main types are full, incremental, and differential. In Backup Exec 12, these methods were often based on the "archive bit," a file attribute used by Windows. When a file is created or modified, Windows sets its archive bit. A full backup copies all selected files and then clears the archive bit for all of them.
An incremental backup copies only the files that have their archive bit set, and then it clears the bit for the files it backed up. A differential backup also copies only the files with a set archive bit, but it does not clear the bit afterwards. This subtle difference has a significant impact on restore procedures. Understanding this mechanism was crucial for designing a backup strategy and for troubleshooting why certain files were or were not being included in a backup.
Automation is key to a reliable backup strategy, and the scheduling capabilities of Backup Exec 12 were a testable topic on the 250-314 Exam. The schedule determines when a backup job is submitted to run. The scheduling options were highly flexible. You could schedule a job to run on a specific one-time basis or to recur on a regular cycle. Recurring jobs could be set to run daily, weekly, or monthly on specific days of the week or dates of the month.
In addition to the submission time, you could also define a "run window," which specified the period during which the job was allowed to execute. This was useful for ensuring that resource-intensive backup jobs only ran during off-peak hours, such as overnight or on weekends, to minimize the impact on production systems and network performance. A properly configured schedule is essential for the "set it and forget it" reliability that businesses expect from their backup solution.
A critical part of managing a backup environment is being aware of job outcomes. The 250-314 Exam required knowledge of how to configure notifications and alerts. Backup Exec 12 could be configured to automatically send notifications to administrators based on the result of a job. For example, you could set up an email alert to be sent to the entire IT team whenever a backup job failed. This allows for prompt investigation and remediation of any issues.
Notifications could be configured for a variety of events, including job success, job cancellation, media errors, and requests for a specific piece of media. The notifications could be sent to specific email recipients, broadcast to the network, or sent to a network management system via SNMP traps. These proactive alerts are essential for ensuring that backup failures do not go unnoticed, which could otherwise lead to a situation where critical data is not protected.
In a busy environment with many backup jobs, it was sometimes necessary to manage the order in which they ran. For the 250-314 Exam, you were expected to understand the concept of job priority. Each backup job could be assigned a priority level, from lowest to highest. When multiple jobs were scheduled to start at the same time and were competing for the same resources (like a single tape drive), the job with the highest priority would be run first.
This was important for ensuring that the backups of the most critical servers were completed first. For example, you would typically assign a higher priority to the backup of a mission-critical database server than to the backup of a less important file server. This feature provided administrators with a tool to align the backup operations with the business priorities of the organization.
Using disk as a backup target was a key feature in Backup Exec 12, and its configuration was a topic on the 250-314 Exam. A Backup-to-Disk (B2D) folder is created through a wizard in the Administration Console. During the setup, you would specify the path to the folder, which could be on a local disk, a SAN-attached volume, or a network share. You could also configure properties for the B2D folder, such as the number of concurrent jobs it could handle.
Once a B2D folder was created, it would appear as a storage device and could be selected as the target in a backup job. Backups written to a B2D folder are stored as files with a .BKF extension. One important aspect of managing B2D folders was the concept of backup sets. Each job run would create one or more backup sets within the .BKF file. These backup sets were the individual recovery points that you would see when performing a restore.
The ability to successfully restore data is the ultimate purpose of any backup system. The 250-314 Exam placed a strong emphasis on understanding the entire restore process. A restore operation is essentially the reverse of a backup. It involves reading data from the backup media (tape or disk) and writing it back to a live system. The process is almost always initiated in response to a data loss event, which could range from a single accidentally deleted file to the complete failure of a server.
The restore process in Backup Exec 12 was designed to be wizard-driven, guiding the administrator through the necessary steps. The key stages of a restore include selecting the data to be recovered, choosing the point in time from which to recover it, specifying the destination for the restored data, and configuring various options that control how the restore is performed. A calm, methodical approach to restores is a critical skill for any backup administrator.
The first step in any restore is to select the data you want to recover. The 250-314 Exam required a thorough understanding of how to navigate the backup sets to find the correct data. Backup Exec 12 provided several ways to view the backed-up data. The most common method was the "View by Resource" approach. This presented a familiar, tree-like view of the servers that had been backed up. You could expand a server to see its drives and then browse the folder structure just as you would in Windows Explorer.
Alternatively, you could use the "View by Media" or "View by Backup Set" options to see a chronological list of all the backups that had been performed. This was useful if you knew the exact date and time of the backup you needed to restore from. Once you located the desired files or folders, you would select them by placing a checkmark next to them, adding them to the restore selection list.
Once the data was selected, the next step was to define how the restore would be performed. This was a key knowledge area for the 250-314 Exam. The most common scenario was to restore the data to its original location on the original server. However, Backup Exec 12 also provided the flexibility to redirect the restore. You could redirect the data to a different server or to a different path on the original server. This was extremely useful for testing purposes or for recovering data to a temporary location.
Another critical set of options related to how Backup Exec should handle files that already existed in the restore destination. You could choose to overwrite existing files, skip existing files, or overwrite only if the version on the backup media was newer than the existing file. Understanding the implications of these choices was vital to avoid accidentally overwriting good data with an older version from a backup.
The 250-314 Exam covered not just file-level restores, but also the recovery of critical system components. The most important of these is the System State. The System State is a collection of components that are vital to the functioning of a Windows Server, including the Registry, boot files, and, on a domain controller, the Active Directory database. A backup of the System State is essential for recovering a server after an operating system corruption or failure.
Restoring the System State was a specialized operation that could not be redirected to an alternate location. It had to be restored to the original server. For domain controllers, this process required special care, often involving booting the server into a specific "Directory Services Restore Mode." A successful System State restore could save an administrator from having to completely rebuild a server from scratch.
A disaster is an event that causes the complete loss of a server or an entire data center. The 250-314 Exam required an understanding of the concepts of disaster recovery planning. A key principle of disaster recovery is that you must protect the backup server itself with the same diligence as your production servers. If the Backup Exec Media Server is lost in a disaster, you not only lose the ability to perform new backups, but you also lose the catalog of all your existing backups, making restores nearly impossible.
Therefore, a crucial part of any disaster recovery plan was to have a strategy for protecting and recovering the Backup Exec server. This involved regularly backing up the Backup Exec database and the catalogs, which contain all the information about your backup jobs and media. It was also a best practice to store a copy of this critical backup data off-site.
The Backup Exec database is the heart of the system, and its protection was a key topic for the 250-314 Exam. This database, which was typically a SQL Express instance, stores all the configuration information, job definitions, job history, and media information for the entire backup domain. The catalogs are separate files that contain the detailed index of which files are in which backup set. Without both of these components, Backup Exec would not know what has been backed up or where to find it.
Backup Exec 12 provided a built-in maintenance job that would automatically back up the database. It was an administrative best practice to ensure this backup was running daily. The catalogs were backed up as part of every normal backup job. A complete disaster recovery plan for the Backup Exec server involved ensuring that you had a recent backup of the database and a copy of all the catalog files stored in a safe, separate location.
In the event of a catastrophic failure of the Media Server, the 250-314 Exam expected you to know the high-level recovery process. The recovery would begin by building a new Windows Server with the same name and IP address as the failed server. You would then install the Backup Exec 12 software onto this new server. At this point, the new installation would have a completely empty database.
The next critical step was to restore the Backup Exec database from the backup you had safely stored. Once the database was restored, the new Backup Exec server would have all the job configurations and media information from the old server. The final step was to re-inventory the storage devices and run a catalog operation to re-read the catalog information from the backup media. This would repopulate the catalogs and bring the system back to a fully operational state, ready to perform restores.
While the standard Remote Agent could back up files and folders, it was not sufficient for properly protecting complex applications like Microsoft Exchange or SQL Server. The 250-314 Exam required a thorough understanding of the specialized agents and options available for Backup Exec 12. These agents provide application-aware backup capabilities. They integrate with the application's own APIs to ensure that the application is in a consistent state when the backup is taken and that all necessary components are captured.
Using a specialized agent is the only supported way to perform an online backup of an application, meaning the application can remain running and available to users during the backup process. This avoids the need for downtime. Furthermore, these agents enable granular restore capabilities that are not possible with a simple file-level backup. The 250-314 Exam expected candidates to know which agent was required for which application and the key features each agent provided.
Protecting Microsoft Exchange was a critical task for many administrators, and the Exchange Agent was a major topic on the 250-314 Exam. This agent allowed Backup Exec to perform online backups of the Exchange Server's storage groups and mailbox databases. It used Microsoft's own Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to create a consistent snapshot of the database before backing it up. This ensured that the backup was transactionally consistent and could be reliably restored.
A key feature enabled by the Exchange Agent was Granular Recovery Technology (GRT). With GRT, a single database-level backup could be used to restore not just the entire database, but also individual mailboxes, email messages, folders, and calendar items. This was a revolutionary feature at the time, as it eliminated the need to perform slow and cumbersome "brick-level" backups of individual mailboxes. GRT provided the best of both worlds: a fast, efficient database backup and a highly granular restore capability.
Similar to Exchange, the Agent for Microsoft SQL Server was essential for protecting database applications, and its functions were tested on the 250-314 Exam. The SQL Agent allowed Backup Exec to perform online backups of SQL Server databases. It could perform full, differential, and, most importantly, transaction log backups. Backing up the transaction logs is critical for databases that are in "Full Recovery Mode," as it allows for point-in-time restores.
For example, if a database became corrupted at 2:30 PM, an administrator could restore the last full backup and then apply all the subsequent transaction log backups up to the point just before the corruption occurred. This minimizes data loss, often meeting a very aggressive RPO. The SQL Agent provided the necessary integration to properly manage this backup and restore chain, ensuring the integrity and recoverability of the SQL databases.
The Agent for Microsoft Active Directory provided the tools needed to effectively back up and restore this critical infrastructure service. This was another important agent covered in the 250-314 Exam. While a System State backup of a domain controller does capture the Active Directory database, the AD Agent enabled more advanced recovery options. Specifically, it enabled the use of Granular Recovery Technology for Active Directory.
With GRT, an administrator could restore individual AD objects from a single System State backup without having to perform a full, authoritative restore of the entire directory service. This meant you could easily recover a single user account that was accidentally deleted or restore an organizational unit (OU) to a previous state. This granular restore capability saved a tremendous amount of time and reduced the risk associated with more complex AD recovery procedures.
For organizations that were heavily invested in disk-based backups, the Advanced Disk-Based Backup Option (ADBO) provided several powerful features. Knowledge of these advanced capabilities was part of the scope of the 250-314 Exam. ADBO was a separately licensed option that unlocked features designed to optimize backup and recovery from disk. One of its key features was the ability to create synthetic backups.
ADBO also enabled features like off-host backup, which could move the data processing workload from a production server to the Backup Exec Media Server, reducing the performance impact of the backup job. It was a key component for leveraging the full potential of a Backup-to-Disk strategy and was aimed at more advanced, enterprise-level backup environments.
Synthetic backups, a feature enabled by ADBO, were an advanced concept on the 250-314 Exam. A synthetic backup is a method for creating a full backup without having to read all the data from the source client again. The process starts with a traditional full backup to disk, followed by a series of incremental backups to disk. At a scheduled interval, Backup Exec can then "synthesize" a new full backup.
It does this by taking the data from the original full backup and merging it with the changed data from all the subsequent incremental backups. The result is a new, complete full backup set that is created entirely on the Media Server, without any impact on the production client or the network. This provided the benefit of having a recent full backup available for fast restores, while maintaining the daily efficiency of running only small, fast incremental backups on the client.
For larger organizations with multiple locations and multiple Backup Exec Media Servers, managing each server independently could be inefficient. The Central Admin Server Option (CASO), another advanced topic on the 250-314 Exam, solved this problem. CASO allowed an administrator to link multiple Media Servers together into a single, centrally managed domain. One Media Server would be designated as the Central Administration Server.
From the console of this central server, an administrator could manage all the backup jobs, storage devices, and policies for all the other managed Media Servers in the domain. It also provided a centralized catalog, allowing you to locate and restore data from any server in the domain from a single interface. CASO was the key to scaling Backup Exec for enterprise-wide deployments, providing a unified view and control over a distributed backup infrastructure.
A key daily task for any backup administrator is monitoring job activity, and this was a core competency for the 250-314 Exam. The Job Monitor tab in the Administration Console served as the central dashboard for this purpose. It provided a real-time view of all active, queued, and recently completed jobs. From this view, an administrator could quickly assess the health of the backup operations. Each job entry displayed key information, such as the job name, status, start time, and data transfer rate.
The Job Monitor was also an interactive tool. An administrator could right-click on a running job to perform actions like pausing, canceling, or holding the job. For completed jobs, double-clicking on the entry would open the job log, which is the first place to look when a job fails. Proactive monitoring of this screen is essential to catch and address backup failures in a timely manner.
In addition to monitoring jobs, the 250-314 Exam required knowledge of how to monitor the state of the backup hardware and media. The "Devices" tab provided a view of all configured storage devices. From here, an administrator could see the status of each tape drive, robotic library slot, and Backup-to-Disk folder. For tape drives, you could see if a drive was active, idle, or in need of cleaning. The console allowed you to perform tasks like cleaning drives, inventorying library slots, and taking devices offline for maintenance.
The "Media" tab provided a detailed inventory of all the media known to the Backup Exec system. You could see which media sets each tape belonged to, view its overwrite protection status, and identify which media was nearing the end of its usable life. Proper monitoring of devices and media is critical for preventing backup failures caused by hardware issues or a lack of available, writable media.
While the Job Monitor provided a real-time view, the reporting engine in Backup Exec 12 allowed for historical analysis and trend identification. The 250-314 Exam expected candidates to be familiar with the reporting capabilities. The "Reports" tab contained a library of pre-configured report templates covering a wide range of topics. For example, the "Job History" report provided a summary of all jobs run over a specific period. The "Media Required for Restore" report could tell you exactly which tapes were needed to recover a specific server.
These reports could be run on-demand and viewed directly in the console. For regular reporting, you could also schedule reports to be generated and distributed automatically. For instance, you could configure a daily email to be sent to the IT manager with a summary of the previous night's backup successes and failures. These reports are invaluable for capacity planning, auditing, and demonstrating compliance with data protection policies.
Troubleshooting is a critical skill for any administrator, and the 250-314 Exam would often present scenarios involving common errors. A frequent cause of backup failures is related to network communication. The Media Server might be unable to connect to the Remote Agent on a client, resulting in a communication error. This could be due to a firewall blocking the necessary ports or a name resolution issue.
Another common class of errors is related to security and permissions. The account that Backup Exec uses to run its jobs might not have sufficient permissions to access the files on a particular server, leading to "Access Denied" errors. Media-related errors are also common, such as a job failing because there is no available, writable tape in the library, or a restore failing because the required tape is off-site.
When faced with a failed job, a structured approach to troubleshooting is essential. The methodology tested in the 250-314 Exam starts with the job log. The job log, accessible from the Job Monitor, provides a detailed, step-by-step account of the job's execution and will almost always contain a specific error code and message that points to the cause of the failure. The first step is to carefully read this log and identify the exact point of failure.
If the job log is not clear, the next step is to check the Windows Event Logs on both the Media Server and the client server. The Application and System logs can often provide additional context, such as a related hardware or operating system error. Finally, if the issue appears to be network or security related, you would use standard tools to test connectivity (like ping) and verify the permissions of the Backup Exec service account.
For very complex or intermittent issues that could not be resolved through standard log analysis, the 250-314 Exam expected an awareness of the advanced diagnostic tools. The primary tool for this in Backup Exec 12 was the Debug Monitor, or SGMon.exe. This utility allowed an administrator to capture highly detailed, verbose logging information from the various processes and services that make up the Backup Exec system.
To use SGMon, you would select the specific process you wanted to debug (for example, the Backup Exec engine or the agent on a remote server) and then run the job to reproduce the failure. SGMon would capture all the internal function calls and error messages, providing a deep level of insight that was invaluable for technical support and advanced troubleshooting. While not a daily tool, knowing of its existence was part of being a proficient administrator.
As we conclude this guide, let's review the core concepts that were central to the 250-314 Exam. A successful candidate needed a solid understanding of the Backup Exec 12 architecture, including the roles of the Media Server and Remote Agents. They needed to be an expert in creating and managing backup jobs, including defining selections, choosing backup methods, and setting schedules. A deep knowledge of the restore process, for both files and critical systems like System State, was mandatory.
Furthermore, a candidate needed to understand the purpose and function of the application-specific agents for Exchange and SQL, including the benefits of Granular Recovery Technology. Finally, proficiency in the daily tasks of monitoring jobs, managing media, generating reports, and applying a logical troubleshooting methodology was essential. While the product version has changed, mastering these foundational principles of data protection remains a valuable skill for any IT professional.
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