Symantec BackupExec 11d/12d on Debian Linux

Michael Dipper 01.08.2007

Please note that this page hasn't been updated for a while and most probably will show outdated information. It is mainly kept here for reference.

The Symantec BackupExec Remote Agent (RALUS) is supported on Linux, but currently there are no Debian packages available from Symantec.

This HOWTO describes, how to get things running on Debian Etch (4.0) together with BackupExec 11d (the procedure for 12d and/or Debian Lenny is the same, but file names might differ):

• Logon to the Debian box as root.
• Download the latest unix agent from http://fileconnect.symantec.com
• Within the archive you should find two files: VRTSralus.tar.gz and VRTSvxmsa.tar.gz

• Extract the .gz files:

  tar -xvzf VRTSralus.tar.gz
  tar -xvzf VRTSvxmsa.tar.gz

• The install files are in .rpm format so you’ll need to use alien to convert them to .deb format.

First install alien:

  apt-get install alien

• To convert, just run the commands (example is for build 7170):

  alien VRTSralus-11.00.7170-0.i386.rpm vrtsralus-11.00.7170-0.i386.deb     
  alien VRTSvxmsa-4.4-021.i686.rpm vrtsvxmsa-4.4-021.i686.deb

• Install the files using dpkg:

  dpkg -i vrtsralus_11.00.7170-1_i386.deb
  dpkg -i vrtsvxmsa_4.4-22_i386.deb

• Create a group called beoper:

addgroup beoper

• Add the root user to the group:

  adduser root beoper

• Install the libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2 package:

  apt-get install  libstdc++5

• Start the agent by entering the following command:

/opt/VRTSralus/bin/VRTSralus.init start

• Your Backup Exec server should now be able to backup the server, ie, in a selection list you will see Unix Agents under Remote Selections and you'll be able to select your Debian server and its directories. As soon as you click on it, you'll have to enter some new credentials, eg, the root login.