Which software would you recommend for enterprise backup -- Commvault or Veritas Netbackup?

Hi, I would recommend Veritas NetBackup if the environment heavily has physical components instead of virtual components. I find NetBackup more user friendly and more technological. NetBackup has also appliances which provides media server role as a whole (including storage network, Red Hat OS etc). Dedupe technology is very good. With 8.1, there are many good features such as cloud catalyst which provides less data to the cloud provider. Moreover, I recommend to look at 360 data management philosophy.

Frankly, we don't use any of above 2 software. We are using Veeam Backup, a rising star, as the mainline now.

Go Commvault!!!

Not all solutions are as wide-reaching in their capabilities as Commvault. Veritas fails to offer the breadth and depth of coverage in a true platform. Veritas requires 9+ products to offer comparable functionality to the Commvault offering and with this multitude of products, Veritas still does not meet Commvault’s in-depth support for enterprise applications, integrated snapshot storage arrays, and cloud providers. This is critical as it limits organizations ability to protect and manage existing and future infrastructure and hinders their move to the cloud. In addition, Veritas creates complexity as these are independent point products lacking integration.

Veritas promotes a single platform approach but lacks the necessary integration to provide a single solution to manage backup, recovery, archive and manage data from the endpoint to the data center and up to the cloud. The lack of a common platform and limited application, storage and cloud integration increases staff time, resources and service levels when performing your day-to-day activities. Commvault’s approach to data management is a single unified platform. Only this approach provides the visibility to manage and protect data across your entire organization in the most efficient and effective manner. Combined with its deep integration for applications, storage arrays, and cloud, Commvault delivers a solution to address all of your needs today and the platform of tomorrow.

Like man other collègues i would recommand you to go with veeam!

My Commvault and Veritas Netbackup experiences are quite dated. My team and I were going to do a Commvault POC last year but voted against it as Commvault would have required a lot of time and infrastructure resources just to do the test.

We did a Veeam POC which also proved to be more resource intensive than what we were willing to use in our environment.

After working with Rubrik, it was a no-brainer. We invested 2 days from racking the test unit to backing up 450 VMs. Even though Rubrik is a fairly new player, it provides most of the functionality we need at this time and in the future.

Another new player I just had the opportunity to play with is Hycu. This solution was designed from the ground up to fully integrate with the Nutanix Hyperconverged infrastructure we deployed to replace our Cisco UCS / NetApp / VMware Flexpod.

So, in conclusion, one of our goals was to find an environment that would free up our time from daily administrivia and complexity so we could focus more in proactive system administration and projects.

I hope my comments provide some value to the colleague. The best approach to decide what is right for a specific company is to put some effort in POCs and testing the products in their specific infrastructure to make sure it meets their needs and fills their requirements in terms of their immediate and future plans.

Commvault is better for cloud

For sure I will recommend Commvault. It is a single platform that supports all OS versions, applications, hypervisors and more than 60 cloud along with fantastic features when it comes to disaster recovery and warm DR. The platform is very stable and Commvault support is perfect.

if you use virtualisation I recommend Veeam Backup

Whatever backup/recovery you use, it all depends on the administrator. Perseverance is key. All backup software are designed to recover data. It is up to the administrator to make it work and ensure that data is recoverable. I've been using/working with a different backup software, one that is "feared" by most backup/recovery administrators. It is said that this software is the most difficult to implement and operate. But, in the last 15 years, it has been running, securing and recovering data for my clients.

I am not sure if I am qualified to answer on CommVault extensively as I have only encountered it when replacing It with NetBackup.

At a location I worked at they were using CommVault 6 I believe it was and had issues all of the time or a good portion of the time with the corruption of the server’s databases. In a 1 year basis because things were not monitored or fixed as I would think they should have out of 45 TB of data supposedly backed up only at 15 TB were actually restorable without major resources to try and work around it. The way that it was doing duplication is a job would not be deleted from the server until such time as the tape copy was completed. This caused a large backup of files waiting to finish duplication to tape (which is the way it should be) but when files that should have been deleted 6 months previously are still waiting for their copy to tape, that kind of defeats the purpose. Another issue was backing up agentlessly VMs. We had to configure a proxy server to do that then could not bill the customer accurately because the backup reports only showed the proxy server. Whether an optional product could have helped I do not think so because of the way backups are reported. This could have changed in the last couple of years but I would not be surprised if it was still an issue. If you wanted to use an appliance like a Data Domain you have only one of two ways to backup to the Data Domain and that would be as a VTL or CIFS/NFS mount points. That is not an efficient way to do it especially trying to get away from tape. I do not feel that CommVault is what I could classify and Enterprise Class close but not yet.

Veritas Backup itself is very stable. Most issues with stability come from running too many parallel operations and the hardware itself can’t handle it." I have used NetBackup quite a bit over the last 15 years. I have seen it go from 3.4 all the way now to 8.0. I agree that NBU has its issues and the support is not what it use to be. It has a great deal of flexibility with the type of backups you can do with it. A good example of agentless backups in NBU can be set up to back up automatically by using an annotation field in vCenter or the Tag field in the future. This allows the for the automatic back of VMs with no backup person time required as long as when the VM is created the annotation field is added. If NetBackup is setup properly and sized properly a lot of issues with parallel operations go away. In one environment that I know of right now they are backing up 900,000 jobs a month going to tape for the majority of them and that includes SQL, Oracle, Unix/Linux and Windows. Most problems that I have come across are misconfiguration, and lack of proper planning with the environment.

We got rid of backup exec years ago. I wouldn't suggest either. We use Veeam. You can download Veeam for free and try it out. its easy to do a proof of concept. You will be amazed how great it is.

I would echo what many are posting on here. For simple backup/restore functions, either solution will do the job just as good. In that event, i would probably lean towards the more cost effective solution for my environment. With that said, they both have strengths and weaknesses in other areas just like all other competing technologies. You would need to understand what you business needs/requirements are to then choose which would fit your use case best. They are both very mature solutions and in many cases it will come down to a decision made out of preference more so than capabilities. Easy analogy: It is like Ford and Chevy. You will find a following for both and each will have their own reasons why but at the end, they will both take you to work just the same.

BR,
Jose Rosello

I’ve run both and they are good. It’s been awhile since I used Veritas so I can’t speak to its current Enterprise capability, however, I do like that they use the industry standard tar format writing to tapes which aid in portability – unless that’s changed too. Commvault has a substantial vision and capability to meet most of your needs – and you’ll pay for it. They use a proprietary tape format among others, (dedupe) which does provide a small percentage performance improvement but likely is utilized to support some feature set in their software.

In order to provide your reader with a benchmark, our environment presently utilizes Commvault to backup 300TB to tape over the weekend and incremental daily jobs. Hardware is fiber channel connected tape libraries and storage utilizing several “media agents”. In Commvault lingo media agents are external servers processing the actual backup/restore jobs issued by the central server.

We also utilize a small Commvault deduplicated repository on disk.

Most of that is pretty much old school standard stuff for doing internal backups on site. The cloud data is a combination of several mechanisms depending on provider services and whether or not the cloud service is public or private. Appliances, gateway devices, can be handy for getting internal data into cloud – investigate carefully.

I am afraid I am not a fan of either of these products I like Veeam or Redstor

Veeam Backup

We are a NetBackup shop. I have followed Commvault as well in discussions with my peers who use Commvault. I am more knowledgeable about NetBackup than I am about Commvault.

My very high level assessment would be that:
- if backup / restore is your only concern, then both are equally capable and it may come down to which one is more suitable to your particular environment, or price negotiations.
- my initial observations would appear to favor Commvault if you have a need for strong integration with storage and SAN architectures. Commvault appears to have many interfaces to different SAN and storage vendors.
- Veritas NetBackup is now more than just backup / restore especially if you want to start managing
or analyzing your data through NetBackup. You can purchase additional software from Veritas that can manage and analyze your data environment by leveraging the data and metadata information that NetBackup collects in its catalogs. If you intend to go down that path, then perhaps NetBackup might offer you options not (yet) available in Commvault.

Beyond this cursory high level assessment, you would of course have to carry out a more detailed analysis to determine what you want. I have not touched upon backup appliances from these vendors for example.

Regards,
Kyaw

Both solutions have their pros and cons.

Commvault is much more simple to operate/Manage and yes we can manage different modules of Commvault backup (Server backup, endpoint backup, and restoration) from a single console as compared to Veritas.

With Veritas comes stability and complexity. But it can manage bigger IT infrastructure in a very efficient way. Have various features like AIR, DPO, global deduplication, search option in À la carte as well as in bundle (NEVC) for physical and virtualization.

We can mix various licenses in Netbackup like NEVC and agent for windows or NDMP for Physical, which is not available in Commvault.

Although both platforms have advantages and disadvantages, I rather choose Netbackup, because it can provide a complete backup-to-disk solution, with their own appliance. 

There are always situations with backups, and the fewer players (brands) in the analysis to solve the situation, the better. 

I would never use a Symantec/veritas product again. Netbackup is a over priced backup exec. I spent more time on the phone for their engineers to try and figure out whats wrong with the software. Veeam you can install and have running in about 20minutes. You will be suprised how easy it is and how it "just works". Once I did the demo the speed of my backups was 3x out of box compare to backup exec. 

https://go.veeam.com/commvault...

Neither. I Suggest Veeam

I agree with @VladanKojanic's comments: "Each solution has its advantages and disadvantages".

With more than 25 years of experience with both products and I can say with certainty, that for each customer, one or the other is better, based on their requirements:

What needs to be backed up and what are the restore/recovery priorities.
The type of agents needed.
The licensing model.
The size of the enterprise.
Etc...

I have never used Commvault before but I have been using Veritas NetBackup for many years and I am very satisfied with it.

Each solution has its advantages and disadvantages. It is difficult to immediately say which is the best, because it all depends on the task that the software needs to solve. We have been using Commvault for 4 years and we are completely satisfied.

CommVault for sure I worked sold for both companies

Neither. Currently working with Cobalt Iron and the results have been great, especially for cost savings and remote work.

This would be due to a granular architecture and manageability. Depending on the type of back up task you are going to do, Commcell allows you to optimize each task depending on your needs; for instance, you can choose between source or destination deduplication beyond conventional full/incremental/differential tasks. With this, you optimize system and network resources depending on what, when and from/to where do you want to back up.

With the 360 approach for managing and protecting information, Veritas has transformed what was once known as backup. Netbackup is the base for the 360 approach, provides a modern Data Protection wherever it resides.

The Backup application to decide or use, purely depends on your environment and platforms needed to be backed up.

There are a lot of solutions available in the market.

Even though Commvault and Netbackup are good solutions. There are other solutions which can cover all the requirements.

First, give some idea about what kind of machines and data size you need to backup.

All Virtualized / Physical etc..

I cannot comment on this as I only have experience with Veritas not commvault. Veritas is an acceptable product to go with.

Unfortunately, this boils down to one of opinion. It's like asking what is the difference between two loaves of bread. It really depends on the priorities and opinions of the buyer. Both fulfill the primary purpose; get copies of the user’s data reliably duplicated to another location in case the original location becomes damaged or inaccessible.

I would suggest the buyer list 5 key questions that are important to them and then answer them for each choice. Questions might be (in no particular order):

1. How fast can it get my data protected?
* What resources are required to accomplish this? Do I have these available or do I have to add them?
* Am I doing full backups or incrementals? What do incrementals “cost” me?
* What are my costs for the backup media/location?
* How much automation is delivered out of the box with the product?
* Does it protect my entire environment? Email and database can be especially tricky.
* Are lots of “agents” required?
2. How easy is it to recover?
* Do I have to move the data back or can I use it (temporarily) in place?
* If incremental, how long to stitch the pieces back together?
* What are the paths to RTO? Again, how easy/complicated are these paths?
3. How easy it to operate?
* Do my folks need additional training?
* Is it dead simple so mistakes of backup/recovery can be avoided?
* How does it handle and recover from errors?
4. Costs
* How is it licensed?
* What if my situation changes? E.g., move from data center to cloud
* Service subscription? What do I get? Just problem reporting or some consulting?
5. Miscellaneous
* How self-sufficient does the solution allow me to? Can I setup, backup, recover, expand, and monitor status on my own or do I have to count on help from the vendor?
* What else can the backed-up data be used for? Search, index, categorization, standby, warehouse, etc?

Both of these products can address all of these concerns but do it in different ways at different cost points. So there is no rational way for an outsider to compare the products without lots of details about the customer’s environment, existing expertise, and cost concerns.

CommVault

Why not suggest Quest Software's Netvault which is Heterogeneous in Nature when it comes to platform support & can handle all OS Platforms, wrtx handling data from Mb's to TB's to PB's with a user-friendly dashboard & calendar-based scheduling. Also, the solution can run multiple streams & provide source as well as target based deduplication & compression functionality.

I will recommend commvault

The answer depends, as always.
Question is what you would like to protect. Commvault Simpana is famous for its ease of use.
So if you do not have a couple of MS based servers most probably it will be good enough.
If however, your environment is a bid complex, Simpana is not known to be the master of scalability.
In that case NetBackup will be most probably a better choice.

Anyhow, I can't resist impression you are asking what is better to be blind or lame.
Simply because the best choice is to deploy Spectrum Protect.
Look here: www.ibm.com
demo.tsm.ibmserviceengage.com

Rubrik all the way I wouldn’t buy either! Commvault is complicated expensive and overkill and netbackup is a dinosaur in a modern world.

My advice is to forget the old style backups and just do snapshots. If you have a situation where you need commercial backup software, then it must be a fairly comprehensive network… and I “guess” there would be virtual servers in play. Establish data sources and layers, as well as server layers (use roaming profiles sourced from a data layer) and simply take snapshots of the server and data layers/machines.

It depends on what is your environment (physical or virtual) and what do you want to do.
I agree with comments about Commvault, and it is multiplatform.

Veritas is a good tool for the Windows environment Ideally for Small Enterprise, easy to deploy and use

If your needs are to back up Virtual environment based on HyperV or VMware, I will choose Veeam backup.

I would unequivocally recommend Commvault

I have used it and find it to be extremely reliable

Go for Commvault

Neither. They both based on ancient computing architectures and paradigms that are rapidly becoming irrelevant, largely because of inflexibility and operational cost models. If my environment was solely VMware, hands down I would go with Zerto. It provides continuous backup without agents, without snapshots, without backup windows, and meeting the most stringent RPOs for both Operational and Disaster Recoveries that other products can't even approach. It also provides workload mobility between sites, between private and public clouds - keep your production at home and DR in Azure or AWS? No problem. Too busy and want a DRaaS provider to run that part of things? No problem, they have over 200 including British Telecom and IBM. A Microsoft shop? They just announced an international global co-marketing agreement with Microsoft. Zerto defines state of the art in workload resiliency, workload mobility, and disaster recovery. It unfortunately is limited at this time to just virtualized environments, so if bare metal backup is an issue, either migrate those apps to VMware, live with a 2-solution shop, or keep looking. As for the second solution, I'd probably lean towards Commvault. But you will have Zerto up and running in production before your planning meetings for Commvault even get rolling.

I’ve worked sold both so each has its own attributes. However, with as many changes, re-orgs at VERITAS, where is the company going? I believe CommVault has a clear direction and solid platform. But they both have been in the Gartner Magic Quadrant. CommVault seven years running

My personal opinion is NetBackup. It's easier to set up. I have had personal experience with Commvault in the past and was not happy with my experience but I believe the new version of is much better.

All depends on how you look at it. NetBackup and Commvault are stable and scalable. You need to look at the individual organization. What is required and how much money want to spend. You should do a proof of concept testing. All backup software has pros and cons. You need compare different factor

In my opinion, Veritas Backup is better than Commvault because it's more stable and easy to use.

both Commvault and Veritas are legacy/antiquated approaches- neither should be considered for new projects today.

I can only confirm the stability of Netbackup.
I cannot compare it with Commvault because I never used it.

Like many things, depends on the "fit", blob data? VMs? Bare Metal? Database? Exchange? Storage? Cost? CommVault is excellent, as is Netbackup, BackupExec, Veeam, or even Amanda (on the cheap). Have used CommVault, Netbackup, BackupExec, Veeam extensively, feature sets between maybe hard to distinguish these days.

I am a former employee of Commvault (2003-2015) and prior to that Veritas. If the choice were just these two products, I'd go Commvault.

Commvault is a very integrated product built many years after Veritas NetBackup. It scales pretty much infinitely. Best integration with snapshot enabled backups. Very broad support for Hypervisors, VM Backup, and seamless cloud support. Physical server and application support is on par with NetBackup. Flexible integrated support for source side or target deduplication. I think recovery operations are much easier under Commvault than NetBackup. It's very easy to get Commvault Backup and Recovery installed and functioning but there are lots of features and options that need configuration and tuning. Commvault supports integrated scale-out storage as a backup target which is a plus. MediaAgent and dense storage servers are one.

Both products are enterprise class. If this is the first installation of a complex environment, both require significant professional services.

You have to decide if you need all the advanced features they offer. If not, there are simpler software only and appliance-based products available that will scale and get the job done.

Go for netbackup

i use Altaro ( www.altaro.com )
Product qualities
Clear and efficient interface
Powerful deduplication that saves a lot of space on the destination
Backup to multiple destinations including remote site
But above all:
Very fast recovery of a file, a folder or a VM
Light and easy to manage, a license by Host

Commvault is a better solution for a complex enterprise environment. Veritas is a better effective solution for mid-market straightforward solution

I don't have any knowledge on these products. I will answer Spectrum
protect...  :-)   More seriously, it is impossible to answer this
question without complete knowledge of the client's infrastructure to
backup, the specific needs, and constraints and RTO / RPO. Each product
has good and bad points, the goal is to determine which one is better
regarding the functionalities, the hardware infrastructure needed by
each product (so price and maintenance...), the license pricing, the
quality of the support and so on...
The best way is to do a PoC.