We’re planning to replace our aging backup server running CA ArcServe 11.5 with the latest and bloodiest greatest ArcServe 16.0. My role in this migration is to ensure that our existing scripts that rely on cabatch command line tool works as expected.
Our test env. configuration consists of:

• ArcServe 16 standalone server installed on Windows 2008 R2 x64 (let’s call it WINBACKUPSRV)
• Windows 7 (x64) workstation that backup Operator uses to send backup jobs to ArcServe backup server (let’s call it WIN7BACKUP)

All backup scripts (.asx files) are prepared on backup server by a DBA. Backup operator must be able to submit backup jobs (*.asx files) to ArcServe, which means we need to create caroot equivalence for him/her.

1) SERVER SIDE

Installation of ArcSerce 16 is not covered here, it’s enough to summarize options that were installed on WINBACKUPSRV:

and the build version:

In my case ArcServe 16 was installed under local Administrator account and this local account is automatically granted “ArcServe Administrator” role. Note that Roles were introduced with ArcServe 12.

Note: “User profiles Manager” is shown only if you loged on to ArcServe with caroot account!!

You should keep your caroot account information secret, don’t allow a bunch of administrators to use this account for day to day job activities on backup server. You should either grant appropriate role to Windows authenticated user or create internal (ArcServe specific) account. For example, I want to create internal account for myself with command line tool ca_auth:

Let’s display short help for ca_auth:

C:\Program Files (x86)\CA\ARCserve Backup>ca_auth -user

Usage :
        ca_auth [-cahost host] -user     add username [passwd] [-assignrole [rolelist]]
        ca_auth [-cahost host] -user     delete username
        ca_auth [-cahost host] -user     chgpasswd username [passwd]
        ca_auth [-cahost host] -user     chgrole username [rolelist]
        ca_auth [-cahost host] -user     validate username [passwd]
        ca_auth [-cahost host] -user     group username
        ca_auth [-cahost host] -user     getall

C:\Program Files (x86)\CA\ARCserve Backup>ca_auth -user add alesk mysecretpwd


Current Available Role List:
=====================================

1) Backup Operator
2) Restore Operator
3) Device Operator
4) Tape Operator
5) Security Administrator
6) Report Operator
7) Monitor Operator
8) ARCserve Administrator
9) Ownership Checking Exemption Privilege

=====================================


Please assgin roles for this user, you can assign more than one role at a time and 
should seperate the selection with comma: 8

If we want to list all existing accounts (internal as well as Windows authenticated):

C:\Program Files (x86)\CA\ARCserve Backup>ca_auth -user getall

User names:

        caroot
        WINBACKUPSRV\administrator
        alesk

Note that in my case I have among ArcServe users two internal accounts (caroot and previously created alesk) 
and one windows authenticated that was created by default during ArcServe installation. 

I’ll be using internal account (alesk) to prepare backup scripts (*.asx), but I would like to delegate execution of those scripts to some backup operator via cabatch command line utility. All I want is to give backup operator (Joe) a possibility to submit backup jobs (asx) to ArcServe with command line tool cabatch from his workstation (WIN7BACKUP). To allow Joe to submit backup jobs to server we must create caroot equivalence for him.

Let’s display short help for -equiv:

C:\Program Files (x86)\CA\ARCserve Backup>ca_auth -equiv

Usage :
        ca_auth [-cahost host] -equiv    add domainname\ntuser hostName ARCserveBackupUser [caroot_username] [caroot_password]
        ca_auth [-cahost host] -equiv    getequiv [domainname\ntuser hostName]
        ca_auth [-cahost host] -equiv    delete domainname\ntuser hostName [caroot_username] [caroot_password]
        ca_auth                         -equiv    whoami

If Joe is logging on his workstation (WIN7BACKUP) with his domain account ACME\joe then the command would be:

cmd>ca_auth -equiv add ACME\joe WIN7BACKUP caroot caroot carootsecretpwd

To check if equivalence exists:

cmd>ca_auth -equiv getequiv ACME\joe WIN7BACKUP
Equivalent ARCserve user for ACME\joe@WIN7BACKUP : caroot

Note: username, domain and hostname are case sensitive!

2) WORKSTATION FOR OPERATOR

In ArcSercve 11.x it was enough if we simply copied cabatch.exe with necessary libraries to operator workstation.
For cabatch to work in ArcServe 16, we need to install ArcServe Manager to Joe workstation (WIN7BACKUP).
After installation of ArcServe 16 Manager, I tried to execute some test backup with:

cmd> cabatch /H=WINBACKUPSRV /S=BackupTest.asx

and received strange error:

*** Can't find out the primary server of WIN7BACKUP

I spent a couple of hours troubleshooting this error, from checks that all Arcserve services properly run on my workstation (WIN7BACKUP) to recreating caroot equivalence…until I realized that my $ARCSERVEHOME\config\discovery.cfg file is empty, without any information about my backup server (WINBACKUPSRV). I added the following two lines to discovery.cfg and backup submit worked:

# note that DOMAIN is ArcServe domain, not Windows domain!
DOMAIN  WINBACKUPSRV
PRIMARY WINBACKUPSRV

3 KNOWN ISSUES

So far, the only unexplained issue is a timeout from the time we hit enter on cabatch and the time backup appears on backup server. In 11.5 the timeout was really short (2-5 seconds), in 16.0 timeout is substantial (60-80 seconds). It’s not a show stopper but certainly something I’ll be paying attention for awhile.
Another issue that is actually not related to ArcServe is UAC control in Windows 7, however the issue is easily resolved (more on this in another post).