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Install the following packages if you don’t already have them:

aptitude install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r) openssl libssl-dev psmisc

Untar the package, navigate to vmware-server-distrib directory and type

./vmware-install.pl

To install VMware Tools:

The following packages are needed in order to install VMware Tools:

aptitude install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Open VMware Server Console and Click VM – Install VMware Tools. Then go to your guest Debain VM and mount the CD:

mount /dev/cdrom

I usually copy tar files to the hard drive and extract:

cp /media/cdrom0/VMwareTools-1.0.8-126538.tar.gz /root

cd /root/

tar -zxf VMwareTools-1.0.8-126538.tar.gz

If you want to directly untar it to another directory:

tar -zxf /media/cdrom0/VMwareTools-1.0.8-126538.tar.gz -C <directory>

Navigate to vmware-tools-distrib and execute the install command:

./vmware-install.pl

Follow directions and you should be able to install VMware Tools without incident.

Note: If you are running an early release of Debian Etch you may be asked to provide path to C compiler directory. That means you do not have a compiler installed and will have to install the following two packages:

aptitude install gcc-3.4 g++-3.4

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Hit ctrl-c to break the process, then install “psmisc” package:
aptitude install psmisc

Now try again.

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aptitude install ntpdate

To update manually:

ntpdate <time server> (ntpdate pool.ntp.org or ntpdate time.nist.gov)

Create a cron job to have your server sync at intervals you like.

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A quick note for users of BE 2010 and later: deb packages are now included with the product and you no longer need to user alien to convert from rpm. There is also an installer included with the product but you still HAVE TO install the deb package separately FIRST. Then run the installer “./installralus” from RALUS_RMALS_RAMS-xxxxxversion.tar.gz (yep, I assume you know that you’ll have to untar the archive, yada yada yada. Don’t forget to install libstdc++5 while you’re at it!).

Now for BE 12 and earlier

To install Symantec Backup Exec 12 agent under Debian Linux (32 and 64 bit). Version numbers have been masked with “xxx” to make it a general post.

Find the appropriate agent from the installer CD or download the latest version from Symantec website. 32 bit packages are normally under /Linux/RALUSx86/pkgs/Linux and 64 bit under /Linux/RALUS64/pkgs/Linux. Both packages must be properly installed: VRTSralus and VRTSvxmsa.

To untar:

tar -zxvf VRTSralus.tar.gz
tar -zxvf VRTSvxmsa.tar.gz

Symantec provides rpm packages so we will have to convert them to deb. If you don’t have the package “alien” installed use the command “aptitude install alien” to install the package.

Converting rpm to deb:

alien --scripts VRTSralus-xxx.rpm
alien --scripts VRTSvxmsa-xxx.rpm

(64 bit packages end with x86-64.rpm).

Installing deb packages:

dpkg -i vrtsralus-xxx-.deb
dpkg -i vrtsvxmsa-xxx-.deb

RALUS runs under a backup user called beoper. Go ahead and add the user/group and give it root access:

addgroup beoper
adduser root beoper

Before loading the agent for the first time install the following packages:

aptitude install libstdc++5

for 64 bit Debian you will need an additional package:

aptitude install ia32-libs

Now load the agent for the first time to have it create your configuration file. Backup Exec installation will copy your init script to /opt/VRTSralus/bin/VRTSralus.init. Either run it directly from there or create a symbolic link where your other scripts are:

ln -s opt/VRTSralus/bin/VRTSralus.init /etc/init.d

Load the agent:

/etc/init.d/VRTSralus.init start

OK confirms that your script ran properly, and if you followed my direction it should. Now kill the process

/etc/init.d/VRTSralus.init stop

and go open the configuration file

nano /etc/VRTSralus/ralus.cfg

Insert the following string and replace the IP to match your media server’s:

Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\Agents\Agent Directory List_1=192.168.1.35

I have highlighted what I think is important: agent advertising option and your media server IP. Make sure they are correct and if you don’t have any of those lines go ahead and add them to your config file.

Save/close the file and re-run your agent. You’re all set! If you like to have the agent run every time your box reboots navigate to /etc/init.d/ and:

update-rc.d -f VRTSralus.init defaults

Note that Backup Exec 12.5 comes with a pre-compiled .deb package. Hooray for Symantec!

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