I shouldn’t have had to write this post, but the Symantec Endpoint Protection 11 database backup and restore utility sucks. There is no straight-forward way to change the backup destination folder!
First of all, there is the official version of how to change the location of the database backup folder created by “Database Backup and Restore Wizard” in “Symantec Endpoint Protection”, it can be found on the Symantec Support Knowledge Base.
In summary what the article explains is a work around method where the scm agent root directory is changed from the default location, to our desired location i.e. where we want the backup to be created. One thing to note is that since this configuration value scm.agent.root is not only solely used by the backup software, it is after all it is the SCM agent root directory as the name suggests, therefore after we change the value from its default and do what we need to do by taking a backup or restoring from a previous backup, we need to remember change the settings back to what it was.
All this changing and re-changing is all alright for one manual backups or a restore, but isn’t really of any good if we wanted the scheduled backups to also go to a new location.
Here is how I did it on my Microsoft Windows Server 2003 box; It may or may not work for you, so read only as a guide or an idea.
Since the time of Windows 2000 there has been support for directory symbolic links known as NTFS junctions; making it is possible to graft a target folder onto another NTFS folder or “mount” a volume onto an NTFS junction point transparently to programs. Using NTFS junctions it is possible to have the C:\Program Files\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager\data\backup directory can serve as a symbolic link to the other location where the backups need to be created in.
The only problem now is that Windows does not come with any tools for creating junctions. But, Mark Russinovich has given us one free tool, in the form of his SysInternals Junction v1.05 :
Usage: junction.exe [-d] <junction directory> [<junction target>]
So after we download and extract the junction.exe program, we can move the Symantec Endpoint Protection backup location by simply typing the following at the command prompt:
Example:
junction.exe “C:\Program Files\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager\data\backup” “F:\SystemBackups\Symantec\data\backup”
Junction Directory: C:\Program Files\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager\data\backup
Junction Target: F:\SystemBackups\Symantec\data\backup
Things to note in the above example:
- Junction directory needs to be empty before running the command.
- Files will actually be in junction target in terms of disk usage etc.
- Files will be visible in Windows Explore in both folder locations. Deleting Files from either location will actually delete the file.
- Deleting junction directory will only delete the junction. The junction target will still be available
- Deleting junction target will delete the folder and its files leaving junction directory without a target. i.e. broken
Read the KB article How to create and manipulate NTFS junction points especially the usage recommendations.