Install Symantec's Backup Exec 2010 Mac OS X agent in OS X 10.9 or 10.10

Updated: 10/23/15

I reinstalled the OS on my OS X server and upgraded to 10.10 Yosemite. In that process I had to reinstall the Backup Exec agent, and I'm still running 2010. It was quick and simple, even though I ran into the same error about Switch.pm missing. Since it's been so long I looked it up rather than referring back to this post, and found an easier command than below on this blog. In Terminal, run sudo cpan -f Switch. You'll likely get a message that says something about your system needing XCode installed, and you'll have to select Install. Once that finishes, re-run sudo cpan -f Switch and let it autoconfigure itself. Once done, go ahead and run the Backup Exec Agent installer and any service packs you have for it and it should work just fine. Make sure to start the agent when you're finished.

Original Post:

If you're like me and hated the newer interface Symantec introduced in Backup Exec 2012, you may still be running Backup Exec 2010 instead. Now, if that's the case and you introduce a new Mac running OS X 10.9 Mavericks into your list of machines to backup you're going to run into a problem. The BE2010 agent will not install in OS X 10.9 and will give an error message instead about not being able to locate Switch.pm. Before you jump to the conclusion that you need to upgrade Backup Exec to a version compatible with OS X 10.9, keep reading.

I ran across this today with a new OS X 10.9 Mac Mini server. It turns out that in Mavericks the Switch.pm has been deprecated from the version of Perl that comes with the OS, and the RAMS agent installer relies on that to run. It also turns out that adding it back to the OS is a pretty simple process, and once done the RAMS installer runs just fine. Here's what I did

1. Open a Terminal window on the OS X server
2. Run the command cpan install
3. Follow through the on-screen setup for CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network). I used the defaults
3a. During the install you will be prompted by the OS that you need to install make in order for the installer to continue. Click OK and let make install
4. Now CPAN should be installed so start it with sudo cpan. You need sudo access to install the Switch.pm file
5. You should see cpan (1) >. Type install Switch and press Enter. This will install the missing module back
to your Perl library
6. Once that's done type quit and press Enter to get back to the main Terminal

Now you should be able to run the RAMS installer package normally, and this time it should work.

Before doing this though, you should really ask yourself if you should. It seems to be working fine for me, but the Switch module was deprecated and left out for some reason. I make NO guarantees about this process, other than that it worked for me. If you have a test network available, please make sure to utilize that first before making this change in your production environment. Like I said, this was figured out the same day that I posted it, so I haven't done enough testing to say that it won't adversely effect the system, RAMS performance, or both.

This is the original article I came across while trying to get the RAMS installer to work that led me to write this article.