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david_abowitt's avatar
david_abowitt
Level 4
17 years ago

Bare Metal Restore Concept and implementation

I am having an issue performing a Bare Metal Restore and I would like to question the concept and explain what I'm experiencing and get some feedback.
 
My understanding of BM Restore is that the server you are restoring an image to is completely unconfigured.  Thus, the BIOS sees the Hard Drives and the Controller but no setup such as RAID configuration has occurred.  Therefore, no OS is installed, no partitions are setup etc...
 
Am I correct on this?
 
So here is my issue
 
I have a Dell 2950 Server with a PERC 5/I Controller that I setup with Windows 2003 and setup the partitions.  I then imaged that server and placed the resulting image on a USB Hard Drive.
 
I then used the Dell utility to completely wipe out the Hard Drives and the Dell partition utility.  On boot-up the BIOS reports seeing 3 drives but naturally not-configured in a RAID.
 
I then booted the server with BESR 7 SRD disk.  I went through the restore my system wizard and selected the image from the USB harddrive and on the next screen where it indicates target I am only presented with my USB harddrive not any of the harddrives on the Dell Server.  Thus, BESR is not recognizing the controller
 
Troubleshooting has been to locate the .INF file for the PERC 5/I controller and loading it into the BESR system prior to going through the system restore wizard.  It still does not recognize my controller.
 
I contacted Symantec Technical Support and they had me download an update to the 7 Version and the process still fails.  Tech support recommends I setup my RAID and then the partitions but to me this is not a true bare metal restore process.
 
So, apart from responses on why BESR is not seeing my controller and hard drives in a bare metal state and I under the correct understanding of what a true bare metal restore really represents?
 
Responses are appreciated
 
 
Backup and Recovery
BESR 7.x and Earlier
System Recovery

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  • david_abowitt's avatar
    david_abowitt
    Level 4
    17 years ago
    Richard,
     
    did you do any configuration of your drives or were you doing a true BARE METAL restore because you indicate it gave you the C drive which to me indicates you had some sort of partitioning already done on the drives.
     
    Let me know when you can.
     
    Thanks,
  • david_abowitt's avatar
    david_abowitt
    Level 4
    17 years ago

    To All;

     

    Issue Resolved

     

    Thanks to Greg Rodriquez and Hilson Mota from Dell and Mathew from Symantec for assisting in resolving the issue

     

    ISSUE:  Unconfigured Dell Server attempting to perform a “Bare Metal Restore” using Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery Version 7 (BESR) would not succeed due to BESR not recognizing attached hard drives being controlled by Perc 5i/Raid Controller.

     

    RESOLUTION:  Determined that BESR does not recognize Raid Controller unless some configuration has occurred on the controller such as setting-up in RAID 5 configuration.  On the Dell Server this is accomplished during boot process by selecting CNTL R when presented and setting the BIOS a RAID 5 configuration of the attached Hard Drives.  Once the hard drives in the BIOS have been setup in the RAID 5 configuration then BESR properly load the drivers for the RAID controller and allows for the continuation of the drive image restore process.

     

    NOTE:  While I don’t consider this a true Bare Metal Restore it makes sense from a technical standpoint and the process to fix so that BESR works properly is straight forward.

     

    Again thanks to Dell and Symantec for coming together on this issue.

     

     

     

    David Abowitt

    Sr. Systems Manager

    Jewish Federation Council