Basic setup steps for the Bare Metal Restore (BMR) option to NBU

[Jaime_Vazquez]

This information is an adjunct to documentation found in the Bare Metal Restore (BMR) System Administration Guide.

Symantec NetBackup Bare Metal Restore 7.5 Administrator's Guide
http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC5163

NetBackup 7.6 Bare Metal Restore Administrator's Guide
http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC6472

NetBackup 7.6.1 Bare Metal Restore Administrator's Guide
http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC7672

This describes the logical flow of steps to take to initialize and configure BMR on a NetBackup (NBU) Master Server domain. Follow the steps in the order shown below.

1. Initialize BMR Master Server and databases on the NBU Master Server.  The BMR Master only can reside on the NBU Master Server. All BMR commands reside in the path /usr/openv/netbackup/bin. The BMRDB files will reside in the same location as the NBDB database files.

> bmrsetupmaster

2. When done, the 'bmrd' daemon should be running.  You can verify that the BMRDB database and service is operational by running:
  
> bmrs -o query -res database -table CurrentVersion

The output will display the running SCHEMA of the database, which should exactly match the NBU version of the Master.

3.Clients that will be recovered using BMR will register to the BMRDB for any policy where the BMR option is enabled. On NBU 7.5 and later, this option is not set by default. Enabling this option will automatically enable TIR with Move detection settings. BMR only supports use of two policy types - Unix Standard (type 0) and Windows NT (type 13). The BMR option is not available for any other policy types. BMR does not make use of any agents during client recoveries.

4. All supported clients will automatically register with the BMR Master when any backup of that client (FULL or INCR) is performed. The BMR registration action will always occur ahead of any NBU backup stream activity. Assuming the BMR client registration goes without error, the client will be visible to the BMR portion of the Administration Console regardless of the result of the NBU backup, even if it fails or is cancelled. It is mandatory that you have a valid FULL backup of any BMR registered client ahead of any BMR recovery attempts.  The use of ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES is the safest setting for file list selection in the policy. For individual file list selection,  all of the OS specific system drives/partitions/file systems MUST be selected and backed up. Data drives that reside on the client do not need to be backed up to perform a BMR DR recovery. However, if they are present in the backup image and it is so desired, BMR will recover any and all of them as part of the recovery process. BMR functionality allows for user defined data recovery selection beyond the OS portion.

5. List of registered clients can be seen by use of Administration Console or from CLI.

Admin Console:  BMR Administration Node -> Hosts -> BMR Clients
CLI:  bmrs -o list -res [ Config | Client ]

6. Before a BMR recovery can occur, you MUST define the Boot Server environment. Use this article for assistance:

Requirements for Bare Metal Restore (BMR) Boot Servers
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH87607

BMR Boot Servers are OS specific.  A BMR Boot Server must exist for every OS type of protected/registered clients. For Windows clients, a single Windows based Boot Server can be used to recover all supported Windows OS versions, to include 32 bit or 64 bit versions. Any NBU server or client can be designated as a Boot Server. BMR Boot Server software is part of the client software install. The command to run is:

> bmrsetupboot -register

Once done, the Boot Server will be visible on the Master Server.:

Admin Console:  BMR Administration Node -> Hosts -> BMR Boot Servers
CLI:  bmrs -o list -res BootServer

All Boot Servers will register to their designated Master Server.  Multiple Boot Servers are allowed within any NBU domain. They cannot be shared by multiple Master Servers.The running daemon process on a BMR Boot Server is 'bmrbd'..

7. See the OSCL for NBU clients that are supported by BMR:

NetBackup (tm) 7.x Operating System Compatibility List
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH76648

In the section for NBU Clients, look under the column for BMR Boot/Client Support. Please note: The fact that a client is supported as a NBU client does not automatically make it a BMR supported client. Some OS release versions of supported client may require a minimum install release of NBU/BMR.

8. BMR client recoveries require the use of BMR specific boot images. The boot image is known as a Shared Resource tree (SRT). Each Boot Server will create an SRT specific to its OS type. On all Boot Servers, the command is "bmrsrtadm". For Windows you can use the GUI version "Boot Server Assistant".

9.  BMR recoveries can start from either a network boot, or a media (CD/DVD/ISO) boot. Initial SRT creation will always be the file system based network boot SRT.  Media SRT boot images are created based on them.

For Unix/Linux SRT, the boot image information placed into the SRT is extracted from files found in the normal OS vendor install media. Such media is required for SRT creation.

For Windows clients, the SRT makes use of a Windows WinPE image. For NBU/BMR versions up to and including 7.6.0.X, the base "wim" file is distributed with the NBU client software. Starting with NBU version 7.6.1.1, the initial WinPE environment needs to be downloaded from Microsoft as part of a SDK file set. Specific instructions on how this is done will be found the the BMR 7.6.1.1 Systems Administration Guide.

10. The BMR boot method used will always be based on the native boot method of the given OS. For example, network based boot of Windows and Linux clients will make use of PXE boot protocols.  A Solaris environment will use JumpStart. However, Solaris Sparc servers cannot boot Solaris x86 clients and vice versa.

At the highest level, the basic steps for this fall into three items:

1. Initialize the BMR Master (bmrd) and BMRDB: bmrsetupmaster
2. Create/Initialize BMR Boot servers (bmrbd):  bmrsetupboot -register
3. Create required SRT boot images:  bmrsrtadm

Some additional documentation articles that are publicly available and useful for BMR actions:

Doing a Dissimilar System Restore (DSR) to new hardware for Windows clients using Bare Metal Restore (BMR) on NetBackup 6.X and 7.X releases.
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH52394

Methodology for performing Dissimilar System Restore (DSR) for UNIX/LINUX servers
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH62678

Restoring a BMR client image to alternate hardware while the original server is online.
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH87329

Performing Physical to Virtual (manual P2V) restores using BMR
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH211500

BMR and cluster node restores
http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO84852