BE15 Disaster Recovery Testing on VMWare Workstation

[lesleyjames]

We are testing our Disaster Recovery Plan using BE15. These are the steps that  I made

1. Installed Windows Server 2008 r2 standard (Virtual Machine hosted on a VMware Workstation)

2. Installed Service Pack 1 (System Requirement of BE15 in Windows Server 2008 r2)

3. Installed BE15 v14.2

4. Installed Ubuntu 10.04 (Virtual Machine hosted on a VMWare Workstation)

5. Install RALUS on Ubuntu 10.04 (Remote Media Agent for Linux Servers)

6. Created Virtual Tape Library on Linux Ubuntu (will be used as a Tape Library by BE15)

7. Configured BE15 Storage (Added Virtual Tape Library)

8. Performed One-Time Full Backup (BE15) with all the selections (BKUPEXEC, drive C:, E:, System State, Microsoft SQL Server Instances)

       Full Backup Job Successful. (at this point I now have a Full Backup Saved on a Virtual Tape Library, and will now proceed to Restore)

9. Created new Windows Server 2008 R2 std (Virtual Machine for Recovery of previous Server) 

10. Installed Service Pack 1 on new WinServer 2008 r2

11. Installed BE15 on new WinServer 2008 r2

12. Configured Storage (new Server)

13. Created Inventory and Catalog Jobs (Virtual Tape Library)

14. Performed Full Restore Job
      (Full Restore Job Failed)
      Error writing Data: BKUPEXEC

I am now stuck with this, however if I am not selecting Microsoft SQL Server/BKUPEXEC

in my selection the Restore Job completes without errors. But I need the Old Data the old BE15 have, like the reports, backup jobs, job logs, etc.

Is there a way to do this? like to perform a restore job with BKUPEXEC in the selection list

Thanks!
 

[pkh]

1. Restore the Data and Catalog directories under the BE installation directory of the old media server to another directory. 2. Stop all BE services 3. Substitute the Data and Catalog directories with the restored ones. 4. Start all the BE services

[VJware]

Ideally, no need to backup the BEDB since Backup Exec automatically backs up the database as part of its daily maintenance.

Have a look @ this blog - https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs/how-protect-backup-exec-itself

And this article - https://support.symantec.com/en_US/backup-exec/prepare-for-disaster-recovery.html

[lesleyjames]

Where can I see this BEUtility.exe? I can't find it

THanks!

[VJware]

Its under C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec directory.

[lesleyjames]

After a full restore from BE15 (BKUPEXEC not selected in list to restore), I can no longer open my Backup Exec 15 Console, everything is restored just the way it was., except for BE15. It say's connect to server and asks for username/password. I tried repairing, reinstalling, and uninstalling.. none of it worked. it fails on the uninstallation of Backup Exec Server

[VJware]

When you tried to connect to the BE server, did you verify if all BE services including BKUPEXEC was up and running ?

And what error does it fail with during the uninstall ?
 

[lesleyjames]

Backup Exec Services didn't start automatically after rebooting (after full restore, rebooted the server)
please see the screenshot and installation log during uninstall.

[VJware]

Are all BE services and BKUPEXEC started and running ?

If not, start them. The uninstall failed since the BE services were not running.

[lesleyjames]

I have tried starting the services manually, it wont start. I guess the problem lies with the Dependency Service.

SQL SERVER (BKUPEXEC) wont start (automatic & manual)

[VJware]

What error does the service start up fail with ?

Have you tried a repair install of SQL followed by starting the SQL instance ? Do ensure the BEDB is not set to read-only as well.

[lesleyjames]

This is the error message that im getting when starting the sql server (bkupexec) service

[VJware]

Can't really see the complete image.

Also, check the error message which is logged in the event viewer.

Lastly, are there any .mdf and .ldf files located under \Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\Data directory ?

[lesleyjames]

Yes there are, but they are located in \Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\Data\Databackup directory

I have posted the screenshot on my previous post
 

[Colin_Weaver]

is there a bedb.bak under the folder the VJware mentioned, as you probably need to use beutility to recover it if there is.

[VJware]

Without the actual .mdf and the .ldf database files, BKUPEXEC will not start. They need to be restored first and then the SQL instance can be started.

[lesleyjames]

Yes I already tested that, I ran Beutility and performed recover database but it also failed.

I checked the events viewer and found out the reason why SQL Server (BKUPEXEC) service is not starting. The databases that was supposed to be in here 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\DATA' was found here instead 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.BKUPEXEC\MSSQL\DATA'.

So I copied/overwritten the whole 'Data' directory from '\MSSQL10_50.BKUPEXEC\MSSQL\DATA' to '\MSQL.1\MSSQL\DATA' started the SQL Server (BKUPEXEC) and all the Backup Exec Services.

Copied the old encryption key in 'C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\Data' and I can now log in BE15 Console.

I wonder what caused that problem though

[Ceyhun]

Is there anybody who did this with the latest VMware Workstation 12 Pro ?

[Colin_Weaver]

I don't think this is a Workstation issue you cannot really restore the BEDB whilst Backup Exec is using it so your manual recovery steps are flawed and you would have been better off just backing up the data and catalog folders in order to restore things from those areas and not looking at a SQL backup of the BEDB.

If you have the Data and Catalog folders in a backup (and preferably know the media names used by the backup jobs for the Backup Exec server itself - which is a recommended practice to save time) then:

- at step 13 inventory the VTL but you only need to catalog the media that contains the most recent Data and catalog folder backups

- restore the catalogs folder, and from inside the DATA folder, the BEDB.BAK and all the *.XML files (job logs)

- then use BEutility.exe to recover the database from backup.

Note: for consistency purposes we do also recommend that the backup of the data folder is run not long after the Backup Exec Databsse Maintenance. (efault 04:00 but this can be moved to a more useful time)