Backing up physical server, restoring to Hyper-V

[banan2]

Hello,

I have a customer (Small business) that have one physical Windows Server 2003 SBS.

They have ordered a new 2008 STD server, that is going to just be there, taking backup of files etc. from their SBS server.
In addition to that, if that physical 2003-server crashes I want to be able to completely restore that server to a Hyper-V virtual server on their new 2008 server.

I was on a Symantec course about a half year ago, where I was told that this should be possible in BE 2010, but I am not sure what I need of agents and configuration to do this.

Can anyone point me to the right direction on how I should do this? Any documentation on this? What kind of agents to I need on the physical 2003-server? And how to backup the 2003-server so I can quickly restore/mount image on a Hyper-V server?

[CraigV]

You'd probably have to have a VM already created, but completely blank, except for the OS. All the drives would also need to be created, and the RAWS agent installed. You will probably have to have the same name + IP address. And it would have to be turned off so that there are no name/IP clashes =)

Once done, it should be a simple case of turning the VM on (assuming your live server has crashed!), and then restoring the data first, with the System State last which will restore SS and shares etc...

[banan2]

Thanks for the reply.

This sounds like a good plan. I will test this in a lab enviroment and see how it goes.

[DaveT]

In Backup Exec 2010, create your backup as usual.  Then, restore the backup using redirect, and tell it to recover to a folder on the new Server, as a .vhd.

On the new Server, create a VM and tell it to use a current .vhd file (the one created during the Restore).

As always, test - test - test; don't assume anything is 100% correct (even what I'm telling you).

You should be able to unplug the patch cord on the new Server and boot the VM.

Things to keep in mind are:  is the live Server running AD, SQL, or any proprietary apps.  There very well could be other steps to take to make those work in a VM.

Respectfully,

Dave T.

[teiva-boy · Accepted solution]

Wow, I'm surprised BE is being brought up.

This is 100% in the realm of BackupExec System Recovery SBS.  BE which *could* be made to work, still requires a lot of manual intervention to get going.  BESR on the other hand can do it from the get go with no fuss.

[UFO]

Agree. Restoring crashed WS 2003 is task for BESR. The product is for disaster recovery.

[banan2]

I wasn't aware of the product BESR. Never used it before.

I suppose BESR can only do a full recovery, and not normal file/exchange/sql backup? Then I will need BESR in additional to BE, right?

Thanks for the tip anyway. Downloading trial as I write this.

[banan2]

Hi,

BESR seemed to solve the problem very well.

I only have one question though, not sure if you are familiar with the problem, but just in case some of you are:
 

After restoring to Hyper-V, and everything i back up again. Outlook connects to Exchange and says it successfully syncronized, but new email doesn't show up in Outlook. In webmail the new emails shows up, and if I set up a new Outlook profile the new emails will show up. But I don't wanna setup a new outlook profile for all the clients before they can get back to work. Anyone know a solution?