Backup exec restore questions

[jake213]

Hey Guys,

I'm kind of new to backup exec 2010 R3 but I have a few questions. First let me put a scenario together to help illustrate my question before I sound too much like a noob. 

Say a production server went down and you cant restore the OS, its corrupted beyond repair. How would you restore the whole OS from backup exec? Basically what I'm asking is how would you create an "Image" of the whole OS in a certain state without having to go through the whole, install a new OS then restore from tape? I realize I could convert it to a VM then restore it that way? Basically I'm looking for a Best practices when it comes to restoring a whole server from a backup exec tape backup. 

Better yet what is the fastest way to restore a whole OS from backup exec?

Thanks

[AmolB]

Have you read about IDR(Intelligent Disaster Recovery) if not go through BE Admin guide.

Also refer to http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO23844

[jake213]

AmolZeroCool,

Thanks so much for replying, I read about the IDR and think it is going to be my solution. However, I'm torn. We do not have a bootable tape drive device to boot tapes from. Would I be able to copy the *.dr files to disk and restore them from a box I set up just for this purpose?

[Hywel_Mallett]

Your options are:

1. Reinstall the OS and restore, which you don't want to do (understandable, as it's time consuming)
2. Use IDR (which some people use with no problems, but it does have specific requirements)
3. Use another product, such as Backup Exec System Recovery, which is designed for this very purpose.

[jake213]

Hey Hywel Mallett,

With option 2, is it possible to restore the *.dr files from a disk? Like say for example I set up a server in my network where I wanted to copy all the *.dr files. That centralized server would be where I have all my IDR files so if something happened I could restore from there and also keep them updated as time goes on. 

 

[Hywel_Mallett]

I believe it's supposed to be able to do that, and in fact you can specify two locations to have BE copy your .IDR files to, for redundancy purposes.

The caveat is that I haven't tried it!

[jake213]

I think thats what I'm going to do, I have an extra server laying around with disk space and no bootable tape drive. I dont want to use CD's and DVD's because who wants to keep burning multiple copies for updates!? 

[jake213]

 Per http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO24216#id-SF700157121

It states the first step is inserting a CD to boot from, does this CD have to have the *.dr files on it? Or is the ISO image just a wizard to boot from? I guess what I'm asking is do I have to have a CD for every server I need to backup or can I use just one?

Thanks!

[pkh]

There is a whole chapter in the Admin Guide on IDR.  You should familiarise yourself with it if you want to use IDR.  I have also upload a video showing the IDR restore process.  You can view it here

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/videos/intelligent-disaster-recovery-idr-restore

One thing you must note is that IDR is only good if you are restoring to similar hardware.  If your disaster recovery machine it not the similiar to the original server, you might not be able to boot up after an IDR restore, mainly because the drivers are different.

You can set a secondary path to store your .dr files.  Go to Tools --> Option --> Intelligent Disaster Recovery.

The .dr are small files which are pointers to the latest backup.  They do not contain the backup data.

The latest .dr files are placed in the IDR ISO bootable image when you create it.  For each server with similar hardware and OS, you only need to create 1 IDR bootable image.  For example, if you have 2 Server 2008 R2 machine on the same HP hardware, you only need 1 IDR bootable image.  When you create the IDR bootable image, you specify the server that you want the image for and then the corresponding .dr file will be place in the image.  When you use the image to restore the other server, you can then point to the .dr for that server during the IDR restore process (see video).

The IDR bootable image is created when you run the IDR Wizard.  You need to burn this image onto a CD so that you can boot up from it when you restore a server.

[Colin_Weaver]

If you have a newer .DR file than the last CD ISO image you created then you can put this file on a USB stick and choose the file on the stick instead of the older one bulit into the CD so unless major changes are made to the OS installl (disk layout, changed network cards etc) then you can get away with not having to make new CD's regularly just keep the latest .DR file.

[solim]

Hey Guys,

I'm kind of new to backup exec 2010 R2 but I have a few questions. First let me put a scenario together to help illustrate my question. 

I want to restore my data from the tape. The process restore is always completed successfully. But when i see the restoring data there only empty folders and nothing documents.

Thanks