Disaster Recovery Exercise, Backup Exec 9.1 SP2 recovering Windows 2003 SP1

[Giles_Coochey]

Firstly, I am beginning to believe that there simply isn't a resolution to this issue at this time - I would love to hear from someone who has managed to complete a full system restore of a system running Windows 2003 SP1 with Backup Exec 9.1 SP2 (with Hotfixes 50 & 52 applied).

Thankfully this is an exercise and not a real world disaster.

I am trying to backup and complete a restore of a System running Windows 2003 SP1 and Microsoft SQL Server using Veritas Backup Exec 9.1 with the hotfixes and patches I have mentioned above.

Firstly although I find that Hotfix 50 appears to install the correct "bedsnt5.dll" on the media server, when the media server pushes the remote agent to the Windows 2003 SP1 server it actually installs 9.1.4691.20 version of the file.

To get round this I stop the Remote Agent service, copy over the 9.1.4691.50 version of the file to the correct folder on the Windows 2003 SP1 server and restart the computer, after restarting I verify that the file is still the 9.1.4691.50 version (you never know with these new, self-repairing OS).

I perform this task both prior to backing up the server and pior to attempting the restore.

I follow the instructions exactly as given in the Hotfix 50 documentation and the related documentation for Remote System Restore of a Windows 2000/2003 server.

Copying the correct bedsnt5.dll file has got round the "could not load kernel" fatal errors that I've been getting on this issue for the last week.

However, now I find that upon attempting to restart the server after the restore the system simply enters into what appears to be an endless series of reboots. Windows appears to be starting, it goes into the semi graphical mode with the scrolling horizontal bar, but simply blinks the screen and decides to reboot.

The system is a Dell Poweredge 2850, 2 2.8Ghz Xeons, 4Gb RAM, 2 logical drives (1 RAID 1 mirror & 1 RAID 5 array).

Is there yet another hotfix?

Is there anyone else who has had this problem?

Has anyone had a successful system restore of Windows 2003 with this version of the Backup Exec product?

[Giles_Coochey]

Can I assume that, judging by the lack of response, that no one has performed a successful system restore of Windows 2003 Server SP1 with this version of Backup Exec?

What version has this capability, if any?

[Shilpa_pawar_2]

Hi,

Have you recreated all IDR bootable media After installing this hotfix 50?

Also note that at this time, push installs are not possible from Backup Exec for Windows Servers to Windows XP Service Pack 2 systems or Windows 2003 Service Pack 1 servers.
Local installations of the Remote Agent can be carried out as described in the following article:
http://support.veritas.com/docs/258982

Refer these technotes for more information:

http://support.veritas.com/docs/276538
http://support.veritas.com/docs/270144


Additional Information :
For information on the recent VERITAS Backup Exec security vulnerabilities, including links to the downloads for the necessary hotfixes, please refer to the following document:
Patch summary for Security Advisories VX05-001, VX05-002, VX05-003, VX05-005, VX05-006, VX05-007

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/277429.htm


NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked "assumed answered" and would be moved to "answered questions" pool.

[Giles_Coochey]

We don't have or use the IDR option. I will try the local installation of the Backup Exec Remote Agent for Windows as per document 258982 in your post. However, I must report that I do not experience the symptoms that are reported in 270144 and the Remote Agent appears to install without any problems. Obviously the first time we're installing the agent (for backup purposes) the system is part of a Domain where the firewall is disabled by default, and the second time we're installing the agent (for restore purposes) the system is not a Windows 2003 SP1 server, but only a Windows 2003 server.

This is a server deployment project, which requires a successful Disaster Recovery test before the server can go into production. It has involved the recent purchase of a remote agent for MS SQL Server, which unfortunately we will have to return for a refund if we can't get the software to do its job.

The method I've been using is as follows:

0. We have a system build, Windows 2003, applied SP1 & all available windows security updates, installed MS SQL Server, installed MS SQL Analysis Services, installed MS SQL SP4.
1. We install the remote agent (push from media server- it appeared to work, more or less, with the exception of the incorrect bedsnt5.dll file, see below)
2. We backup the System Drive & System State
3. We rebuild the server using original Windows Server Media, we don't join the domain, we don't apply any service packs (this system is just a Windows 2003 Server, with a administrator password set and terminal services enabled for remote administration).
4. We install the remote agent (admittedly, we've been pushing the agent from the media server)
5. We restore both System drive and System State

NB Backup Exec claims that both the backup completes ok and the restore completes ok. Backup Exec asks us to reboot the restored server to complete the restore.

We follow these instructions, and depending on the version of the bedsnt5.dll file:

9.1.4691.20

On attempting to start Windows immediately reports:

Windows could not start because of an error in the software.
Please report this problem as :
load needed DLLs for kernel.
Please contact your support person to report this problem.

9.1.4691.50 (manually applied)

Windows appears to go through the start up process, however, just when you believe the login screen will appear the system reboots itself.

[Giles_Coochey]

Right, firstly, after installing the RANT32 manually by running the setupaofo.cmd I notice immediately that the version of the bedsnt5.dll file is still 9.1.4691.20

It seems quite obvious that the Hotfix 50 is not replacing the file with the version that it says it is, it's only replacing the instance of the file that is placed on the Media server.

This to me is obviously a bug with the patch, and needs to be resolved, but this is my only possible course of action, and I don't even know how I can get any kind of escallation to Veritas Engineering through this forum.

[Joshua_Small]

First of all, asking anyone from Veritas to escalate anything on this forum is like asking the local kebab shop to escalate your complaint about the salad. It's not ever going to go anywhere.

Regarding your series of reboots, the first thing that comes to mind:

Are you restoring to IDENTICAL hardware?

With this in mind, can you boot in safe mode?

[Giles_Coochey]

Yes, the hardware is identical, it is in fact the same machine, which is part of the reason why it's doing my head in. The number of times where I've built the system, installed MS SQL & patches etc..., backed up and then attempted a restore (which takes a few hours each time) has monopolised my time for at least two weeks now.

As for safe mode - this would normally work by pressing F8 right? Well I hit F8 like it's going out-of-style during the boot-up process and Windows doesn't give me a Advanced Option menu at all, it just goes straight into boot-up.

I just tried re-applying Hotfix 50 on the media server and managed to reboot it during our maintenance window last night. I uninstalled the agent and rebooted the system to be recovered and tried re-installing the agent again, it still shows the 9.1.4691.20 version of the bedsnt5.dll file, which the hotfix documentation says should be version 9.1.4691.50.

To be honest I'm running out of time on this project, we must have a disaster recovery plan and this issue affects system restore capability to other production systems on our network. I'm seriously starting to realise that the only recommendation to management that I can put with confidence would be that we look into something like CA ArcServe and get them or a solution provider to prove that they can restore our server before we make a purchase of their software.

In my 11 years in IT Operations employment I've always used Backup Exec. Surely there must be others out there who can either say (a) it works for me, which I note no-one has said; or (b) Yes, this doesn't work and there is a problem.

[Giles_Coochey]

Shilpa,

In response to your query, which wasn't answered in my previous reply to your post, yes we have applied the security Hotfix 52 to the media server as well.

[Joshua_Small]

An out of field suggestion:
Try installing SP1 and all critical updates to your base build, prior to pushing the remote agent and attempting to hit "restore".

Everyone tells me this is unnecessary and pointless, but I have never gotten a restore to work under Windows 2000 unless I installed Sp4 first- maybe 2003 is in the same boat.

[Giles_Coochey]

Yes, that works.

You still have to manually replace the bedsnt5.dll that is installed by whichever method with the version that is found on the media server after applying Hotfix 50 on each remote agent.

Installing the remote agent, either remotely or by using the setupaofo.cmd locally will install the wrong version and cause the restore to fail.