Disaster Recovery

[2Tall]

Hi. I would like to test the restore procedure in a 'Test Lab' environment. I have test lab configured (same hardware as production environment).

Scenario:
Single Site / Single Domain
2 Domain Controllers
1 Member Server running Exchange 2003
All servers running Windows 2003 Standard SP2

Test 1:
The DC holding all the FSMO roles has crashed. Also provides DNS + DHCP + WDS services.

Restore from Tape Procedure:??

Test 2:
DC has crashed:

Restore from Tape Procedure:??

Using:
Backup Exec 11d

Regards,
Phil.

[Ben_L_]

Phil,

These technotes should take care of you.

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/236286.htm

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/236240.htm

[2Tall]

Boy that was quick. I will take a look. Can you advise regards this option in backup exec:

"Mark this server as the primary arbitrator for replication when restoring folders managed by the File Replication Service, or when restoring SYSVOL in SystemState.

Select this check box to designate this server as the primary replicator for all members in the set when restoring FRS-managed folders or SYSVOL as part of SystemState.

If all members of a replication set are to be restored, then stop replication, restore all the member servers, and then when restoring the last member server, select this option to designate the server as the primary replicator. If this option is not selected, replication may not function.

Note In this version of Backup Exec, all restores of SYSVOL and FRS-managed folders are non-authoritative. An authoritative restore can only be performed by redirecting the restore and

then copying the files to the server. Refer to your Microsoft documentation for details on performing an authoritative restore."

Note: I have a full system backup. System State / Drive C: / Volume Shadow Copy etc....

Thanks,

Phil.

Message Edited by 2Tall on 10-01-2007 07:58 AM

[Ben_L_]

Phil,

Those options are pretty self explanitory, not sure what else I can add to them for you. 

[Hywel_Mallett]

Phil,

If your scenario is that you lose 1 DC, then you do not need to select the primary arbitrator option. This means that when you restore, any AD records updated since the backup will be replicated from your other (surviving) DC.

You would use that option if you wanted to restore AD, and overwrite the current AD data with the version from the backup.

As it says, there are implications which affect FRS too, but that provides enough pain already!

[2Tall]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I am currently working through some issues after restore.

One of them was regards Backup Exec. I reinstalled the OS to Drive C: then created a folder on D:\Program Files. I installed Backup Exec here as well as SQL. After the restore backup exec would not start the services no matter what logon credentials I used. I then removed backup exec. What would happen if the server had only a single partiton? Would I simply de-select Backup Exec from the restore??

Phil.

[Hywel_Mallett]

You should install the OS, then install BE to a location that is not the same as where your copy of BE is not normally installed. Then you restore the entire system, including the BE installation folder.

E.g. I install it to C:\BETemp - after a restore this folder can then be deleted.

[2Tall]

Thanks for confirming the process.

Was thinking of creating templates for the following:

Each night I want to back up the critical servers Drive C: + System States (Full).  I then have 2 NAS servers that are file servers that contain all the data. I would like to make a differential back up of these as I am currently backing up nearly 400GB per night (a lot of it static I am sure, but hey who wants to delete when you have the storage!!).

So basically I want a Full Backup of all critical servers nightly + the NAS Servers on say a Monday. Then Tues-Fri Full backup of the critical servers + Differential of the Data on the NAS. Differential of the data to start when the Full completes?

Any Tips?

Phil.