Recover SBS 2000 to new server

[Chris_Snyder]

I am conducting an exercise to prove the viability of the disaster recovery process of our server (i.e., the scenario is that a tornado came through and wiped out the entire building...and the only the LTO tape that was stored off-site is the only survivor). I have a grant that is dependent on the successful outcome.

I currently have SBS 2000 that is being backed up via a media server (Win2000 server). This part is working fine.

I am having problem when trying to restore to the new hardware. I have been able to rebuild the media server with the same model of LTO drive, and have been able to obtain the server installation CDs for the old server. I have followed the instructions in 243093, but am not able to restart after the initial recovery of the System State. I am assuming that the Boot Files and the Utility Partition are causing the Blue Screen upon reboot.

Is there a way to simply recover only the Active Directory? Or am I going about this all wrong.

If this restore is complete, then the next task is to upgrade to SBS 2003, then apply the SBS Transition Pack to unlock SBS into its separate components.

Thank you.

[Ken_Putnam]

Is the new server essentially the same as the old server?

That is same server model, same RAID/SCSI controller, etc? Same nubmer of disks, at least as large as the original disks?

[Chris_Snyder]

Thanks.

Unfortunately, the only thing that is the same is the manufacturer (Dell). The new system has only a single processor as compared to the two Pentium Xeons of the old server, the SCSI controller is similiar but the new server is split into two drive arrays. This should not ba a problem. The hard drives in the new system are much larger . Both systems have two NICs, but not necessarily the same type.

When I go to recover the old system to the new, the System State options are grayed out, so I cannot choose that I do not care about the Boot and Utility partitions.

As of the original posting, I have had to rebuild the remote backup server, i.e., the PC platform on which it was built died. It has been re-resurrected onto another PC platform that seems to be a bit more stable. It is still able to run Windows 2000, but has more hard drive and memory. When I went through the IDR Setup utility, I did not keep the defaults this time. I did not keep the check mark next to "Let IDR automatically partition the boot and system drives during restore." I will see how this works. If you have any other ideas, thank you for them.

[Ken_Putnam]

The Multi/Single processor is probably what is killing you now.

And I've always thought that IDR was a worthless piece of crap. I'd rather take a little longer and do a standard Microsoft Disaster Recovery so that I know EXACTLY what is going on and what fails if/when something does

[Chris_Snyder]

I know what you mean...I was sold on a bill of goods that when it is not working as advertised the help will cost you dearly and still no answer to the problem. The real sad part is there are other agencies that I have been working with that have not had the opportunity to go through this exercise and will be greatly disturbed when they find out that the older and more outdated servers than mine will not be recoverable to newer (currently available) technology when a disaster comes.

Thanks.

[shweta_rege]

Hello Chris,



Could you please Update us on the issue?





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.

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[Chris_Snyder]

Just as an FYI to this issue...I am still working on it with this software, but I am also having to look at other software choices in order to meet the expectations of being able to recover one SBS server with one backup server to a new backup server and a new SBS server. The only thing that is to change is the hardware.

In trying to work around this issue, (since IDR does not work and a straight recovery will not work either), I have been able to recover the server with programs and user data, but fail miserably when it comes to the Exchange portion. I have read many things on how to recover Exchange server and the issues of why the recovery process fails, and I find it to be very disturbing that these failures are known but will not be addressed until a later version of the software. (I do not believe that I need to state the obvious questions here)...

[Deepali_Badave]

Hello,

are specific limitations that should be known before an attempt to restore a full system backup to a computer with different hardware is attempted:


Restoration to a computer with more or less processors than the original computer is not supported (i.e. Dual processor to Quad processor or Dual processor to Single processor).
Restoration to a computer of a different platform (CPU) than the original computer is not supported (i.e. Intel to Alpha).
Only the Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) controllers that are installed and configured before the graphical portion of the IDR process can be used to restore during the recovery process (see Related Documents for more information). To add original equipment manufacturer (OEM) third party SCSI drivers (that are not present on a standard Windows NT CD), select Custom Setup instead of Express Setup in the text portion of the IDR process and add the driver manually.
If SCSI device drivers are used that rely on later service pack revisions to function, they may not work properly when installed during the IDR process, since the IDR process is based on the Windows NT CD that was used when the IDR diskettes were created. In most cases, the Windows NT CD either had Windows NT/2000 Service Pack 1 or no service pack incorporated on it.
If the video hardware differs, IDR will not attempt to install new video drivers. Instead, the restored NT/2000 operating system will boot into Video Graphics Array (VGA) compatibility mode. Once booted, a new video driver will have to be installed manually.
Although networking support is installed for Remote IDR, network interface drivers will not be moved into the restored NT/2000 operating system. If the network interface hardware has changed, the old network interface card (NIC) drivers will have to be uninstalled via the Control Panel | Network icon, and new device drivers installed (see Related Documents for more information).
Any third party device drivers that are installed at the time of backup may fail during the IDR process if the new hardware does not support them. The offending drivers will have to be removed manually from the restored Windows NT/2000 installation, once it is operational.

This information is only to be used as a reference for Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 disaster recovery. The Backup Exec for Windows NT and Windows 2000.

Intelligent Disaster Recovery option is not supported as a PC cloning utility for the duplication of systems. In addition, the Intelligent Disaster Recovery procedure is
limited by any limitations of the Windows NT/2000 operating system.

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.