Restoring System State

[davidfreeway]

I have restored a working SBS2008 Server to another server with exactly the same hardware, everything is working ok.

I would now like to be able to restore a later system state from the original server without the WinSXS folder increasing massively in size. is this possible. 

I've done this once already and during the restore the server ran out of disk space, which made the OS unbootable.

Have i missed an option ?

Many thanks

David.

[Colin_Weaver]

System state restores do not provide a partial restore ability. As such everything that counted as the System State at the time of the backup has to be restored.

There is a minor exception to the above comment in that if you Backup a Domain Controller (which of course also applies to SBS) with Active Directory GRT enabled in the backup job then you can restore objects within Active Directory without restoring the complete Systerm State

[davidfreeway]

Hi Colin,

Thanks for your reply. much appreciated!

It would be better if I could just restore the active directory but I'm using Backup Exec 12.5 SBS which I think doesnt include the agent for active directory as part of the licence.  Its an option on the install for 60days.

So when restoring from a later system state, does it overwrite the existing files/folders in the winsxs folder it created from the first restore ?  This appears to not to be the case as the original server's winsxs folder is 30Gb, mine before it ran out of disk space was 50Gb +.

Many thanks

Dave.

[Colin_Weaver · Accepted solution]

It will overwrite where the file names are the same and where the files are not locked open.

However:

1) if the files in that folder change regularly (new ones get created old ones deleted, with lots of file name changes) then the process will not remove files that existed in the earlier backup but not the later one (which would then use more disk space)

2) If any files are locked open, then I think during system state restores we may write to a temp location (using an MS process) so that during first reboot the correct files are replaced. (again this would use more disk space)

[Colin_Weaver]

BTW if you are trying to restore some missing user accounts, then you could

1) Use Exchange GRT to restore the user mailbox and in the restore options for that restore job enable the option "Recreate user accounts and mailboxes if they do not already exist on the destination server"

4) If you administer end users via the SBS console (and not Active Directory users and computers) Use ADSIEdit to set the attribute "msSBSCreationState" to "Created" against any AD account created when restoring mailboxes - if unfamiliar with use of ADSI Edit customers should consult with Microsoft.

3) then restore the user data folders and re-link their account to those folders (security etc) .

4) Add the users to any groups they may be missing.

We used a similar method (some time ago) to work around problems restoring system state on an SBS server where a GRT backup of the Exchange databases did exist.

[davidfreeway]

Hi Colin,

It was as you mentioned in your previous post, the system state needs more disk space to restore the system state and then its freed up after the first reboot.  I've now made the system partition larger and am getting a successful restore.

Many thanks

David..