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Restoring Windows SBS 2003 with BUE 11d

JamKo
Level 3

Greetings,

 

  I am having to do a full restore of w2k3 sbs server including exchange, with BUE 11d. I have followed some articles and support forums, but everything I have read so far has holes in it.

First, we lost 2 drives in the RAID 5, so full restore is necessary. We have to restore Exchange but not ms sql.

I have installed the baseline sbs2k3, and stopped. I have not installed MS Exchange, or run any of the SBS setup. 

I renamed the computer to match the original name before crash, and hit the "more" button in computer properties, and set the FQDN of the server before crash.

1.)  My understanding is to then boot to directory services restore mode, and restore shadow copy components, along with the full C:, but leaving out the exchsvr directory c:\program files\exchsvr

My assumption here is that I should not select anything related to the exchange information stores. Is this correct?

2.)  Next, I face the requirement that the service packs and hotfixes be the same on the target computer as it was before diaster. All I know is it was service pack 1 or above. Having to test each service pack with a restore is time consuming enough, but then to have to know what hotfixes were installed, seems excessive if not straight out impossible. The amount of possible combinations for service packs and hotfixes is astronomical in terms of time, especially considering  usually the improper restore bricks the entire new install, requiring a complete reinstall for the next test of combinations.

There has to be a good way around this when you do not have a record of it, does anyone know what that is?

 

 

14 REPLIES 14

Kunal_Mudliyar1
Level 6
Employee Accredited

try this

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH17613

JamKo
Level 3

Thanks I've read that one. Full of holes, and it tries to combine 2000 and 2003 in one article. Screenshots and explanations are jumbled and not clear.

Kunal_Mudliyar1
Level 6
Employee Accredited

I understand, manual DR is a complex and combersome process

Bakcup Exec System recovery is a good application to recover systemis in disaster

http://www.symantec.com/system-recovery-server-edition

Similar feature is also added to the new backup exec 2012 edition called as simplied disaster recovery in which you do not have to install windows to recover a server, you simply have to restore from a bootable recovery disk provided by symantec in order to perform a restore

 

However in your scenario

I would suggest install the same operating system which you have before (dont focus on each and every patch)

If previous system was Windows 2003 make sure you are restoring on Windows 2003 and not Wndows 2003 R2. If you remember your service pack level well and good.

Install BE on d:\

 

As SBS will install AD , you simply need to goto the active directory restore mode , make sure all the  services are on local

Restore C: and system state except the backup exed directory and exchange directory

This will restore the Mailbox / exchange related schema

Later install the exchange server with the disaster recovery switch

and create empty exchange databases mount them and dismount them and go with the exchange restore process from the latest full backup set

keep the server name and fqdn similarites is somthing you already are aware about.

 

 

JamKo
Level 3

Thank you.

I was able to get the system state restored, however I had to do it with deselecting the userdata and services state from the shadow copy components. For whatever reason it would fail everytime I selected all three shadow copy components.

So AD is back etc, but DNS appears to be missing and some other stuff I'm yet to find.

At this point I'm having to manually remove the temporary backup exec installation, and the original installatdion that was put back on when I restored C: and system state.

Neither were able to get the services going.

I am hoping after reboot I'll be able to complete a reinstall of BUE 11d and go after the other two parts of the shadow copy if I really need them, and then Exchange.

I think restoring the other two parts of shadow copy might brick the BUE reinstalltion though because it will bring back old services data.

 

 

 

 

 

JamKo
Level 3

Actually correction DNS is fine. The domain system state appears to be a go. I don't think I'll mess with installing the other parts of system state right now and just go after Exchange, unless you think it's crucial.

 

Kunal_Mudliyar1
Level 6
Employee Accredited

Correct...

Go after exchange now..after reinstalling BE fresh

 


Edit

Leaving shadow copy components will not affect your dr process as it contains data relating to event viewer , sbs monitoring, etc.

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO22652

 

JamKo
Level 3

I had some issues with exchange and restarted from scratch.

Something with the SQL install is bricked.

I wanted to do it again anyway because it was getting a little messy and sometimes stuff just gets weird.

My question now is, I saw not to restore the mysql directories because sharepoint and sbsmonitoring goes later.

However, nothing is mentioned on whether or not to restore the symantec backup exec 'program files' directory.

I put backup exec in its own temp program files folder when doing the restore, but I also put the sql express instance in a different temp dir, and I think that is what bricked the exchange install. It was not able to install the sql instance needed, it just kept looping on launch.

It seems both instances of BUE get messed up on restore anyway and it's tough to uninstall them as there is only one uninstaller in add/remove programs.

My other caveat here is I am restoring with 11D but this backup was done with 10D. Long story but customer lost all their software, and we had a catastrophic. So had to run down win2k3 sbs not R2, and a copy of bue to use on the restore.

I was also thinking if I merged the registry instead of overwritting it, one of the BUE instances might actually run after restoring system state.

 

JamKo
Level 3

I think the questions gets to be, why am I not restoring the sql directories in program files? After I restore, I get an instance of ms sql 2005, which i did not install prior to restoring.

I do not have the customers copy of sql 2005, but I think I can get it if I need it. However, why can't I just restore the sql directories with the initial restore of C: ? Why do all the articles say to deselect it?

Kunal_Mudliyar1
Level 6
Employee Accredited

I am guessing as the sql restore is done after the DR is completing restoring sql before that will call the server cause issues at the time on sql restores.

At the time of a sql restore you need an instance where the databases can be restored

 

JamKo
Level 3

Thanks for all the help here.

Problem is with exchange at this point. I need to reapply exchange service pack 2 because the restore of the information store is failing with an error that the "version of the log files does not match the exchange version."

When I attempt to install exchange service pack 2, the active sync portion is failing with an error realted to the MSXML Parser. I've done some research and the issue appears to be related to the fact that the server is running MSXML Parser version 6 service pack 2, however the MSXML Paser that is launched during the Exchange SP2 install is MSXML Version 3. 

Backup Exec would not install correctly without the MSXML version 6 service Pack 2 update, so I'm not sure what will break if I try downgrading the version installed on the server.

I already tried replacing the msxml3.msi in the exchange/bin directory with an msi for msxml 6 service pack 2, and renaming it to msxml3.msi, but still it did not go.

I imagine this is a fairly common problem when restoring exchange 2003. 

Any ideas?

JamKo
Level 3

When I try to use the latest version of msxml service pack I have installed in the exchsrver/bin folder, as outlined here:  http://geekswithblogs.net/colinbo/archive/2006/01/27/67345.aspx it tries to launch the msi installer, which errors out, stating there is already an installer running. The only other msi installer I see running in the taskmgr belongs to exchange sp2.

JamKo
Level 3

I think I figured it out. I was trying to use the msxml version 6 service pack 2 as a replacement, but I ended up having to use just the normal msxml version 6 without the service pack. The upgrade to exchange 2k3 sp2 continued when I hit retry with the new installer in the exchsrver/bin directory, and I also put it in the extracted directory for the installer.

Kunal_Mudliyar1
Level 6
Employee Accredited

Sorry for responding late but yes msxml playes a very important role and can result to installation failures

JamKo
Level 3

Oh no problem, you have been rather quick. The exchange restore was successful once I straightened out the msxml issue with sp2. I'm having the user test outlook before enabling the smtp server again, just in case there is a bug somewhere. Thanks again!