Restoring system?state makes the server reboot

[Steve_Fleury]

This is not my first experience with disaster recovery with backupexec. I do the procedure every year as part of the normal disaster recovery plan my company has.

I'm using the IDR cd made with V9.0 build 4454. Before I begin, I have made a second full backup of this server just in case it was an issue with the backup set...but i get the same results...

Basically, the thing that has changed since last year is that I now restore to another new computer (dell poweredge sc420)... That's it. The restore worked in the past on a dell workstation 470.

Here is the story...

Goal : restore the media server (where backupexec is installed) on a different hardware server using idr from backupexec.

The original backupexec media server has scsi 3 raid (adaptec) controller. The restore hadware server is running with a sata controller and hd.

The steps :

1) boot with the idr cd, press enter to start the process

2) delete the suggested partition and create 1 partition of 38Gb ntfs. (the original server has 2 partition, 1 for the dell diagnostic of 32 Mb and 1 of 32 gb ntfs)

3) server reboots from the hd, then gets to the idr wizard. I choose assisted and uncheck the same hardware option.

4) choose locally attached drive (an lto locally attached to an adaptec card is connected).

5) the server reboots from the hd, then starts looking for the attached tape device..Find's it. I click on "i will provide the tapes", then insert the tape form the last full of this server.

6) by the way, when windows discovered the device and the networking, I cann tell you that the networking works because i see in real time when the dhcp server gave this server an ip. I can also ping from the dhcp server this recovery server whithout problem. Please note that all this is being done in a self-contained network lab (closed network with 1 dhcp server, 1 laptop as a client and 1 recovery server all plugged in a switch...not connected to the net..)

7) I put the tape in, it finds the C partition that i choose to restore to the C of the newly created partition on the server. This goes without problem. I can even see software and system hives beeing restored and merged sucessfully. The only thing that does not seem to fully restore is the wmi repository...no big deal...I think.

8) Then it ask me if i want to restore the next set on the tape wich is the system state. I click on restore set, then nothing happens for about 2 or 3 seconds, then i see the windows 2000 background for about 1 second (the wizard just closed on me at this point) and the server restarts.

The problem with this is that the windows restore is half-way done at this point without the system state. I'm missing enough files that server will freeze just before going to the graphical part of windows..(i see the dos status bar saying strating windows...) then nothing. Doing a restart in safe mode goes no further results has it freeze too. Obvisouly i missing anough files or registries entries to prevent windows to start properly.

Looking at the log of the wizard (using earth commander to access the files), the last line is "restoring system state". That's it. I don't have, like many of you, connection refused or access denied. I can confirm the server is the same by ping by name at the dhcp server.

My question is : what can make the wizard quit on me like this ? I have tried at least 10 different things in the last 2 weeks at this.... Of course this is preventing me from continuing my disaster recovery plan as i need the media server to recover the others...

Also, installing from scratch won't do me any good, cause I could not restore the windows installation while i'm using it....catch 22 here...

Please help...

Anything to put on a track would be greatly appreciated.

Steve.

[priya_khire]

Hello,

Refer to the following technote which focuses on the compatibility issues with using IDR on a computer with different hardware. In case the process you follow is not supported, its functionality cannot be guaranteed.

Is it possible to recover a full backup to a computer with different hardware using the Intelligent Disaster Recovery option?
http://support.veritas.com/docs/191461

Hope this answers your question. In case of further doubts, revert with details.

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.

Regards.

[Steve_Fleury]

Well, thanks for the link, but i have, in the past , been able to go around those limits like single cpu to dual and also the network card not being recognise when the detection idr phase starts...

I'm not looking for someone to point me where documents shows me that it cannot be done....

Is there someone in there that would be able to explain me what's different in the procedure of restoring the system?state compared with , let's say, a partition like C.

One thing i know is that the system?state is being restored to a unc like \\servername\something.. So this tells me that the networking must be functionnal or else the computer cannot answer the call for the restore....

But does someone knows what the steps (inner steps) of a recovery of a system?state....

One thing i forgot to mention is that last year the media server was also the active directory controller... This year the media server (what i'm trying to restore) is just a domain merged computer...not a controller....this brings me to this : What user id and password does the idr tries to restore the system?state..?? Obviously the userid and password of the real windows installation are not there yet....so what does use ??? could it be like an access deny but I get some sort of other reaction...(instead of a log entry, i get a reboot!.. )?

Someone must know....PLEASE HELP !!! :)

[Deepali_Badave]

Hello,

Please elaborate the following phrase:-
"what the steps (inner steps) of a recovery of a system?state.... ".


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.

[Steve_Fleury]

The issue has been found to be a defective backup of the system state on that particular tape.... I took the tape where an older system state of this same server was, and using this tape to restore did not make the server reboot..... I guess this is how backupexec reacts when he does not like a backup set !