SDR Questions for BE 2014

[jerrys79]

I have a few SDR questions that hopefully are simple enough to answer.  I understand that I need to keep SDR turned on to update the .dr files after each successful backup and understand that Symantec no longer provides a downloadable SDR disk. I just want to make sure I'm doing things right.

Example 1: I have SDR backups on for server A (media server) and server B (remote server being backed up) and I create the DR file on server A and use server B as an alternate DR store.  At this point, lets say server B crashes and I never created an SDR recovery disk.  Can I create the SDR disk at this time and use the DR file on the media server to recover server B or is it too late?

Example 2: Lets say I have media servers in 5 different sites all backing up remote servers with SDR on. 

Do I need to create an SDR recovery disk at each one of those sites? 

Also, do I need to create a new disk every time I add another server to be backed up?  Or is it simply enough to turn on SDR on the newly backed up server to create the DR file and use the "old" original SDR disk along with the new DR file for recovery?

How often do I need to update the SDR recovery disk?  After each patch, each service pack or each version change?

I have read the admin guide and I'm just trying to get a grasp on what's in the DR file versus what's on the recovery disk.  I just want to make sure I can recover all my servers.  I understand I can use manual recovery if needed but am trying to avoid that.

Thank you in advance.

[pkh]

You only need one SDR disk for everything. You only need to customize a SDR disk of you want to add special drivers which is needed by a particular server, e.g. a server may need drivers for a disk array.

[EliasA · Accepted solution]

Hi Jerrys79,

Answer for Example 1:
Yes, you can create the SDR CD image on the media server A and use that to recover the remote server B. This can be done even after remote server B has crashed but an SDR backup of remote server B has been done by the media server A. In fact in this case you do not even need the .DR file. After creating the SDR CD image use it to boot the crashed remote server B and perform a remote recovery using the SDR wizard by connecting to the media server A.

Answer for Example 2:
You only need a single SDR CD image to boot into the WinPE environment and recovery any system. As long as this SDR CD image is available to the 5 different sites there is no need to create one on each site. If you are recovering the media server itself then you need to provide the .DR file of the media server to the SDR recovery wizard. If you are recovering a remote server then you do not need a .DR file. Just a valid connection to the media server that took the SDR backup of the remote server is enough and you should be able to perform a remote recovery.

You do not need to create a new SDR CD image everytime a server is backed up. You many need to create one if you want to include the Storage controller drivers or network drivers from the backed up system into the SDR CD image or if there was a configuration change on the system such as disk layout change or if a Backup Exec related hotfix is applied on the media server.

[jerrys79]

Thank you.  This was very helpful.