Simplified Disaster Recovery - 800GB of files..

[adamfs]

I've been reading up on the Simplified Disaster Recovery feature in BE2012 and want to run this job occasionally.

The issue I have is BE wants to back up 800GB of data files off a separate drive each time. This drive is backed up each night to tape. If I deselect this drive the Simplified Disaster Recovery light goes off. As I understand it I then cannot use the SDR feature to do a restore?

If my server fails to boot one day and I just need to get it back to pre-disaster stage; if I restore from a backup will the system state be enough for this? And do I use a different process to SRD at start up? If so what?

Sorry if this seems an obvious question, I've just changed from another vendor, which although had less features, it was very simple. It ran the disaster recovery job to disk as a single pre-selected job and it was enough to recover a server to a workable state; OS, AD, program files etc. - Exchange and files/data I could then recover separately from another backup.

Regards
Adam

[pkh]

To recover a server without SDR, you need to do these on the machine to be recovered

1) Install a copy of the OS.

2) Install the remote agent

3) restore the C: drive

4) restore the system state

5) re-boot

At this stage, you will get your system back to the time of the backup.  You then need to restore all your data files and data for whatever databases you have.

SDR automates the first 4 steps.

[PraveenShetty]

SDR has a bootable recovery disk with which u can boot the machine and connect to the backup server and restore backup sets directly.

If you do not run a SDR backup,you need to backup atleast the system drive and system state to get the system up and running. The applications and data can be restored separately if you have a backup or SDR backup is a simpler option.

Thanks

[adamfs]

This is where I'm struggling. I want to use the SDR feature as it is a lot simpler. But if my system dies and I need to recover it, chances are all my files will be fine as it's on a separate raid configuration. It's only the system drive that I will want/need to recover. Plus the 800GB files are backed up every night to tape. I'm not going to run an SDR every night.

As soon as I untick the files volume SDR goes off therefore is my only option to just go with it and do a massive SDR backup? - If I ever need to recover through SDR can I pick what to recover? Or will it just restore everything bearing in mind the 800GB files could be a month old? Or am I best off just doing manual disaster recovery backups?

Best Regards
Adam

[PraveenShetty]

Yes in your case a manual recovery would be best as you already have 800GB data backup on tape.You can backup the system drive and system state and recover the system in case of a disaster and then restore the data from tape.

In SDR even if a single file is unchecked the from the selections then SDR is turned off and the configuration is not updated.

So yes a manual disaster recovery will be best for you.

Thanks

Praveen

[adamfs]

Ok Thanks Praveen. I think that will be my best option too.

A questin though, If I deceided to run the SDR job and I used if for a restore, can omit the data volume when I come to restore and select only the system drive? Or do you not get that option?  Just a question...

Regards
Adam

[PraveenShetty · Accepted solution]

Yes you can run the SDR job and then during restore you can select what data you want to restore.(i.e. only system state and system drive can be selected for restore)

Please mark the comment as solution if its useful.

Thanks,

Praveen