Total Restore on Windows 2003/Exchange 2003 server onto new hardware.

[B-N]

I have an old Dell 2400 Server with BUE 9.1 on it running W2003 SP1 and E2003. The backup is a full backup (Drives, system state etc. ) to disk which runs fine every night without errors. This is one of a number of DCs on the network.

Windows is on the C drive.
Exchange data is on the D drive.

I want to move this install, in totality, to a Dell 830 Server and was planning to do it in 2 goes, System 1st then exchange....

On the new server I have installed the same copy of W2003.
Loaded + Installed W2003 SP1 (kernal error on reboot after restore if you dont)
Formatted the D drive.
Copied across the B2D folder
Renamed the server to be the same name as the original server and disconnected from network so that there is no name conflict. I have done this so that the restore can proceed withouth having to select the 'redirect restore'
Saved the boot.ini file and the windows\repair....somewhere safe just in case
Loaded BUE 9.1
Inventoried the B2D folder
Fiddled around with BUE so that it will Catalogue the B2D folder (BUE always seems to error when generating the Catalog saying it had not being inventoried, so generally requires stopping BUE services, renaming the Catalog folder, restarting services and then re Cataloging, and eventually it will burst into life)
Now in W2003 'normal mode' start the restore for the system state (excluding the exchange option) and the C drive, carefully checking the options to overwrite everything, merge the registry and to mark this server as the primary arbiter of.....
The restore completes without error and the notification that the server needs to be rebooted, which it is.
Next the W2003 splash screen comes up with the bar going left to right for a couple of minutes and then freezes. I have left it overnight in the hope that it will sort its self out, which it does not. During this time pressing the numlock ley turns the light on and off which indicates that it is not totally dead.

Rebooting the server in this 'dead' state allows you to boot into safe mode and the files on the C drive appears to have been restored, it is still a workgroup so the restore has not changed it to a DC and the IP address is the old address so this has not been overwritten by the restore.

Variations on the above theme in desparation:-
I have downloaded BUE 10d Evaluation and used this on the source server and the destination server, with exactly the same effect.
I have booted, rather than in normal mode in AD restore mode and that makes no difference.
I have left the server name as it installs and tried the redirected restore.


Anyone any ideas why, something that seems so simple, is proving to be so difficult and how do I get this to restore and boot?

[Gauri_Ketkar]

Hi,

Refer to the Technotes given below >

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/236240.htm

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/191461.htm

What is the eaxact error message you are getting at what stage ?


Update us on the same and revert for any further Query



Thank you
Gauri

[ian_Hunt_2]

Gauri, thanks for your assistance.

The final error that this comes up with is:-

"The data that is being read from the media is inconsistent."

There is no additional information in the Windows event log other than event id 34113. It does not say what, exactly, is inconsistent.

I would guess that failed within 600M of the end of the restore and I would guess that this is in the area of the system state restore. After the attempted restore failed I have used VSSADMIN to look at the list writer status and these say they are both stable and that the Last Error is No Errors.

This error comes up at the very end of the restore job, after it has restored the C and the D drives, and the job immediately terminates the error appears.

As I mentioned above this is a restore from a B2D folder and the files are in a folder that is not going to be overwritten. BUE is also installed in a different location on the same server to that being restored.
The drives are the same (C and D) with the same format and same names. The server has the same name as the original server.

I am logged in with the Administrator account which has the standard Administrator rights.

The target server is identically set up to the original server and has W2003 SP1 and BUE 10d now has SP1 installed on it as well.

Thanks very much

Ian