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bare metal recovery question

Shahin
Level 6

Hi,

we want to install exchange sp3 and we want to have a full backup of both exchane server ( is also second DC) and full backup of our DC. both servers are physical and both server 2008 R2. we use BE 15.

can we run a full bare metal backup of each of these servers to a tape? or backup of each server must be to a disc on the media server?

Does this document https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.TECH180099 good startting point?

7 REPLIES 7

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

For bare metal purposes you can go directly to tape - although if you are looking at an Exchange server and also want to restore individual e-mails then best practice for the Exchange Mailbox database backup is make sure GRT is enabled and do the backup to disk (duplicating to tape if needed.) - This "GRT needs disk" suggestion is due to tape based sets needed to Stage the restore of GRT data to disk anyway, which the results in extended timescales for restores

SDR is the correct mechansim  so the technote you found is valid, but you should also look for any other documents on the SDR process including the admin guide.

When looking at SDR (and before you have a problem) make sure the bootable SDR ISO  does work for whatever hardware you are likley to have as a replacement (i.e. disk and network drivers etc. do identify the hardware )

As a warning some customers believe bare metal restore will get back the operating system AND a working version of any databases running within the operating system in a single restore operation - THIS IS INVALID - Yes you can do the backup process of OS and database content in a single backup job, HOWEVER, when it comes to a restore things like Exchnage and SQL databases need their own programs/services to be active and running and this is not true with the SDR restore environment. As such SDR restores the OS and programs installed on the OS, BUT the restore of the Exchange (or SQL) database will require a second restore job AFTER the operating system has been restored and booted up. Note: Active Directory is an exception to this as AD is protected as part of the systejm state so is restore in an SDR restore of a DC

If you want a single pass restore of an Exchange server (for DR) then either virtualize the Exchange server in VMware or Hyper-V and use Backup Exec's virtual agent OR look at a product like Veritas System Recovery instead (although this is limited to disk based backups)

 

Finally as you say this system is also a DC, make sure you know which DC owns the FSMO roles (if yoiu have more than one DC) and also make sure you understand when you may need to do an authoritative restore and an non-authoritative restore by reading Microsoft docs (and then read BE related docs afterwards) as there are extra steps you have to do if you need the DC to be authoritative after the restore (which is not an issue if it is the ONLY DC, but it looks like you have 2 DCs) Note: mots customer in multi-DC environments often are  puzzled by this Active Directory/Microsoft concept

Hi Colin,

Thanks as Always for your detailed info.

Becuase the Exchange SP3 would update the AD schema we would like to have a option at hand if something goes wrong and we can get both DCs and exchange server online.

We will not resotre the baremetal images on a different hardware but on the same hardware.

The DC one has no data on it but exchange server has also some File on it. should we just backup the system stade and Exchange database with the file? or restotring of baremetal will go faster?

 

Thanks

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

We can't answer a theoretical problem as to what would be the quickest for your scenario - especially as what would be the quickest depends on what is not working and on your hardware situation and technical capability. Normally we would recommend a dry run for such an activity (where you prove you know how to do a DR restore with a second set of hardware and document your findings ).

If I had access to VSR I think I would take VSR images of both DCs however for Backup Exec, I think I would backup everything with the SSP/SDR green status icon on (so that SDR is an option even if you do not use it) i.e.

- System State and File System of both DCs

- all Exchange databases (can be in same job as System State and file system for that server and make sure GRT for Exchange is also enabled)

if you then have a problem then how you handle it will depend on whether the servers still boot but AD needs regressing etc and I cannot give advice until we know the exact symptoms (and you might need advice from Microsoft that is based on whatever your actual failure symptoms are.)

 

You options could be:

DR restore both DCs completely to take everything back to how it was.

Restore the System state of the Exchange server as an Authoritiave AD restore and then restore Exchange

-----------

However there could also be other options based on the exact symptoms of your potential problem.

 NOTE: Whetever you do make sure you have

- documented details of your AD origanization (Domain Name, server names, Admin Account credentials etc) and your Exchange Org configuration

- a bootable SDR ISO disk

- your OS install disks

- your Exchnage install disk

- your Backup Exec install disk

details of all licenses required for the above

saved copiues of the latest Service Pack/Feature Pack updates for all the above

saved copies of hardware driver installation packs for the OS

The last few points are to cover for if you have a problem that requires more manual steps to recover from (a precaution that will hopefully NOT be needed)

 

Hi Colin,

Thanks for the replay,

Can we create a Full backup of our Exchange server with the SSP/SDR green status icon and exclude a Drive (that has only files) and still will be able to do a baremetal recovery on the same hardware?

Thanks

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

You can if that drive does NOT contain any resources critical to the server (so as an example has nothing to do with any application that run as a service)

Hoi Colin,

You said that it is possible to restore directly from the tape. server that we want to restore is not atteched directly to the media library and I did run a test and dont see any option for resotre from tape (See attechtment)

should we in this case first restore the backup to a shared folder on the network?

 

Thanks

 

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

Ok so the Tape Library either:

MUST be attached to a Backup Exec (media) server 

OR

MUST be attached to the server being recovered (this is usually the case when the server was the original Backup Exec server)

As your description seems to match the 1st of my options above, you would choose the third option

Note: in the case where your disaster involves both the Backup Exec Server and a remote file or database  server you would expect to get the Backup Exec server with the attached tape library operational first (although SDR can offer recoveries of remote servers without the original BE server if the data is on disk OR if the tape library can be temporarily attached to the file or database server hardware, as long as the .DR files are available.)