BMR Boot server service not starting in windows server 2008 ent 64bit

[Chukwuemeka]

Please is BMR boot server compactible with windows server 2008 enterprise 64bit

Attached to this comment are problems and errors when i try to run shared resource tree administration wizard..#

I really need to run the SRT on my master server.

Well this is my scenario, My NBU 7.0 is installed on windows server 2008 enterprise 64 bit, most of my clients that are backed up are 90% windows server 2003 32bit then 10% windows server 2008 64bit.

I try to run the SRT wizard i get the error "boot server not configured. Please run the bmrsetupboot program"..... of course this was what i did previously,

I ran the master server boot setup then also ran the bmr boot server setup on the master server. But i never got to see the master server in the BMR boot server interface.

My media server is also windows server 2008 enterprise 64bit and when i run the bmrsetupboot.exe -register command on the command prompt, it goes well but the services never gets started in services.msc and it never appears on the BMR boot server interface.

So i am begining to wonder if this is a problem with windows server 2008 enterprise 64bit, because if i run the command on any windows server 2003 machine immediately they automatically get added to the BMR boot server and their services are started automatically.

I need to do a BMR restore on both windows server 2008 enterprise 64bit and windows server 2003 32bit, how do i go about to create the SRT Cd and then burn the bootable ISO CD. All these features are all contained in the SRT administration wizard.

A quick response will be appreciated,

[mandar_khanolka]

BMR Client and Boot Server support on Windows 2008 has been added in NB 7.0.1 release. Looks like you are running with 7.0 version.

BMR Master server on Windows 2008 is supported in 7.0 release.

Thanks.

-Mandar

[Chukwuemeka]

Yes i am running netbackup 7.0 version, so how do i migrate/update to the latest release version (NB 7.0.1) release.

I thought this software should always update by itself, because my master server is always connected to the internet.

I need to do this fast, please what is the fastest way to update to the latest version so that i can run the SRT administration wizard on my master server.

Thx.

[mandar_khanolka · Accepted solution]

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH139088

Please check this link for downloading 7.0.1 patch.

If LiveUpdate has been configured on your system then you can try it as well.

Thanks.

-Mandar

[Chukwuemeka]

thanks mandar,

Right now all my clients have the version 7.0, after applying the patch on the master server, i hope it would distribute it to the clients and i hope that it would not affect clients that i intend to do a BMR restore that still has the 7.0 version.

Is it compulsory that both the master server and the clients should all have the same version before i do a BMR client restore.

I am yet to apply the patch, please is there a document or step on how to apply this patch.

I would apply the patch to the master server by next week.

[Marianne]

Patch updates in NBU does not happen automatically - not even if you use LiveUpdate.

Have you at least clicked on the link that Mandar has provided?

Once you've done that, you will find the following:

NB_7.0.1.winnt.x64.exe provides updates for NetBackup (tm) 7.0 on x64 Windows server and clients.
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH139151

and towards the bottom :

LIVEUPDATE:

The NetBackup 7.0.1 LiveUpdate containers include all the files distributed as part of NetBackup 7.0.1. This allows customers to use LiveUpdate to populate their local LiveUpdate server with all files required to upgrade to 7.0.1. When a LiveUpdate policy is launched to upgrade to 7.0.1, the local host that is targeted for the update determines what set of files is required automatically.  LiveUpdate Policies can be scheduled for specific clients to maximize NetBackup deployment.

You will see links to the various LU bundles.
If you select one of LU links (e.g. http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH139126 )  you will find detailed instruction under this topic:
Creating a LiveUpdate Server for NetBackup

If you select the NB_7.0.1.winnt.x64.exe link, you will find detailed steps:

I.    DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS
II.   INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
III.  UNINSTALL INSTRUCTIONS

[Chukwuemeka]

Hi,

I have started this dowload from

NB_7.0.1.winnt.x64.exe provides updates for NetBackup (tm) 7.0 on x64 Windows server and clients.
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH139151

I intend to run the setup directly(by double-clicking on the setup) instead of going through the process of installing a liveupdate server.

Am i suppose to run this update patch 7.0.1 on both the master server,media server and all my client or if i run the setup on the master server does it distribute it by itself to all the clients.

what is the effect of having my NBU master server updated to 7.0.1 and my clients still on 7.0. Does it affect the BMR client restore.

[mandar_khanolka]

>> what is the effect of having my NBU master server updated to 7.0.1 and my clients still on 7.0. Does it >> affect the BMR client restore.

<Mandar> 7.0.1 master has back-level client support. You can BMR restore your 7.0 clients using BMR/NBU master running at 7.0.1.

Thanks.

-Mandar

[Marianne]

"Am i suppose to run this update patch 7.0.1 on both the master server,media server and all my client or if i run the setup on the master server does it distribute it by itself to all the clients."

Update Master first (after a catalog backup), then media server(s), then clients. You can push the patch from the master by running the patch install again on the master and select the 'Install to multiple computers on your network" (or something like that).

No updates get 'distributed by itself'. If you deploy a LiveUpdate server, it can be scheduled via a LiveUpdate policy.

[Chukwuemeka]

Hi,

I should do this by tomorrow, i would have to run a FULL manual backup on my catalog policy before i proceed to install the patch update.

I would give you a feedback on this after i run the patch tomorrow and i would also try to do a BMR restore.

[Chukwuemeka]

hi,

while trying to download the patch update release 7.0.1, that i will install on my master server, i decided to use one of my clients with windows server 2003 enterprise R2 32bit as my boot server and to create my SRT cd.

When i run the prepare to restore on one of the clients i intend to restore this is the error i get(attached below).

I then decided to run a problem report on that particular client, this was the result(also attached below).

When i see this kind of errors what is the best solution.

Although what i did was that, i have expired the image of that client from catalog and have started to run a new FULL manual backup again on that client.

[Chukwuemeka]

please can someone give me a reply or a clue on what to do for my comment above, about the errors.

[mandar_khanolka]

Looks like BMR failed during required file systems/directories verification in your client backup.

Have you taken a "ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES" backup? Please confirm backup_list in your policy.

Also I believe you are protecting windows client. Is your policy of type MS-WINDOWS?

You may want to paste your bmrprep (PTR) debug level 6 log here. I will see if I can quickly suggest you on the problem.

Thanks.

-Mandar

[Chukwuemeka]

Have you taken a "ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES" backup? ......YesPlease confirm backup_list in your policy.

Also I believe you are protecting windows client. Is your policy of type MS-WINDOWS?......Yes it is MS-WINDOWS

I ran a fresh manual FULL backup of that same server that is giving me error and it shows a status code of 0, but when i run the Prepare

to restore i get the same error, i posted yesterday.

Today i decided to use another client that has a successful prepare to restore report.

I now want to do a BMR client restore on another machine using the second client with the successful report.

When i boot from SRT cd created everything goes succesful until it gets to a stage where it says retrieving configuration after that i get

this error  "failed to retrieve any configurations from the server"

i have attached the log for  bmrprep.

So please i have two issues.

a quick answer would be appreciated

[Marianne]

Yesterday's error was about the master server unable to locate a successful BMR/TIR backup for this particular client. The problem report screenshot confirmed that the BMR part of the backup was unsuccessful:

You need to deal with 'missing driver files' on the client. Without that you cannot perform a successful BMR backup and no BMR restore... Only status 0 backup is good enough.

bmrprep log is a Unified log - you need to use  'vxlogview -o 126 ....' for readable log info.

For your second problem - have you done a 'discover' for the machine that you want to restore to?

Extract from BMR Admin Guide:

You can discover the configuration of a new system; the system does not have to
be a NetBackup client. A discovered configuration contains the hardware and the
software information of a host.
When you discover a configuration, BMR adds it to the discovered configurations
pool. The elements of the configuration (such as disk layout) can then be used
when you perform operations such as dissimilar disk restore.

[Chukwuemeka]

hi marianne,

For your second problem - have you done a 'discover' for the machine that you want to restore to?...NO

i just did a prepare to restore..

Is it compulsory i run "prepare to discover" first before running the "prepare to restore" for all the clients i intend to do a BMR.

Because most of the servers on the network are all HP servers and are mainly G5 and G6 servers(same hardware family) 

[Marianne]

If you read carefully through the section that I posted above, you will see "You can discover...".

I am no BMR expert, but my logic says that NBU can only "know" that this system is the same hardware after a "discover" has been done.

The error that you are seeing  "failed to retrieve any configurations from the server"  says to me that a "discover" is needed.

[mandar_khanolka]

On error  "failed to retrieve any configurations from the server":

This means that your client in BMR restore environment failed to contact BMR master server while fetching itsconfiguration information to be prepared.

This could happen because of different reasons like:

1. Client Name <-> Client IP is not getting resolved correctly at BMR master server.

2. BMR Master server service (BMRD) is down.

3. Network is not set correctly on Client System in restore environment. Because of dissimilar hardware than original client system HW and hence correct NW driver is not available in BMR Shared Resource Tree used to boot client system (used during PTR).

So;

a. Is your client HW same as that of your origianal client system? Remember BMR needs discovery of client HW (PTD) only when your HW is now different than origianal client system was running with. For example, User wants to restore W2K3 system which was running on Dell 2950 HW to IBM 3550 HW. In this case user needs to discover IBM 3550 HW first using PTD and initialize client configuration using the discovered one. Then do PTR and restore. In this process user needs to ensure than all the drivers required to restore system on destiantion HW are available in BMR driver repository.

If your HW is same as earlier then you dont need to do discovery.

b. When you get the falilure message while pulling client config from master; open cmd line using open file menu availble on SRE shell. Go to system32\ and open cmd.

Now you get command prompt in restore environment. Check if you can ping master server with name and vice versa from master server.

Thanks.

Mandar

[Chukwuemeka]

hi mandar,

I have seen your videos on BMR but something is not yet clear to me, please can you list it out step by step, this is what i always do.

1. create a copy of the current client configuration

2.On the copy created right click and click on change, then on the interface that appears, click on network interfaces and change the IP address

3. Click on ok

4.Run prepare to discover...

5. On the PTD page, you change the mac address and give a name for the new configuration name.

6. click ok

7. Boot client PC.

i have done all these in two of the clients i have in my lab, but when i check discovered configuration, i never get to see anything. Under task it just keep on showing queued with the running icon.

Can you check my steps and tell me where i am getting it wrong.

Also when i boot the client, is there a stage i would get to that should tell me that the PTD is not important anymore. (for example, if i get to the interface where i am to put in IP address and click on contact master server).... at this stage is PTD still valid or important.

Must i always add the driver packages to the SRT i am creating, because for that client that is giving me

this error  "failed to retrieve any configurations from the server" i never added any form of driver package to the ISO or SRT.

what do you think and can you modify that step by step process for me, if i got it wrong.

[Marianne]

Don't you think that your original question about BMR Boot Server on W2008 was answered L-O-N-G time ago?

This post is now turning in a how-to thread. How will you decide which post answered your question(s)?