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NB 8.1.1 Test DR restore of 2012 R2 Physical Machine to VM

infra3
Level 3

Hi there!

Currently having some fun trying to do a test restore of a 2012 R2 physical server to a Hyper-V VM.

Have followed various guides, installed the VM from the ISO, basic Windows install.

Same hostname, IP.

Issued a new NB cert to the machine during client install, all NB connectivity seems fine.

No problems restoring the C: drive contents to the target, but then when it comes to restoring the System State I find that there is no NB connection to the target anymore, so unable to restore the System State.

Any suggestions?

Cheers!

Pete

 

12 REPLIES 12

Dollypee
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@infra3 if you enable BMR during backup. You should be able to do a P2V restore without any issue.

Thanks Dollypee,

Is there a way of doing this without BMR, or is that not supported for 2012 R2 and later?

Or are non-BMR system restores only supported to the original/identical hardware? (something I don't have access to in my test environment, hence the attemp to restore to a VM and try to resolve any issues thereafter).

Should I attempt to restore the System State before restoring the C: drive instead? I was always under the impression that the System State restore is needed to ensure the system configuration is correct, i.e. services, registry etc.

Page 162 of this guide appears to suggest I should be able to restore the system files and entire C: drive - so presume it is still possible? - https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/doc/15179611-129887844-1

To quote:

8 Use the NetBackup Backup, Archive, and Restore interface to restore the
system files and user files to the client system.

For example, if all files are on the C drive, restoring that drive restores the entire
system.

 

Cheers.

 

sdo
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As @Dollypee suggested, NetBackup BMR should be able to do what you need.  BMR is designed to help migrate across hardware differences, and yes, your physical W2012R2 client is technically different hardware to a Hyper-V VM.

You could always try this:

How to use NetBackup to perform a complete restore of Windows Server 2008 R2 and above without IDR or BMR

https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100045797

...but note that the more different the source and target hardware is, the less likely a manual overlay method is to work.

Can you not take another backup, but this time BMR aware, of the original physical server?

Thanks sdo, it's looking like BMR is the way forward on this one.

I did try another restore but this time did the C: and System State in the same job, the result was a an unbootable system which ended up at the usual Windows troubleshooting blue screen - even bootrec.exe was not able to find a local Windows install to rebuild the BCD, so a dead end there really.

Is BMR now included by default in the Standard NB Client for free? - it used to be an additional licence in the past from memory.

Many thanks!

 

Marianne
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BMR is included in Standard Client license as from version 6.5. 

Nick_Morris
Level 6
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BMR has been included for free since 6.5 https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100008551

Thank you all - will give this a go!

 

 

Dollypee
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@infra3 Remember to check "Bare Metal Restore" checkbox in your test policy for bmr to take effect

Thanks Dollypee,

Is that tick box all that is needed for this, or do we have to implement the rest of the BMR infrastructure (e.g. Boot Server etc.) as we currently do not have any BMR configuration in our live environment currently.

Cheers!

 

Marianne
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There is more to it - please take time and read through chapter 11 (Creating virtual machine from client backup) of  NetBackup Bare Metal Restore Administrator's Guide

Thank you Marianne, will do.

 

Dollypee
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@infra3 Any update so far? Was test restore successful this time?