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Specific Backup Selections or ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES with Exclusions

NBMe
Level 3

Hello,

I’m configuring backups for a few VM Guests (Windows Server 2008 R2) with multiple hard disk drives.  I accidentally “blew up” the Datastore/LUNs where these VM Guests reside by attempting a VMware Policy Type backup because there were disk drives that were larger than 2TB (our SANs, Datastores currently do not have the capacity to take a snapshot of a volume this large).  We will be upgrading our SANs in the future to handle the snapshot capacity.  I can create a VMware Policy Type and use the ‘Exclude all data disks’ attribute, but it will only take a snapshot of the C:\ drive (Operating System).  The problem with this is the Applications are installed on the D:\ drive.  After the C:\ (OS) and D:\ (\Program Files\, Applications), there are additional disk drives that have database components that we backup using different backup policies so we don’t need to worry about them.

My question is which of these two options is the best way to backup just the OS and Application installations?

  1. Create an MS-Windows Policy type and manually select the disk drives with the System_State attribute to mimic a “Full system backup?” 
    1. Backup Selections = C:\, D:\, System_State

 

  1. Create an MS-Windows Policy type and select ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES, but configure exclusions to exclude specific disks that do not need to be backed up.  We are currently not leveraging BMR (Bare Metal Restore). 
    1. Backup Selections = ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES
    2. Then navigate to: NetBackup Management > Host Properties > Clients > [client] Properties > Windows Client > Exclude Lists: B:\, F:\, L:\ for this specific backup policy

Recovery scenario would be to build up a fresh VM Guest (same OS version, same NBU Agent version) and restore the C:\, D:\, and System_State.  Then work with the application administrator/owner to restore the other content and databases.

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Accepted Solutions

RamNagalla
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If C and D drives are only your requirement and staying static accross all the servers you are talking about...

i would perfer to go with first option. its pretty straight forward..

because you no need to mess with exclude list and you can see in backup selection what you are actaully trying to take backup , without looking in to exclude list.

it will be easy even if you hand it over your project to someone else to handle it later 

 

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RamNagalla
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If C and D drives are only your requirement and staying static accross all the servers you are talking about...

i would perfer to go with first option. its pretty straight forward..

because you no need to mess with exclude list and you can see in backup selection what you are actaully trying to take backup , without looking in to exclude list.

it will be easy even if you hand it over your project to someone else to handle it later 

 

NBMe
Level 3

Thank you for your response.

 

I tested out a backup with the manual Backup Selections:

C:\ (OS) , D:\ (Apps), System_State

and tested the restore.  Looks like this configuration will work for us since the majority of our clients are configured like this.  

I made sure to follow the steps on this guideline where we aren't using Bare Metal Restore (BMR).

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH56473

 

sdo
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That linked doc is for Windows 2000 and/or Windows 2003, and seeing as Windows 2003 leaves MS support soon - it probably won't be a 'relevant' (-ish) doc for much longer.

Personally, I'd think twice about using that procedure for Windows 2008 (and/or R2), and certainly not for Windows 2012 (and/or R2).

Did you read the small print (in that linked doc) re what constitutes 'different' hardware?  Any difference in hardware (and thus any difference in firmware or BIOS) of the machine being 'overlayed' is classed as a 'different' machine - the greater the differences - the less chance of success.

Your best bet is NetBackup BMR.  It does what it is supposed to do.

NBMe
Level 3

Interesitng indeed.

Thank you for your feedback.

That article does make mention of Windows Server 2008 clients and not needing to use the "W2koption" command.  

The restore is indeed the same "hardware" (VM Guest).  

 

sdo
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Hi NBMe, might be worth also looking at this comparison of overlay methods:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/physical-virtual-windows-2003-recovery#comment-10972951

...but you find that the tech note which was specific to Windows 2008 no longer exists.