Start using BMR

[pmc214]

Hello,

In laymens term, what is the process for to finally start using NBU 7.5.0.3 BMR.

We have had it a long time but it was never set up or used . I want to take advantage of it and hear what the basics are.

Thanks,

[Nate_D1]

Sort of an open-ended question, but here is the administrators guide for BMR on 7.5:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=DOC5163

Is there anything specific you are concerned about? I am sure you understand the basics since you are looking into it! BMR lets you restore your servers faster, without a bunch of reconfiguration. You turn up a 'boot server' that assists the rebuild by providing resources etc. (You need to setup a BMR server for each OS. ) The BMR software is bundled with the NBU server/client install. To setup BMR boot server, just fire "bmrsetupboot -register".

[mandar_khanolka]

May be below video on BMR would help you understanding server level DR process using BMR. This demo covers almost all features in BMR to do windows system recovery onto different target HW than original. Example used is physical to virutal restore of win 2008 r2 system. You will not need all the mentioned steps/process if you are recovering onto the same original hw. Check BMR admin guide for more details.

Link to Full Demo Video on SymConnect

Link 1:

http://www.symantec.com/connect/videos/netbackup-bmr-701-release-windows-2008-client-physical-machin...

Link 2: 

http://www.symantec.com/connect/videos/netbackup-bmr-701-release-windows-2008-client-physical-machin...

Thanks.

Mandar

[AndreaBolongaro]

A good starting point is going to "How To"section and searching for BMR outlines.

You may find lots of KBs.

Hope this helps

Andrea

[pmc214]

we have nbu 7.5.0.3 on a windows 2003 sp2 server. We are wanting to try BMR on a Linux 2.6.9-67.ELhugemem server running 6.5 client

So i create the bmr master on my nbu master and can i also create the bmr boot server on my nbu master as well?

do the wizards create these for you basically including the srt or are there more to do tomake work.

what i read is confusing for starting out.

thx

[mandar_khanolka]

To restore Linux based client you need to setup BMR boot server over supported Linux OS platform. You can setup your BMR master on Windows based NB master but BMR boot server (where srt is prepared to restore client) is client OS specific.

general rule is BMR Boot server os >= SRT OS version ~= client OS version.

In linux case, for example, 5.3 RHEL srt can be prepared on 5.5 boot server which can restore 5.x RHEL clients. In linux case, srt can have lower patch level than client os.

Thanks.

Mandar

[Jaime_Vazquez · Accepted solution]

The NBU Master Server at any OS will support BMR enabled activities for all clients that BMR supports. Use this article to view what those are.

NetBackup (tm) 7.x Operating System Compatibility List
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH76648

Under "Clients" sections for each OS type, you will see a separate column for "BMR Boot Server/Client" support.

BMR Boot Server requirements are covered here:

Requirements for Bare Metal Restore (BMR) Boot Servers
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH87607

I see that the Linux server you are going to be working with has NBU 6.5 client code installed.  This is problematic. All releases of NBU 6.X are now at EOSL and not supported. Is this client running a 32 bit version of the OS as well?.NBU/BMR at 7.X releases do not support 32 bit versions of this OS.

For BMR recoveries, the Shared Resource Tree (SRT) architecture MUST match that of the OS image being recovered.  A 32 bit client image needs a 32 bit SRT. For NBU/BMR 7.X environments, the only OS that allows a 32 bit SRT are Windows based.

The setup of BMR environment is itself trivial.  On the Master Server the command is "bmrsetupmaster".  On any system (client or Master) that you wish to make a BMR Boot Server, the command is "bmrsetupboot -register".  Because the BMR Master Service is always on the NBU Master Server, the registering Boot Server will be seen by BMR by the name of the NBU client, as seen by the NBU Master itself.

[pmc214]

Sorry, everytime i start working on this i get pulled away on another project. *sigh*

i believe that is correct - the rhelserver is 32bit, i think the linux admin here has asked about updating nbu client but we have told him we cant do it.......... so bmr will not work for this server anyway?

[Jaime_Vazquez]

Yes, you cannot update the client to 7.x because it only supports 64 bit OS variants.

There are two options open to you.

1.  Upgrade the installed OS from a 32 bit to the equivalent 64 bit OS variant.  After that you can upgrade the client code to the normal 7.X release of the Master.  Once upgraded, register the Boot Server and truck on. This is your best bet.  I have assisted a customer on this already and it does work.

2. Possible working solution - try registering the client as a 6.5.X Boot Server.  Create 6.5 SRT variants on it (32 bit, naturally).  The initial SRT will be file system/network based.  Then create a ISO image from that, making it a media based SRT.  Media based SRT are their own Boot Servers for the restore process.  You do a Preapre To Restore specifying the media based  SRT, and then boot to the ISO/CD/DVD to initiate the restore.

Option number two a bit tricky but should work. Still, NBU 6.5 is EOSL so your mileage will vary.

I think I have an option three but I need to think on it.

[pmc214]

is it normal practice to put master / boot servers on the NBU Master Server? or is it better to have a seperate boot server?

[Jaime_Vazquez]

Boot Server location is all personal preference in any environment.  Any client can be a Boot Server. A Boot Server can only support clients of the same OS it is and at the same maintennce release it is at or lower.  A client at a higher maintenance release cannot be supported..  This is covered in this Technical article:

Requirements for Bare Metal Restore (BMR) Boot Servers
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH87607

The Boot Server service daemon is 'bmrbd'. It logs to the same ORGID of 119 as the BMR Master Service (bmrd). 

BMR Boot Servers are very light weight.  The daemon is active when doing SRT creation/modificaiton actions, when there is a Prepare To Restore activity for a network boot, and during an actual network based client boot. During network based boot operations, the Boot Server provides the boot image over the network to the booting client and, for Unix/Linux, an NFS share of the SRT file system. For Windows clients, the boot image itself contain the SRT file system and the Boot Server is inactive once the client boots to the image. 

If preparing for a media boot or doing a media boot, the Boot Server is never contacted or made active for any BMR activity.  Thias is especially handy if doing BMR recoveries at a DR site, as a BMR Boot Server does not have to be created and made active ahead fo any BMR recoveries.  

Boot Servers generate very little CPU load and only consume file system space suficient to hold the Shared Resource Trees (SRT)`. The amount of file space per SRT depends on the OS itself.

In my test environments I always use the NBU Master Server as a Boot Server for the given OS because it means one less server to handle in my local environment.  It is also a litle more efficient as all inter-process communications occur within the same server.The setup of a Boot Server is so trivial that it makes sense for me.  I only need to ensure I have the file system space available for the SRT entries themselves.

[pmc214]

so if im understanding, a windows os based boot server (say a MS2008 Server) can boot any windows based os? (like 2003, 2008). I dont have to have a boot server for every instance of 2003 or 2008 or any other flavor of ms server we have?  

[Jaime_Vazquez]

Yes, that is a correct statement.  A windows based Boot Server of any supported version can recover any supported Windows OS based client image.  And, for SRT purposes, there should be a need for no more than 4 SRT entries for Windows clients.   One each at 32 and 64 bit for network boot and one each at 32 and 64 bit ISO/CSD/DVD images for media boot. There will always be a need to create a new Media boot SRT if the device driver entries in an SRT are updated to include new driver packages.  That would only occur when doing a Prepare To Restore of a Windows client and specifying a network (file system) based SRT.  If no new NIC or MSD adapters are introduced into your environment, such an action is unnecessary.

 I hope all of my information has been  sufficient to get your BMR environment in place.

[pmc214]

yes sir, ready to start testing.

thanks to all !

[pmc214]

been too busy to get anywhere with this....got a quick question...

i have a win2008r2 server that i can use to test bmr. just starting out can i just restore back to same server, then try to restore a different server bmr back to my test server? would that be a good starting point?

Thx

[Jaime_Vazquez]

Yes, the easiest initial recovery attempt is going back to the exact same server that created the backup image. The BMR restore configuration (called "current") used will exactly match the targert hardware.  The only possile issue you need to be cognizant about is the install of appropriate device drivers for NIC and MSD adapters into the SRT in use.  The following article will assist you with that:

Windows Device Driver Requirements for Bare Metal Restore (BMR) 
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH181674

After you are comfortable with the recovery process your next step appears to be a DSR (Disimilar System Restore) recovery.  This article will assist with setting that up:

Doing a Dissimilar System Restore (DSR) to new hardware for Windows clients using Bare Metal Restore (BMR) on NetBackup 6.X and 7.X releases.
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH52394

The articles should give you all you need to do this.

[Jaime_Vazquez]

As this thread has been running a while and I noted the NBU version in the original post (7.5.0.3), I would strongly urge you to upgrade to 7.5.0.6 for all of this.

And, as you should have all of the information you will need for all of this, how about marking a solution to the thread? I would appreciate it.

[jim_dalton]

Setup is trivial...its the best bit but actually using it and doing a full BMR , better still a BMR to different hardware(DSR) can prove problematic...IMHO, of course.

Jim

[Jaime_Vazquez]

Jim:

A BMR recovery back to the original server hardware should be fairly trivial. The required device driver support for the client is already resident in the backup image. The use of the "current" configuration automatically disables any post-restore DSR actions on the recovered client. 

A DSR restore requires that device driver support for the new hardware NIC and MSD adapters be available in the BMRDB and that a properly built restore configuration be in place that matches the target hardware.  The DSR for Windows document above explains all of this.

Doing a Dissimilar System Restore (DSR) to new hardware for Windows clients using Bare Metal Restore (BMR) on NetBackup 6.X and 7.X releases.
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH52394

The last part of the setup is having the correct driver support installed in the SRT used for the actual restore operation.  That one gets customers confused.  For that reason I also wrote this document:

Windows Device Driver Requirements for Bare Metal Restore (BMR) 
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH181674

This one is getting a major overhaul to cover changes introduced by NBU 7.6 release.

A couple of additional articles I wrote have been useful to customer's as well:

Methodology for performing Dissimilar System Restore (DSR) for UNIX/LINUX servers
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH62678

Restoring a BMR client image to alternate hardware while the original server is online. (i.e. still on the n/w)
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH87329

How to update a BMR Shared Resource Tree (SRT) on BMR 7.X Boot Servers
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH160457

As I have always stated, if the setup is correct, the recovery is easy.

[Jim-90]

A long time ago I looked at some of the Unix native BMR servers like Jumpstart (Solaris), Ignite (HP-UX) and NIM (AIX) at the time they had a preference for the recover of the server to be on the subnet.  That requirement in some case is no longer there.  

With NBU any requirements with regards network placing of the server that is going to be recovered from a NBU BMR server?  When a server is recovered does it have to be on the same subnet as the BMR server or does it recover it to the same subnet and leaves it up to you to move it to it final network home when it is recovered?