problem creating shared resource tree

[drumatic87]

Hello,

Im trying to create a shared resource tree, and get stuck on the: Source location of SRD (WIM path). I've searched high and low for this file and cannot find it anywhere.

Can someone shed some light as to where i might find this file?

thanks!

[TROE]

What version?  If you're running 7.0, look on the installation media (or wherever you unzipped that massive ZIP file).  You want Addons\x64\BMRBS\srd.wim or srd_x64.wim or the exact same files located in the Addons\x86\BMRBS directory (taking up another 283 MB or so).

If you're running 6.*, then I don't know the answer . . . sorry!

[drumatic87]

Thanks!! yes version 7.0

[drumatic87]

now another question.

The next step in this installation: Path to the netbackup client installation.

I tried using: Symantec NetBackup Client.msi from the x86 folder on the CD and it failed on extracting.

[TROE]

Are you creating a 64-bit SRT or 32-bit SRT?  For a 32-bit SRT, I used PC_Clnt\x86\Symantec NetBackup Client.msi.  For my 64-bit SRT, I used PC_Clnt\x64\Symantec NetBackup Client.msi.

[TROE]

This might help someone out down the road . . .

Here's how we create BMR SRTs for NBU 7.0.1 for Windows.  Our BMR server is our Master Server.

Also note that we use the following paths:

• Y:\NetBackup\v7.0 - NBU 7.0 installation source
• Y:\NetBackup\v7.0.1_x32 - NBU 7.0.1 update source for 32-bit servers
• Y:\NetBackup\v7.0.1_x64 - NBU 7.0.1 update source for 64-bit servers
• D:\BMR_SRTs - Where we stick the SRTs
• Y:\BMR_CDs - Where we stick the CD SRT ISOs

Creating SRTs:

• Run Start Menu -> Programs -> Symantec NetBackup -> Bare Metal Restore – Boot Server Assistant
• For both 32 and 64 (substitute for ## as appropriate, or select the appropriate fork) do the rest of this:
• Click “Shared Resource Tree Administration Wizard”
• “Create or modify a Shared Resource Tree” page:
  • Select “Create a new Shared Resource Tree.”
• “Select the type of Shared Resource Tree to create” page:
  • Select “Create a new Fast Restore Shared Resource Tree.”
• “Create a Shared Resource Tree” page:
  • Architecture: ## bit
  • Name: Win##
  • Description: Windows ##-bit
  • Target location to create the Shared Resource Tree: D:\BMR_SRTs
• “Create a Shared Resource Tree” page 2:
  • Win32 SRT:
    • Source location of SRD (WIM path): Y:\NetBackup\v7.0\Addons\x64\BMRBS\srd.wim
  • Win64 SRT:
    • Source location of SRD (WIM path): Y:\NetBackup\v7.0\Addons\x64\BMRBS\srd_x64.wim
• “Add a Symantec NetBackup Client Image to the Shared Resource Tree” page:
  • Win32 SRT:
    • Shared Resource Tree: Win32
    • Path to the NetBackup Client Install: Y:\NetBackup\v7.0\PC_Clnt\x86\Symantec NetBackup Client.msi
  • Win64 SRT:
    • Shared Resource Tree: Win64
    • Path to the NetBackup Client Install: Y:\NetBackup\v7.0\PC_Clnt\x64\Symantec NetBackup Client.msi
• Click “Shared Resource Tree Administration Wizard”
• “Create or modify a Shared Resource Tree” page:
  • Select “Add or Update Packages to a Shared Resource Tree.”
• “Add a Package to existing Shared Resource Tree” page:
  • Select “Add Release Update or Maintenance Pack to a Shared Resource Tree”
• “Add a Symantec NetBackup Maintenance Pack Image”
  • Shared Resource Tree: Win##
  • Path to the Netbackup Maintenance Pack Install Image:
    Y:\NetBackup\v7.0.1_x##\NetBackup Update.msi

Once the base SRTs are created, we then create the CD SRTs. Also note that I'm not sure if it's required, but when we do Prepare to Restore, we always select the CD SRT (i.e. Win32_CD, Win64_CD) if we're using the CD SRT to do the restore restore.

• Run Start Menu -> Programs -> Symantec NetBackup -> Bare Metal Restore – Boot Server Assistant
• For both 32 and 64 (substitute for ## as appropriate):
  • Click “Shared Resource Tree Administration Wizard”
  • “Create or modify a Shared Resource Tree” page:
    • Select “Create a Bootable CD/DVD from a Shared Resource Tree.”
  • “Select a Shared Resource Tree” page:
    • Shared Resource Tree Name: Win##
  • “Create a Fast Restore CD/DVD image” page:
    • Specify the name for the new bootable ISO image: Y:\BMR_CDs\BMR_FastBoot_Win##.iso
  • “Name the new media-based SRT” page:
    • Name: Win##_CD
    • Description: Windows ##-bit CD

[gumbo]

Just a quick question:
Is this file located in the installation CD? I'm unable to locate this file in my installation media.

Y:\NetBackup\v7.0.1_x##\NetBackup Update.msi

[mandar_khanolka]

This file will be there in the CD containing 701 NBU client patch.

[gumbo]

Would there be a problem if the 7.0.1 maintenance pack was not installed?

[TROE]

Just skip the steps in Creating SRTs for adding the maintenance pack to the SRT if you're not running 7.0.1 yet (we were FA, so I've been running the bits for over a month.  BMR of Server 2008 works great in 7.0.1, although you will probably have issues if you're running Server 2008 x64 on systems that have UEFI (instead of BIOS) and that have the EFI System Partition created (you'll know because you'll have errors in the System State backup related to BCD).

[gumbo]

In addition to the added features, are there any changes to the admin interface/controls/location of buttons in 7.0.1? NetBackup itself must also be upgraded to 7.0.1 in order to install BMR 7.0.1, correct? Thanks!

[TROE]

I haven't seen any changes, except for things like the Client Attributes page of the Master Server Properties dialog, where there is now a check box for "Offline Until" and timestamp boxes to enter values for how long the client should be offline (and, to be honest, I didn't know there was a Client Attributes page in the Master Server Properties dialog until I started trying to figure out the new Offline feature, so I'm only conjecturing that the checkbox wasn't there in 7.0 since the feature is new in 7.0.1).  That said, as you might have figured out from the previous statement, I'm pretty new to NetBackup, and I'd been waiting for 7.0.1 to start my final attemptt on building and configuring a production server.

Yes, BMR is built into NBU 7.0 and 7.0.1, so you have to upgrade to NBU 7.0.1 to use BMR 7.0.1.  Also, there is a claim in the 7.0.1 Release Notes that you only need a SRT based on 7.0 to restore 7.0.1 clients:
 

(ET2009430) Using BMR to restore NetBackup 7.0.1 clients:
To use BMR to restore NetBackup 7.0.1 clients, you are not required to add a NetBackup 7.0.1 Hotfix in the BMR shared resource tree (SRT). You need to create the SRT based on the NetBackup 7.0 client and use that SRT to restore the NetBackup 7.0.1 clients.

My experience was that I got error messages until I carried out the steps above to merge the 7.0.1 update into the SRTs.

[gumbo]

Ah that makes sense. I was trying to figure out how to upgrade my clients to 7.0.1 but from what you've said, I guess we can use our 7.0.1 master server to back up a 7.0 client given that during the create SRT process, we remember to add the 7.0.1 maintenance pack.

EDIT:
I've just attempted a restore on 7.0.1 master server on a 7.0 client using the 7.0 SRT. It seems to work except in certain cases. After adding the 7.0.1 maintenance pack, everything seems to work fine.

[RDesai]

While creating 64 bit SRT, using BMR boot server assistant, only two options exists 32 bit and "64 bit (AMD)". Does this mean if the client has 64 bit Intel (and not AMD) CPUs, a restore created using this SRT may run into problems? Apparantly I have read else where that it should work for any Windows but then why list "AMD" in parenthesis?!!

[mandar_khanolka]

Here 64-bit mean x64 architecture. BMR does not support Intel IA64 arch.

BMR team will take care of removing this (AMD) and will list x86 and x64 options to avoid any confusion.

Thanks.

-Mandar

[RDesai]

Hi TROE

- I creaetd BMR SRT using the steps you had listed earlier in this thread and created BMR_CD for both 32 bit as well as 64 bit Windows.

- Today we did the first test to restore on a Windows 32 bit server which was destined to go away. Before test, I had made sure a full backup of this target client did exist on master server.  

• finished “prepare to restore” step on the NBU server which shows on “Task” : “Queued” state and “Ready” under Operation
• When I boot client with the BMR CD, it loaded windows fine but then it sits there for almost 30 minutes before loading NIC drivers! All I see during this 30 minutes is a gray screen and activity on NIC on machine but nothing else..wonder what is it doing and how can I get rid of it?
• After it finished loading drivers and I configured IP for the client and entered IP for the master server, at the step of “Establishing restore environment”, it came back with message “Could not initialize configuration, error code = 1”, right at the time of “executing dissimilar disk restore…” step! Once I click “OK” it came back with the message: “The restore has stopped due to the following error: Dissimilar disk mapping failed”. In reality, the disks physically has not changed but were only wiped with "WipeDrive v 4.0 Pro" to simulate a disaster. I understand that wiping action had cleanup mapping of volumes to disks but wonder why can’t it take the saved configuration in BMR repository and finish partitioning and restore? What is wrong and how should I fix it?

Thanks for reading and thanks for your help in advance!

[mandar_khanolka]

I do see couple of problems here,

1. I suspect if the correct NIC driver is available in the SRT that you are using to restore the client. If the SRT is prepared using 7.0 or greater boot server then it is based on WInPE 2.1 (which is windows 2008 os based). In this case you need to make sure that win2008 version of your NIC driver is added into BMR DB by using bmr createpackage wizard on boot server. Generally WinPE 2.1 by default contains sufficient number of drivers but this could be an exception. There are technote/s published for this problem.

2. Disk mapping failure. WIthout bmrrst i.e. restore logs it is hard to comment on this issue.

I would suggest opening an SR request with Symantec to get this resolved ASAP.

Thanks.

-Mandar

[RDesai]

Thanks Mandar..You were right on cathcing missing NIC driver for 2008 in my SRT. I will open up SR with Symantec.

Rohit

[RDesai]

Hi Mandar

Just want to update..I downloaded from DELL the NIC driver using the tag and added in SRT..but not having any Windows 2008 client, in the drop-down box, it did not show Windows 2008. It did added NIC driver as Windows 2003 but not Windows 2008 which is what I needed to go onto boot CD. However, I was successful in adding PERC controller driver in SRT, which was a big help in solving the second problem I had listed earlier. I created a new CD and rebooted target client with it. This time, I still had to wait almost 30 minutes before drivers started loading, but once it loaded NIC, the communications with master server started and recobery finished successfully. Having loaded PERC driver in SRT, the dissimilar disk error which I was getting is gone.

I would like to know how can I add 2008 NIC driver in recovery environment when I have no 2008 client being backed up. Any specific pointer to technote or forum would be nice..Thanks!

[mandar_khanolka]

>>I would like to know how can I add 2008 NIC driver in recovery environment when I have >>no 2008 client being backed up.

Please download windows 2008 version of the driver and using bmrcreatepackage wizard on the boot server, insert it into the BMR database.

I will recommned creating a new fresh SRT after inserting this win2k8 driver.

Thanks.

-Mandar