BESR 2010 DR test

[JustinY]

Hello,

I'm posting my problem here as not getting much help from the mysupport (case: 412-753-103).

I'm testing my backup of my SBS server which was backuped with BESR 2010. BESR 2010 is installed on our production server which is a virtualized server running on a Hyper V host server (Dell T610). I have a spare Dell server T110 which I have installed Windows Server 2008 and enabled Hyper V. I created a virtual machine and set the network card on the virtual machine to have the same mac address as the virtual machine on the production server. I then booted with the BESR recovery disc on the spare server and executed the "Recover my Computer" procedure.

On the first recovery I never used restore anywhere. Once the recovery was completed I logged in and noticed that the network card (one 1 card shown under network connections) was not configured. The recovery had not set the static ip address, gateway and DNS. So I went about entering the correct details and when I clicked ok I got:
"The IP address 192.168.X.X you have enterd for this network adapter is already assigned to another adapter (Microsoft Virtual Machine Bus Network Adapter) which is no longer present in the computer. If the same address is assigned to both adapters and they become active... Do you want to remove the static ip configuration for the absent adapter?"

So I clicked yes and rebooted. Once I logged in everything seemed normal until any domain client tried to log in. No client computer could authenticate against the domain until they left the domain and were added again. It's not feasible to go around the country removing and joining clients to the domain, so I tried to do the recovery again.

This time I used the restore anywhere feature hoping that the network issue would be resolved. Once the recovery was finished I logged in. As I logged in, the virtual machine started shutting down. Once it restarted, I logged in again. Only the SBS Console window shows. There is no taskbar, desktop icons, nothing.

To sumarize:
- Recovery using "Recover my Computer" results in the network card not been configured and needing all client computers to rejoin the domain.
- Recovery using "Recover my Computer" with restore anywhere results in SBS Console wndow showing once logged in, but that's it, nothing else is available.

Is there something I'm doing wrong or missing?

Is there something I'm doing wrong here?

Regards,
Justin

[BEERMONSTER]

This doesn't sound very good.  I have a similar setup to yourself with SBS running as a Virtual guest in hyper-v.

I have BESR 2010 installed on both the host and the SBS and back both up.

Restoring the vhd on the host seems to work well, but I can't seem to find out if it sets the flag for AD to show that it has been restored and needs to update from the other domain controllers and not perform a rollback.

I haven't tried restoring the SBS by booting from the recovery cd yet.

As your hardware is different, then you would need to use the restore anywhere option.

Did you use the VSS option when backing up the SBS??

[JustinY]

I never used the VSS option when creating the one time backup. Yes my hardware is different, but the restore anywhere option would result in a restored server that has no taskbar, no right-click, no nothing, just a SBS Console window. If I restored without the "restore anywhere", then the restore would work, just had the problem with AD authentication. I spoke to a Symantec technician, who said that the restored virtual guest would have a different SID to the original and since I had only backed up the virtual guest and not the host, it would not work. He said I would need to refresh the SID's on AD, but couldn't explain how and that I should take that up with MS.

So new plan, remove BESR 2010 from the virtual guest and install on the host and try again. If that's unsuccessfull, then try MS Data Protection Manager 2010.

[BEERMONSTER]

Right,  In order to properly backup a sbs, you must use the VSS so that it correctly backs up Sharepoint, Exchange, Active Directory.......... and so on.

I finally did get around to testing out some restore options in hyper-v.

First method was to boot a vm with the restore cd. 

Issues

It wouldn't recognise the VM Bus Network adapter, but would recognise the legacy network adapter. I installed all the original VM Bus Adapters and a legacy adapter to allow me to map a drive during the restore.  Even creating a custom iso did not solve this.

Tthe mouse doesn't work as the integration drivers are not installed until the system is restored.

The system did restore correctly and after the reboot, I removed the legacy adapter and reran the connect to the internet wizard.  All previously joined clients were able to connect to the sbs without having to be rejoined.  The only thing I didn't test was replication with the other production domain controllers as I would still like verification that it won't perform a usn rollback.

Method 2 & 3 - Only if you backup the host as well

On the SBS, I run the standard SBS backup as well as BESR 2010.  I also backup the host with BESR 2010 (must also use VSS so that it is hyper-v aware).

Restore the vhd file and attach it to a new vm

Copy the backup files to another vhd (either sbs backup or besr 2010) and attach this the the new vm.

Boot the SBS with no network connectivity (this will prevent it from performing a usn rollback if you have additional domain controllers)

Restore the system from the backup files - (system state for SBS Backup or full recovery for BESR 2010)

Hope this makes sense. 

Would love to know about DC restores with BESR, but will just stick with performing an additional system state restore using ntbackup to be 100% safe before rejoining it to the network.

[JustinY]

Are you restoring SBS 2003 or 2008?

Moving BESR 2010 to the host this weekend and then will perform a full host and vm backup. Will then test this on the other server.

[BEERMONSTER]

Its SBS 2003.

Think the key is to use full VSS backup option on both.

[JustinY · Accepted solution]

At the end of still wasn't able to recovery host and the virtual machines with full VSS backup of the host using BESR 2010. Tried 'normal' restore and restore 'anywhere'. Host restore would complete, but I couldn't even boot in safe mode.

Tried the same with Windows Server Backup and it restored fine to different hardware. So BESR 2010 is no longer been used for DR.