BESR 8.5 with server 2008 and bitlocker

[Juha_Honkanen]

Hi,

I'm trying to recover our server to different hardware and have many problems and questions about BESR.

1) Does BESR support bitlocker?
And if it does how does it do it, meaning that does it disable encryption for the harddrive when making backup? Or should it ask about ecryption key (boot) after recovery?

2) I have succeed with recovery so far that it is almost starting the windows but it crashes (server cannot find directory services). So it just boot loops the server.
What should I do with this? I thought it is caused because of the drive letters are changed and it can't find directory services anymore.

I have windows on C:, bitlocker partition which includes bootmanager on S: and after succesful recovery when I say that bootmgr is on S: partition SRD changes the letter to C:.

I'm using BESR 8.5, server 2008 64-bit standard. There are AD, exchange 2007, hyper-v and IIS installed on server.

If someone have answer for these questions I would be grateful to have them also.

[marcogsp]

Bitlocker is supported but not for Lights Out restorations.  If you are using the SRD, and restoring to a drive that has bitlocker already activated, then you must unencrypt the drive before restoring it.  Just guessing, but I don't believe bitlocked drives are unencrypted on the fly during the imaging process.  BESR is a sector based imaging tool, so the images will contain encrypted data as well.  That would explain why the documentation says that images of bitlocked drives are not browsable for files or folders.

Assuming your test recovery server had blank or unencrypted to begin with, you may have to use the hidden -DED switch during your restore.  Not sure if this will work with a bitlocked volume.  If it does. it should alleviate the boot loop issue.  Have your driver sources handy because you may be prompted for them.

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/293847.htm

Your scenario is also a good candidtate for using the "Restore Original Disk Signature" option during the restoration.  Check this option for both drives, and that should resolve the drive letter issues.

[Juha_Honkanen]

Thanks for your reply.

I managed to get it working but there are couple mysteries still going on. After another and final recovery session the server is now displaying boot menu when booting the computer. The real mystery is that it has two options "Windows server 2008" and "Windows vista". When Server 2008 option is choosed it doesn't work but when I choose Vista server works great. Because the server is the only installed operation system which is ever installed on that computer it is really weird.

And for that bitlocker question of mine. BESR removes encryption while making the Backup image, because there are nothing related for my server bitlocker encryption after recovery is succees.