Doing a Dissimilar System Restore (DSR) for Windows clients using Bare Metal Restore (BMR) on NetBackup 6.5, 7.x, 8.x and 9.x releases

Problem

Doing a Dissimilar System Restore (DSR) to new hardware for Windows clients using Bare Metal Restore (BMR) on NetBackup 6.5, 7.x, 8.x and 9.x releases

Solution

Any Bare Metal Restore (BMR) restore operation to a hardware system that was not the originator of the backup image is a Dissimilar System Restore (DSR). To perform a DSR using the BMR Feature to NetBackup, the restore configuration must reflect the hardware of the Target (restored to) hardware system. The restore configuration must show:

1. Mass Storage Device (MSD) drivers of the proper type and OS of the restoring hardware system.
2. Network Interface Card (NIC) drivers of the proper type and OS of the restoring hardware system.
3. Network MAC address information for the interfaces of the new NIC(s) on the restoring hardware.

Note: All entries of any BMR Client configuration can be modified to new values. The only configuration information that cannot be modified is the host name of the restoring client. The recovered client will always reboot to the original client host name.

Be aware that the BMR restore process is only responsible for the updating of MSD and NIC drivers on the restored client. All other driver and services related issues for software/drivers required by the restored hardware but missing in the restored image are the responsibility of the customer. An example of this would be a device driver for a video or sound card.

The client's "current" configuration is always Read-Only and can not be modified. The same is true for any Point-In-Time configuration created . A configuration that can be edited is required for all DSR operations.

To create the required restore configuration, access the source system's "current" configuration from the Administration Console.

Bare Metal Management > Hosts > Bare Metal Restore Clients

Select the source client, right-click and choose 'Create New Configuration". In the new panel, enter a name that will become the restore configuration for BMR to use. Under the "Operation" section, choose the "Copy ..." option. Use the "current" configuration as the source of the copy.

If you choose the "Retrieve ..." option, you are asking BMR to recover a client configuration from a previous backup image and restore the client to the same state it was then. This also known a a Point-In-Time (PIT) restore. A PIT configuration is itself Read-Only and a copy of it must also be made before changes are allowed. The same operations are needed regardless of what was the source configuration that was copied.

Once created, select the new configuration, right-click and choose "Change". A Configuration Summary with sub-options displayed on the left is presented.

1. Choose "Network Interfaces", right-click and choose "Change".

In the new panel, from the section "New Network Information", choose the network interface that describes the original system's network interface that would normally have been used for the restore. Choose the 'Change' option. A small sub-panel will appear. Modify the MAC address to match what the target hardware NIC has and then choose 'OK'. The information will be updated in the configuration. If desired, it is possible to change the IP address that the system will be set to during the BMR restore process by choosing the appropriate line and then select the "Change..." button. Choose OK to save changes. If changes were made to the IP address information in the restore configuration, this change must be seen by all NetBackup Servers that will be active for the restore. It is a best practices recommendation that entries in the 'hosts' files of the servers be made that reflect the IP address information in the this section of the configuration. These are all temporary and can be restored back to original settings after the BMR recovery has completed.

Note: If the new IP address places the client in a different subnet, then make appropriate changes to the "Default Gateway" entry in the "Routes" section of the configuration, as required.

It is important to note that a BMR restore configuration is client name specific. As such, the host name of the restored client can not be changed automatically during a BMR restore. If a restore of a BMR client using a host name and/or IP address of a system that is already operational on the given sub-net is attempted, the restored client, upon reboot, will encounter networking problems which will cause the BMR cleanup process to fail. This also runs the risk of causing the original client to be taken off the network. As a best practices for this environment, the client restore configuration network settings should be set to use a different sub-net for the restore attempt in order to not conflict with the existing running server. An alternative is to disconnect the ethernet connection of the client while it is rebooting in order to not cause the host name/IP address conflict. This will cause a small error message to occur during the cleanup operation (RC=200 error) but this is benign and does not affect the client itself. See Related Article (100023071) for assistance if this type of restore is required.

2. Choose the option "Devices and Drivers"

There are three sections associated with this option:

• Device - this displays the NIC and MSD devices currently in the configuration
• Available drive packages - this displays all known driver packages in the BMRDB for the client's OS release. This includes MSD and NIC drivers.
• Driver packages to be used during restore - this is initially the same driver set as the first section. However, driver packages that are native to Windows (already exist in normal Windows installs) will not be displayed. An example of this would be an IDE device driver.

Choose an available driver package for MSD and NIC that matches the target hardware and choose 'Add'. The driver entry will be moved from the "Available" section to the "Drivers to be used for restore" section. In the same manner, you should choose and remove any drivers in the section that are not part of the client's new hardware environment. The entry will be moved back into the "Available drivers" section.

Once complete, choose 'Apply' (if more changes are needed) or 'OK' to update the configuration.

If a driver definition that is required for the target hardware is not displayed in the panels, then the BMR database does not have a copy of the driver installed or does not have the proper OS version of the driver. It is necessary to create an appropriate driver package by specific type and Operating System release on the BMR Boot Server. See "Managing Windows Driver Packages" in Chapter 9 of the Bare Metal Restore Version 6.5/7.X Systems Administration Guide for instructions on how to perform this process.

3. Check all of the entries in the "Hosts" section of the configuration and verify the host name and IP address information, as they are being used in the restore environment.

If the values are not correct, modify them to match the restore network environment. At a minimum, a "Master Server" entry is required. If the Media Server is not the NBU Master Server, an entry with a role of "Media Server" is required. If one is not present, use the "Add" button and create an entry. The "gateway" information for each server can be removed if proper routing between the Client and the Server can occur using the default gateway.

Note: Any DNS entries found in this section are artifacts of the captured client configuration. During actual BMR restores, DNS is not used by the restoring client environment. The system entries and their corresponding IP address information is used to create a working 'hosts' file on the restoring client's temporary OS environment. They will become the client's "SERVER=" and "CLIENT=" entries for NetBackup settings of the client. This 'hosts' file is only used for the duration of the restore and is not made part of the restored client. That file will always come from the backup image.

It is a best-practices recommendation that static IP address information be used for all restoring clients. Network properties of the restored client can be reset to use DHCP once the client has been restored and is operational. If DNS is being used on the Master/Media Server, a temporary entry in the 'hosts' file can be used to guarantee proper host name and IP address resolution for the duration of the BMR restore. This entry can be safely removed after the client has been restored.

Once all changes have been made, use the 'OK' button to save them. The BMR restore process can be performed using the modified restore configuration.

The above information is covered in Chapter 6 of the Bare Metal Restore Systems Administration Guide. See the section heading "Restoring to Dissimilar Hardware".

Important: BMR is not intended to be used as a provisioning/cloning tool. The primary role of the BMR Feature is for Disaster Recovery of failed systems. The client name cannot be modified by BMR and the restored client will always reflect the original client name once the restore activity completes and the system reboots. The creation of exact system duplicates can be a violation of software licensing agreements in place for any given server. Also, any CPU based or locked licensing for restored applications must be accounted for after the BMR restore completes. BMR can not perform such activities.