How to manually add device drivers to the Shared Resource Tree (SRT) created by Netbackup Bare Metal Restore (BMR)

Problem

When booting a client using the BMR media we may face issues when the NIC or the RAID array controller is not detected by WinPE OS. This can happen due to missing drivers for the devices present in that particular host (virtual or physical)

Error Message

"Network initialization failed. rc=3997697"

"Unable to start network services"

Cause

Missing drivers in the SRT boot media

Solution

Identify and download the correct drivers for the device. The downloaded driver should be compatible with Windows 2008 (non-R2) or Windows Vista OS. Download the correct drivers based on the OS architechture (32 bit or 64 bit)

Connect to the BMR boot server. Launch the 'Boot Server Assistant' >> Shared Resource Tree Admin Wizard >> Next >> Edit a Shared Resource Tree >> Next

Choose the "Network based SRT" that you want the drivers added to. Click on “Explore SRT". The SRT mounts to a temp folder and is shown in a new window.

Below is an example of how the driver for the 'DELL PERC 4/SC RAID controller' is seen in the GUI

Copy the folder containing the drivers to path \mount_RW\Symantec\SRE\DriverStore\  for 8.1.1. or later \mount_RW\Veritas\SRE\DriverStore\(create the folder structure if it does not exist)

Identify the *.inf file that describes the driver. Then rename the folder with the name of the inf file. In the example below, we are manually adding the drivers for the 'DELL PERC 4/SC RAID controller' device

Save and exit the wizard. Close the explorer window.

Create a new 'CD based SRT' (create ISO) from the modified 'Network based SRT'

Perform a "Prepare to Restore"  and select the same 'CD based SRT'

Use the newly created ISO to boot the target machine

Note: It is not necessary however, you may also copy the INF file to \mount_RW\Windows\inf folder and copy the SYS file to to \mount_RW\Windows\System32\Drivers folder

Applies To

Netbackup BMR version 6.5 or above, however note that Netbackup 8.1.1 onwards, the path to the driver folder has changed.

Old path --> ..\mount_RW\Symantec\Sre\DriverStore\

New path --> ..\mount_RW\Veritas\Sre\DriverStore\

Thus in summary, if you are inserting drivers to an SRT hosted on Windows Boot server version 8.1.1 then insert it to below path

..\mount_RW\Veritas\Sre\DriverStore\