Veritas NetBackup™ Bare Metal Restore™ Administrator's Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup (8.3.0.1, 8.3, 8.2, 8.1.2)
  1. Introducing Bare Metal Restore
    1.  
      About Bare Metal Restore
    2.  
      Server DR protection using BMR
    3.  
      BMR protection phase diagram
    4.  
      UEFI-GPT support in BMR
  2. Configuring BMR
    1.  
      About installing BMR software
    2.  
      Prerequisites for Configuring BMR Servers
    3. Configuring BMR Servers
      1.  
        Configuring BMR Master Server
      2.  
        Setting up the BMR master server on a Windows system
      3. Configuring BMR Boot Server
        1.  
          About choosing boot server hosts
        2.  
          Prerequisites for boot servers
        3.  
          Setting up a BMR boot server
        4.  
          BMR boot servers in a UNIX cluster
        5.  
          BMR boot servers in a Windows cluster
    4. Deactivating BMR servers
      1.  
        Deactivating BMR master server
      2.  
        Deactivating BMR boot server
  3. Protecting clients
    1.  
      Pre-requisites for protecting clients
    2. Backing up BMR clients
      1.  
        Configuring policies to back up BMR clients
      2.  
        Using the same client name in multiple policies
      3.  
        About performing complete backups
      4.  
        About performing a full backup after a restore
      5.  
        Ensuring successful backups
      6.  
        Saving custom files on UNIX or Linux
    3. Monitoring client backups
      1.  
        BMR related other NetBackup properties
    4. Protecting clients with specific use cases
      1.  
        Storage Foundation for Windows Clients
  4. Setting up restore environments
    1.  
      Recovery steps
    2.  
      Installing boot server software
    3.  
      Shared resource trees
    4.  
      Adding client-specific resources
    5.  
      When to use boot media
    6.  
      Preparing client for restoration
  5. Shared resource trees
    1.  
      About shared resource trees
    2. Pre-requisites for Shared Resource Tree
      1.  
        About the space requirements for SRTs
    3. Creating a shared resource tree
      1. Creating an SRT for Windows
        1. Shared Resource Tree Administration Wizard
          1. Create an SRT
            1. Installing Microsoft Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK)
              1. Installing ADK using automatic download and install option
                1.  
                  Progress of ADK download and install process
              2.  
                Using pre-downloaded ADK executable file
            2.  
              Creating SRT on an offline boot server or host
          2.  
            SRT automatic import
          3.  
            Export SRT
          4.  
            Edit an SRT
          5.  
            Import an SRT
          6.  
            Copy an SRT
          7.  
            Delete an SRT
          8. Creating bootable CD or DVD image for Fast Restore SRT
            1.  
              Select an SRT
            2.  
              Specify a location for the ISO image
            3.  
              Completing the Shared Resource Tree configuration panel
          9. Add or update packages to an SRT
            1.  
              Add NetBackup Client to an SRT
            2.  
              Add NetBackup Security Services to an SRT
            3.  
              Add NetBackup Release Update or Maintenance Pack to an SRT
            4.  
              Add NetBackup Language Pack
      2. Creating an SRT for UNIX or Linux
        1.  
          Creating an AIX SRT
        2.  
          Creating an HP-UX SRT
        3.  
          Creating a Solaris SRT
        4.  
          Creating a Linux SRT
    4. Managing shared resource trees
      1. Adding software to a shared resource tree
        1. Adding software to a UNIX or Linux SRT
          1.  
            About adding NetBackup Maintenance Packs
          2.  
            About adding Veritas Volume Manager and Veritas File System
          3.  
            About adding Veritas Security Services
          4.  
            About adding other software
          5.  
            About installing patches and packages into Solaris SRTs
          6.  
            Installing device drivers into Linux SRTs
        2.  
          Adding software to a Windows SRT
      2. Importing a shared resource tree
        1.  
          Importing an SRT on UNIX and Linux
        2.  
          Importing an SRT on Windows
      3. Copying a shared resource tree
        1.  
          Copying an SRT on UNIX and Linux
        2.  
          Copying an SRT on Windows
      4. Deleting a shared resource tree
        1.  
          Deleting an SRT on UNIX and Linux
        2.  
          Deleting an SRT on Windows
      5.  
        Enabling or disabling SRT exclusive use
      6.  
        Repairing a damaged shared resource tree
      7.  
        Breaking a stale shared resource tree lock
    5. Managing boot media
      1.  
        About the supported boot media on Windows
      2.  
        About writing a CD or DVD
      3. Creating boot media for UNIX and Linux
        1.  
          About boot media for AIX
        2.  
          About boot media for HP-UX
        3.  
          About boot media for Linux
        4.  
          About boot media for Solaris
      4.  
        Creating boot media for a Windows client
  6. Restoring clients
    1.  
      BMR restore process
    2.  
      Preparing a client for restore
    3. BMR disk recovery behavior
      1.  
        BMR disk processing with prepare-to-restore options
      2.  
        BMR disk class processing with prepare-to-restore options
      3.  
        Import actions for operating systems or volume managers
    4. About restoring BMR clients using network boot
      1.  
        Restoring an AIX client with network boot
      2.  
        Restoring a HP-UX client with network boot
      3.  
        Restoring a Linux client with network boot
      4.  
        Restoring a Solaris client with network boot
      5.  
        Restoring a Windows client with network boot
    5. About restoring BMR clients using media boot
      1.  
        Restoring an AIX client with media boot
      2.  
        Restoring a HP-UX client with media boot
      3.  
        Restoring a Linux client with media boot
      4.  
        Restoring a Solaris client with media boot
      5.  
        Restoring a Windows client with media boot
    6.  
      Generic BMR Restore
    7.  
      Generic Discovery of Hardware
    8. About restoring to a specific point in time
      1.  
        About the point in time restore process
      2.  
        Creating a point in time restore configuration
    9. About restoring to dissimilar disks
      1.  
        About the dissimilar disk restore process
      2.  
        Creating a restore configuration for DDR
      3.  
        Restoring a client to dissimilar disks
    10. Restoring to a dissimilar system
      1.  
        About dissimilar system restore
      2.  
        About discovering the configuration of the new system
      3.  
        Creating an editable DSR configuration
      4.  
        About adding NIC and MSD drivers
      5.  
        About changing network interfaces
      6.  
        About mapping disks in the restore configuration
      7.  
        About creating boot media
      8.  
        About restoring the client
      9.  
        Logging on for the first time after system restore
    11. About restoring NetBackup media servers
      1. About configuring an alternate media server
        1.  
          Enabling automatic media server failover to an alternate server
        2.  
          Overriding the original media server manually
      2.  
        Restoring the media server
    12.  
      About restoring BMR boot servers
    13. About external procedures
      1.  
        External procedure points and names
      2.  
        About managing external procedures
      3.  
        Specifying external procedures
      4.  
        About external procedure data transfer
      5.  
        About interaction with external procedures
      6.  
        External procedure logging examples
      7.  
        External procedure operational states
      8.  
        About external procedure exit codes
      9.  
        About external procedure error handling
      10. About external procedure environment variables
        1.  
          UNIX and Linux environment variables
        2.  
          AIX environment variables
        3.  
          HP-UX environment variables
        4.  
          Solaris environment variables
        5.  
          Windows environment variables
    14. About SAN (storage area network) support
      1.  
        Restoring Solaris SAN-attached volumes if they are left unmapped
      2.  
        About SANs and dissimilar system restores on Windows clients
    15. About multiple network interface support
      1.  
        About client configuration using gateways
    16.  
      Port usage during restores
  7. Managing Windows drivers packages
    1.  
      About Windows drivers packages
    2. Adding a Windows driver package
      1.  
        Finding the correct driver if Windows is already installed
    3.  
      Deleting a Windows driver package
  8. Managing clients and configurations
    1.  
      About clients and configurations
    2.  
      Copying a configuration
    3.  
      Discovering a configuration
    4.  
      Modifying a configuration
    5.  
      Deleting a configuration
    6.  
      Deleting a client
    7. Client configuration properties
      1.  
        Configuration Summary properties
      2. Devices and drivers properties
        1.  
          Force installation of this driver instead of Windows supplied or newer driver
      3.  
        Hosts properties
      4. Network interfaces properties
        1.  
          Importing and mapping network interfaces
        2.  
          Changing network interfaces manually
        3.  
          Specifying the UNIX and Linux boot interface
      5.  
        Network routes properties
      6. About Volumes properties
        1.  
          About Native Disk Objects
        2.  
          About mapping and unmapping volumes
        3.  
          Mapping volumes
        4.  
          Volumes views
  9. Managing BMR boot servers
    1.  
      About boot servers
    2.  
      Boot server requirements
  10. Troubleshooting
    1.  
      Problems booting from CD or DVD
    2.  
      Long restore times
    3.  
      Solaris media boot network parameters issue
    4.  
      How to recover client when BMR configuration is deleted accidentally
    5.  
      First boot after BMR restore fails on UNIX platforms
    6.  
      Client network based boot issue
    7.  
      Verify backup failure while recovering Windows client
    8.  
      The VM takes long time for booting after BMR Physical backup conversion to virtual machine is performed on 32-bit architecture Windows OS
    9.  
      BMR-enabled physical backup to Virtual Machine conversion job fails on Windows platform
    10. Troubleshooting issues regarding creation of virtual machine from client backup
      1.  
        Client name is not visible under virtual machine conversion clients list
      2.  
        Failure during submitting the job of virtual machine creation
      3.  
        Job of creating virtual machine failed
    11.  
      Many services on Solaris 11 and newer print warning messages during a system boot and during BMR first boot
    12.  
      Solaris Zone recovery on Solaris 11 and newer takes time to reconfigure after a BMR restore during first boot
    13.  
      A Solaris BMR restore operation fails if the text-installer package is not present in the customized AI ISO
    14.  
      The /boot partition must be on a separate partition for a multiple device-based OS configuration
    15.  
      Multiple error messages might be displayed during the first boot after the restoration of a client with ZFS storage pools
    16.  
      BMR may not format or clear the ZFS metadata
    17.  
      Specifying the short name of the client to protect with Auto Image Replication and BMR
    18. A restore task may remain in a finalized state in the disaster recovery domain even after the client restores successfully
      1.  
        Communication between the master server and the client may fail even if the client has a valid host ID-based certificate
    19.  
      Automatic boot may fail for HP-UX after a restore
    20.  
      Prepare to Restore may not work for a Solaris client
    21.  
      Use of Virtual Instance Converter (VIC) hosts on Windows (x64) having NetBackup 8.1 is not supported for NetBackup 8.0 and earlier clients
    22.  
      PTR or PTD failure because of boot server version mismatch after upgrade
    23.  
      Error messages for prepare to restore, prepare to discover, and the bmrprep command with reference to secure communication in BMR
    24.  
      Media restore of Solaris x86 11.2 or later clients may prompt for maintenance mode user name and password
    25.  
      Discovery task may remain in Finalizing state after client PTD task completes successfully
    26.  
      BMR restore task may remain in Finalizing state after the client is restored successfully
    27.  
      Shared Resource Tree (SRT) creation fails with an error after BMR restore if a backup operation was initiated on the boot server and client while the SRT creation was in progress
  11. Creating virtual machine from client backup
    1.  
      About creating virtual machine from backup
    2.  
      BMR physical to virtual machine creation benefits and use cases
    3.  
      Deployment diagram for virtual machine creation
    4.  
      Client-VM conversion process flow
    5.  
      Pre-requisites to create VM creation from backup
    6. Virtual machine creation from backup
      1.  
        Virtual Machine Conversion Clients
      2.  
        Converting client backup to VM
      3.  
        Virtual Machine Options
      4.  
        Virtual machine conversion storage destination
      5.  
        Network connection selections
      6.  
        Virtual machine conversion summary
      7.  
        Direct Virtual Machine (VM) conversion (physical to virtual) tasks performed after the restore is complete
      8.  
        Virtual Machine Conversion Tasks
      9.  
        Restore Task Properties
      10.  
        Creating custom configurations
    7.  
      Virtual Machine Creation CLIs
  12. Monitoring Bare Metal Restore Activity
    1.  
      Monitoring BMR restore tasks
    2.  
      Monitoring backup jobs
    3.  
      Monitoring VM Creation jobs
    4. BMR logs
      1.  
        BMR logging originator IDs
      2.  
        Commands to manage unified logging and log files
      3.  
        BMR restore logs
  13. Appendix A. NetBackup BMR related appendices
    1. Network services configurations on BMR boot Server
      1.  
        Common UNIX network configuration
      2.  
        Red Hat Enterprise Linux network configuration
      3.  
        SUSE Linux Network configuration
      4. Solaris Network configuration
        1.  
          Network boot service configuration for Solaris version 10
        2.  
          Network boot service configuration for Solaris version 11.0 and later
      5.  
        HP-UX and AIX NW configuration
      6.  
        Windows Network configuration
    2.  
      About the support for Linux native multipath in BMR
    3.  
      BMR support for multi-pathing environment
    4.  
      BMR multipath matrix
    5.  
      BMR support for virtual environment
    6.  
      BMR Direct VM conversion support matrix
    7.  
      About ZFS storage pool support
    8.  
      Solaris zone recovery support
    9. BMR client recovery to other NetBackup Domain using Auto Image Replication
      1.  
        Adding a host in the host database of the DR domain
    10.  
      Secure communication compatibility matrices for BMR for NetBackup 8.1.1 and later releases

Server DR protection using BMR

The process of Protecting servers from disaster using BMR occurs in three phases. These phases are

  • BMR Enabled backup

    NetBackup backup policy needs to be BMR-enabled so that during client backup, client system skeleton information is backed up which is required to recover client when DR is intended. This system skeleton info comprises OS details, disk information, volume details, file system information and network information. For details about BMR Backup process, refer chapter Protecting clients.

  • Recovery Pre-requisites

    Setting of restore prerequisite can be done any time prior to DR of client is intended. It is recommended to have this prerequisite little prior to avoid any delay in recovery. During this phase, recovery critical software i.e., share resource tree needs to be prepared on BMR Boot server. This SRT forms a staging environment to do client recovery. Single SRT can be used to recover clients belonging to same operating system family. For details about recovery pre-requisites, refer chapter Setting up restore environments.

  • Client Recovery

    This is the actual client recovery phase, where client computer boots into recovery environment. The client needs to be prepared for recovery by running single command line or single click. BMR supports two recovery methods: Network-based boot and Media-based boot. For details about client recovery process, refer chapter Restoring clients. BMR can also be leveraged in NetBackup's Auto Image Replication setup to recover primary domain host into DR Domain.

    For details See BMR client recovery to other NetBackup Domain using Auto Image Replication.