Brightstor and windows system files

[MDCrab]

hello,

i'm a programmer in a company that uses Brightstor. i've asked our network admin to recover a file that is a windows system file. To describe it in basic terms:

Server name: A
File to recover: c:/windows/system32/myFile

Brightstor successfully made the backup. Now i've asked our admin if he can recover the file. He tells me that:

1. because this is a system file, Brightstor provides no mechanism to restore just this file. You have to restore the entire c:/windows/system32 folder.

2. Brightstor can only restore to the server that it backed files up from. (In my example, Brightstor can only put the files from tape backup to Server A.)

I'm wondering:

1. is there any possible way to recover just the system that i need?

2. is there any possible way to restore from tape to a different server besides Server A?

i'd greatly appreciate any help. thanks.

 

[davidmichel]

both make no sense to me.

There are some system files (like the registry) that can not be restored as individual file, but there should not be a problem with what you are asking for.

Sure you can restore to a different location, just de-select the check box Restore To Original Location.

Based off the admin's response it raises the question if he knows ARCserve at all, and if he does not has he been making sure the data is really getting backed up and can really be restored??? It might be a good idea to ask for a few different files off a few different volumes just to make sure the data is safe.

 

[MDCrab]

thanks David. (i hit the "thank you" link...hope you got it. then i left for a while. now i've got a new question.)

i spoke with the Admin. he says that the backup tape that I need to restore was saved when Brightstor was on the C drive. shortly afterwards, the Admin switched Brightstor to the D drive. He says that the backup tape has to be restored to the C drive, and this can't happen because:

1. the tape is an incomplete backup and doesn't have the full archive bits.

2. there's now not enough room on the C drive to recover the tape.

3. the tape can only be restored to another server which has windows server 2003 loaded. (This requires another backup tape with the full archive bits in conjunction with the tape with the incomplete archive bits.)

it seems that my Admin has been describing the technical challenges for restoring the entire tape. (This tape is the company's backup for this particular day.) However, all i need are a few reasonably small files from a Windows system directory from one of our servers. I don't need the entire day's backup recovered.

i hope this isn't terribly confusing. in a nutshell, i'm looking for help restoring files given:

1. they are on a company backup tape, in a particular server's windows system folder.

2. Brightstor made the backup when it was running off the C drive. Now it is on D drive.

3. the backup tape has incomplete archive bits. this means that the files i'm looking for can't simply be recovered.

4. not enough room to recover the entire tape given the present status of the C drive on the server which has Brightstor.

5. the only option that i've been presented, that we build another windows 2003 server, is out of the question.

Many thanks if you can offer an idea that has been overlooked.

 

[TheMisio]

Hi MDCrab,

I’m sorry but it seems like your Admin doesn’t know much about what he or she is doing (with BrightStor).
I think your admin was telling you about Full > Incremental backups. You see, full backup will backup everything and will reset the archive bit (optional) on all data.
Whenever you edit a file, the archive bit is set, so the next backup knows that the file has been modified and needs to be backed up.
Now. If you can remember when you modified your system file, ask your admin to use the tape from that day to recover the file.
It is NOT necessary to restore whole tape or drive to recover a single file. If your admin has difficulties doing that, ask him to participate in this forum, we will be more than happy to help.
Please let me know how it went.

Regards,

Michael

 

[davidmichel]

Merge the tape and then a selective restore can be done for any of the files.

 

[MDCrab]

thanks guys. i had another conversation with our Admin. Here's what I've gathered.

when the Brightstor backup tape was made, we were running on the C drive. then the Admin switched the Brightstor application to D drive.

the Admin says that when he puts the tape in to restore it via the Database Restoration Utility, Brightstor will begin copying files off the tape on to the C drive. These files contain information for all of our company's servers. These files include the archive bits, for all the company servers.

He showed me the 'CA' folder that is now on our D drive. He says that when he tries to use the Database Restoration Utility on the backup tape, the utility will create a CA folder on the C drive and begin copying files from the Brightstor tape to it.

This can't happen because the C drive is now being used for our Sharepoint. The Admin fears that Brightstor will begin copying over registry settings and other crucial folders that are being used now. He also says that restoring the tape will max out our C drive, which endangers Sharepoint further. He says our company can't risk screwing around with the C drive where Sharepoint is.

Another point the Admin made was when this conversation first took place (in August) he put the Brightstor tape in the drive and looked at trying to restore it. Brightstor did not provide the option to restore the data to another location. It was only going to allow the Admin to restore the files to the server where they came from. He says this is also unacceptable.

I asked him about "merging the tape". He says that the files were successfully pruned. However, I didn't follow the rest of the conversation.


The issues that are killing me are:

1. Brightstor's Database Restoration Utility will read the tape and begin copying archive bits and other information from the tape to the C drive, because that's the drive that Brightstor was on when the tape was made.

2. Brightstor doesn't appear to allow the Admin to restore the data to a different location than the original server where the files came from.

Finally, the biggest hurdle for me is the Admin is reluctant to restore the tape. That's why i'm using this forum to try to get ideas. When I can come back to him with knowledgeable questions i've got a better chance of having him help me out.

I appreciate the suggestions I've received so far. This is a very useful forum. Any further help would be much appreciated. Many thanks.

 

[MDCrab]

i should clarify...The Admin says that his chief concern is that Brighstor will begin copying files from the backup tape to the C drive without any warning dialogues to prevent overriding something that's important. we've had some issues with the Sharepoint server, and he's wary of another Sharepoint crash.

 

[MDCrab]

this is where it would be nice if there was someone offering a web-based way to restore brightstor tapes. i don't know if there would be a lot of business, but maybe it could help people out who have tapes but can't restore them.

a web-based system would prompt the user for a scuzzy drive location. then the user clicks a button and the contents of the tape is uploaded to another server. on this server, the client; i.e., web user could choose what files s/he wants restored. The web-based Brightstor restores the requested files to the location that the user requires. Finally, the user receives some kind of written confirmation that the entire backup job is gone from the foreign server.

obviously, hardly anyone would need to use a web-based Brightstor system if they've already got the software on their machines.

 

[BETuser]

Either your Arcserve person has no clue how to do a restore or he/she doesn't want to mess with it. There are options that prevent overwriting files. As already stated, you can put the files somewhere else also and not overwrite anything. Or you can overwrite files if you choose to. There are lots of options. One option PREVENTS you from overwriting files. At our site, for safety sake, we do not under any circumstances overwrite files. We create a "Restore" directory and put the restored files there. Then we have the user move them to where ever he/she wants them. We delete the "Restore" directory and its contents after 24 hours to keep from having duplicate files.

I really don't think your Admin wants to do the restore for you.....

 

[MDCrab]

I really don't think your Admin wants to do the restore for you....."

Yes, unfortunately I can't convince the Admin to restore files off the Brightstar tape given our present server configuration. Thanks to everyone here who offered their input. I'm simply out of luck.