Disaster recovery / System Restore 1

[pmore628]

Disaster recovery / System Restore

Well to make a long story short we have a single Dell Power Edge 1800 with Windows SBS 2003 server with 2 mirrored drives (RAID 1). I went on vacation leaving a solid server that’s been up for a few years and came back to an email saying it went down because of a bad hard drive. My non IT professional co workers called Dell because the HD array alarm was going off and which was ok we have support and they can just come out and replace a drive or something. So they came out and couldn’t recover the array and lost everything they tell me. They replaced the controller and the bad drive and the system now is ready for re installation and restore.

Note:
They don’t pay for my cell phone and cut my sweet back up server out of my budget. (in case you were wondering).

So my I have a some what current full back up but the drives were partitioned and I don’t think I backed up partition info…..


Tomorrow is my first day back and I’m going to do the restore… Any advice?

Thanks
Pat

 

[58sniper]

Rebuild server as workgroup server and install backup software. Restore system state and data from backup.

You don't supply enough info for us to advise any further.

Pat Richard
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Contributing author Microsoft Exchange Server 2007: The Complete Reference

 

[pmore628]

Should I update the server first before restore? What other info do you need?

Thanks

 

[pgaliardo]

What backup program? Do you backup the system state? As 58Sniper said, the basic steps are rebuild server, don't join domain and do full restore. I'm not sure if system state holds partition info, I doubt it. Did you document how the server was set up? You need to set up your partitions as close to the original config as possible. Then install OS and backup software.

I know Symantec has step by step instruciotns on recovering a server. Not sure what program you use.

 

[pmore628]

I use windows back up software... I am rebuildiny my arrays right now and going to re load OS ASAP.

Thanks

 

[pmore628]

Do I need to to windows up date before my restore? I have complete full back up including sys state data. Will all my apps be gone too?

Thanks

 

[pgaliardo]

If you have a full backup and system state, you should not have to run Windows Update, because it will restore updates up until the time of the backup. If you have a good full backup, your apps should still be there.

 

[pmore628]

Cool - Thanks Bud... I wish I was still on vacation in Mexico. I did restores for practice in school but not on a production server. Hopefully I will go home happy today.

 

[pgaliardo]

You know what they say - it's not if a hard drive will go bad, but when. Eventually, we all have to do a critical restore. That's not the time to find your backup is bad, which is why it's a good practice to do periodic test restores on your servers. Good luck. Hope it all goes well.

 

[pmore628]

Well I re installed OS re partitioned drive and did the restore. It went all the way through and finished and then a message said to reboot. Now it keeps rebooting and rebooting in a loop.... any ideas?

Thanks

 

[pgaliardo]

At what point does it reboot - does it get to the Windows GUI or during the POST? Can you boot in SAFE MODE?

 

[pmore628]

It gets to the windows server screen and then reboots again. I will try safe mode.

Thanks

 

[pmore628]

When I get to the menu screen and choose safe mode it reboots. When I did the restore I did the sys state and the C: drive. Does that matter?

I also found this link

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811944/en-us

 

[pgaliardo]

Can you verify that the Windows directory was the same for the old and the new. In other words, you didn't rename the Windows directory on the origianl server, did you. If the directory was C:\Windows, then when you did the install of the OS, it needs to be C:\Windows.

You did the right thing by restoring system state and C, so I don't think that is the issue. My only other guess is a hardware issue.

 

[pmore628]

Yes, I left it the default C:\WINDOWS. The only thing that I can think of when I was doing the restore it asked where to and C: was the default so I left it... not sure if that was it though. I am reinstalling the OS now.

What are you thinking concerning hardware?

Thanks

 

[pmore628]

When I re installed the OS i didnt install any drivers. Do I need to install the drivers too?


Thanks

 

[58sniper]

What do the logs say?

Pat Richard
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Contributing author Microsoft Exchange Server 2007: The Complete Reference

 

[pmore628]

What logs are you referring to and how do I find them? lol

Thanks

 

[pmore628]

Well I think I see my problem... WhenI am choosing the sys state data none of the boxes are allowing me to check them... Anyone know why???

Thanks

 

[pgaliardo]

Maybe a bad backup? Forgot to ask, is this a domain controller or just a member server/file server. If it's just a file server and you don't have the system state, you may have to just rebuild it, name the server, join the domain and give it it's old IP Address. Then do just a file restore of all files and folders.