Using Legato for System Backups

[earlrc]

I was just if anyone out there has used Legato Networker to perform system backups. I'm considering using Legato to do my system backups as well as my On-line Oracle Backups. I have heard that total disaster recovery is not that great with Legato, but I wanted to try to get some other opinions. Does anyone have information about this or know where I can find informatio about this?

Thanks much,
Rob

 

[Voyager1]

You are correct, disaster recover in Networker is "not that great".

We use Legato to back up many of our NT servers, as well as some of the Unix boxes. As the backup administrator, I must say that my own opinion of Legato is "so-so".

Disaster recovery (complete recovery of a server) involves reloading NT on the PC (same name and TCP/IP parameters), reload all service packs and hot fixes, reinstall Legato, and then (finally!) recover your data. Very time intensive!

ArcServe, on the other hand, has a disaster recovery option that allows you to boot a PC from a floppy, attach to the backup server and recover your server completely from tape. That's how it should be.

Aside from the complete recovery, Legato seems OK - but has it's share of administrative overhead.

Just my $.02 worth.... - Bill

"You can get anything you want out of life, if you'll just help enough other people get what they want" - Zig Ziglar

 

[earlrc]

Thanks Bill, I appreciate your feedback. I will be using Legato primarily on the Compaq Tru64 Unix platform, and it seems like a complete recovery might be somewhat the same where you have to load the base system first, install Legato and then restore all the data. Thanks again.

~Rob

 

[ag100]

Hi,

Not to be too disagreeable or anything, but Legato does have a bare-metal recovery system... It may only be out for UNIX right now (?), but I know it exists.. Perhaps you may want to look for Recovery Manager on Legato's website for more information..

As for the NT system recovery, I do it a bit differently, and only need a second copy of the OS installed.. When we create a system, we create a second WINNT directory, called NTBCK or WINNTBCK, whatever. When we have to recover, we boot off the second OS, and just restore the data.. In a worst case scenario, we might not have NTBCK already installed... It usually only takes 20-30 minutes to create the secondary OS before we start restoring. Keep in mind, there are a few quirks with the restore, for example, you must relocate the 5 registry files and profiles back to their original locations, etc... Also, this doesn't work with Windows 2000!!!

I guess everyone has their own way.. That's mine. Good luck!!

-ag100

 

[JimTaylor]

ag100 (MIS)

Sometime ago you (ag100 (MIS)) wrote ==> "As for the NT system recovery, I do it a bit differently, .....NTBCK already installed... It usually only takes 20-30 minutes to create the secondary OS before we start restoring. Keep in mind, there are a few quirks with the restore, for example, you must relocate the 5 registry files and profiles back to their original locations, etc..."

Which 5 files must be relocated??? Why???

We tried something very similar for a disaster recovery test with a WINT2 directory only on the server we did a clone process to build WINNT2 and then installed the networker client with the WINNT2 OS booted to. We installed the networker client on the C:\ drive instead of the ususal location of F:\ drive.

Our networker is server is UNIX - Solaris 2.6 Both sever and Client are at version 6.0.1.

Not knowing the NT OS that well I'm now being told the by NT admin guy the system hardware file is missing and this product works for #$%!!!.

His comments:

*********************************************************
1. The Networker legato restore failed to restore the entire winnt\system32\config directory. This is the most important part of a restore as it is the location for sam, registry, etc.

2. The demand to use the same name as the original server will not work in a disaster senario. In order for the process which legato networker demands be used you must have a cached account available and known on the server being restored and to have that cached account be in existance on the restored date. This cached account and password would need to be known by the person performing the restore. Cached accounts do not stay on a server they automatically go away.

3. Availability of exactly the same hardware is never a given. This is why we use the dual boot concept of winnt(original server area) and winnt2 (the fast clone area) this allows for many reboots back and forth until the server is brought up to the new hardware standards.

*******************************************************

Following the client install we used winworkr and MARKED
ALL DRIVES and
SYSTEM STATE
but not REPAIRDISK for restoration.

I see the SAM file is on the REPAIRDISK. Were we to use that???

Any ideas on what the issue is? Thanks for your help in advance!!!