Windows ASR with TSM

[michaelfischer]

Hello!
I'm using TSM to backup up about 130 Windows 2003 Servers. Now i want to use ASR with TSM for Disaster Recovery of these Servers.
Is there a way to make ASR work without DHCP? Can i manually configure an IP-Adress within de ASR Procedure? I have a lot of troubles with getting an IP over DHCP for my Server-Hardware, sometimes it works, sometimes not...

Or is there a better way for disaster recover a Windows Server 2003? Maybe with a WinPE including a TSM-Client?

Thanx for help...

 

[CJHund]

Hey Michael,

If you're restoring from a local backup set, you're supposed to be able to restore the server without having to connect to your TSM server. I've never restored a Windows system this way, so I'm guessing you'd have to back up everything to a CD ahead of time? What other options would you have if you couldn't talk to anyone else on the network?

I just recently tried to restore a Win2003 server using the ASR process and had a ton of trouble getting the NIC driver installed BEFORE the point where you start restoring data from TSM. In fact, I eventually had to give up because I couldn't figure out how to get the driver installed. Modifying the asr.sif file to have the driver files deposited to the correct Win directory didn't work.

However, what I was able to do (and it was much easier) was to follow the other system state recovery process whereby you get your Windows admin to build up the server, attach it to whatever domains you need to be attached to, get the machine IP'ed, install the TSM agent, and THEN restore the system state. Actually, you have to restore in this order:
C: drive
system state
system services
reboot

I've done several restores this way and it works beautifully.

Hope this helps,
C.J.

 

[michaelfischer]

Hello CJHund, thanx for your reply!

I know, that you can do an ASR with a backupset without having any network connection, but this way seems to be very difficult, because i'm looking for a way that anyone in my team can disaster recover a system (even when i'm in holydays...). When you do the ASR-way with a backupset you first have to create this backupset on the tsm-server and then burn it to a cd or dvd...


Am i right, that your way to restore a complete server server is:

1. Setting up the OS (like setting up a new server)
2. Configure the Network Connections (like in documentations of the crashed server)
3. Installing a TSM BA Client
4. Restoring the C drive (system partition)
5. Restoring sysstate / sysservices
6. Restoring the other partitions

In this way you have to restore the sysstate/service in the Recovery Mode by starting the server with f8... Is this true? Do you restore the c drive also in this mode or in normal?

Hm, i think this is a good way, but in my dreams, theres a way where you can put a cd in a server, push a button and wait for a few minutes and the server starts with the state of its last backup... ;-)

Well, thanx a lot!

 

[CJHund]

Hi Michael,

Actually, no ... you would not restore system state or system services in recovery mode. You're going to have a new system state and all that after the server has been rebuilt. You have a fresh O/S load.

The process works exactly as you outlined in your previous post:
1. Setting up the OS (like setting up a new server)
2. Configure the Network Connections (like in documentations of the crashed server)
3. Installing a TSM BA Client
4. Restoring the C drive (system partition)
5. Restoring sysstate / sysservices
6. Restoring the other partitions

The important thing here is that you only reboot once, AFTER you've restored everything - the C: drive, then the system state, and then the system services. I believe you'll be asked to reboot after every step, but it's important that you do not do that.

And through the magic of TSM, after you restore system services and reboot, the system comes back in the state it was during your last system state restore (or whatever point in time you specify when you're restoring all this data).

The ASR process is, in my humble opinion, WAY more trouble than it's worth. You have to make sure you have a DHCP server up and running, and getting that to work always seems like a headache (if it's even allowed in your environment). And if your server uses some off the wall NIC driver that you can't get loaded during this process, there's really no way to do an ASR restore unless you have your data on a set of CDs.

Does anyone REALLY use that process? I've yet to come across a group of Windows or TSM admins who subscribe to this ASR process as their means of system state recovery.

C.J.

 

[DOughhh]

Howdy all, it seems that a lot of people have run into a common problem with the NIC driver. Because the NIC driver that needs to be used isn't included on the Windows cd, obviously the driver isn't being loaded. I ran into this same problem, but what I did was just build a Windows 2003 Standard cd that has it incorporated. This process is fairly easy to do. The CD I use to boot has Sp1 and the additional NIC driver. I didnt modify the asr.sif file though as stated earlier. Here is what I use:
- Windows 2003 Standard Edition Slipstreamed SP1 and hp 7782 NIC driver cd.
- CD with the TSMCLI.exe
- ASR diskette

The first one is what everyone, well a lot of people have issues with. Getting that NIC driver incorporated in. My cd is fully unattended , well except for the partitioning portion, which I do myself. Well here is how I built my Server 2003 std cd with the driver incorporated:

I am assuming you already know how to build a bootable cd with sp1 slipstreamed and how to modify your winnt.sif(answer file). In the winnt.sif which is located in the i386, you will see a heading of Unattended. Add the following:

OemPnPDriversPath=\Drivers\Nic
DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore

Make sure:
OemPreinstall=Yes

This is what mine looks like:

[Unattended]
UnattendMode=FullUnattended
OemSkipEula=Yes
OemPreinstall=Yes
TargetPath=*
UnattendSwitch=yes
OemPnPDriversPath=\Drivers\Nic
DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore

Ok, so now you've told it where to look and to ignore the digital signing requirement. Next you want to make sure you have the proper structure. On the root of the cd I have a folder named:

$oem$

In that folder there is another folder named:

$1

In that folder there is another folder named:

Drivers

In that folder there is another folder named:

Nic

In the Nic folder, you've guessed it, put your NIC drivers inside. There should be a *.dll, *.inf, *.sys, *.cat and and *.xml.

That's it, you've just told it to install the driver you want and to forget about the digital signature. Since you had mentioned applying a specific IP, yes you can do that in the answer file also. It's very simple to do. Please let me know how it goes/went. If you need help with building the cd, also let me know and I can help you build a cd.

I've been able to get the restore complete. Although, the user profiles are not restoring to the last recorded state. I am currently working on that. Hope to figure it out soon.