NetVault Bare Metal Recovery 10.5 - User Guide for Plug-ins

Accommodating for Raw disks

Multiple sections of this guide have noted that the Plug-in Live Client for Linux® does not support the backup and restore of Raw format disks. However, after the standard boot process discussed in the previous section is fully followed, any Raw format disks are automatically initialized, and the restore of data starts. As a result, any data that exists on these raw format disks is lost. To boot a target Linux NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client that contains any Raw format disks to omit them from the restore, perform the following steps:


	WARNING:This procedure must be followed to ensure that data items on any existing raw formatted disks are preserved. Dell cannot be held liable if this procedure is not followed to boot a machine containing raw disks and data is lost.


	IMPORTANT: The process described in Restoring data must be followed before attempting this configuration. If the DR backup job has not been initially queued up to run, it is not possible to complete this process; that is, this configuration must be performed after the job has been started in the NetVault Backup WebUI.

Perform Step 1 through Step 9 outlined in Boot procedure; do not complete the process (do not perform Step 10 and Step 11).

After returning to the System Installation and Maintenance dialog box, use the arrow keys to navigate to the View/Change Installation Settings option, and press Enter.

Various dialog boxes appear as the backup job information is read from the NetVault Backup Server. This process may take several minutes to complete.

If a frame appears in this dialog box stating that the disks on the system match the current configuration, press Enter.

When the Change Installation Settings Menu dialog box appears, press Enter to select the default option, Select Disks to Use for Installation.

After the dialog box updates with a frame containing a list of disks that are currently available on the target system, use the Arrow keys to select the disk to leave out of the restore (the Raw partition formatted disk), and press Enter to select it.

After the frame updates to display a list of available options for the selected disk, use the Arrow keys to select the DO NOT RESTORE the Disk Backup Data option, and press Enter to select it.


	IMPORTANT: Before selecting the DO NOT RESTORE This Disk Backup Data option for a drive, ensure that the selected drive is the one to omit. After the drive has been omitted from the restore, it cannot be added back in; that is, the only way to change the configuration is to reboot the Linux NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client, and restart this entire process.

After the frame updates with a message indicating that selecting this disk omits it from recovery, press the Y key to confirm.

With the omit command confirmed, the frame in the dialog box reveals the list of disks on the target system, and the disk that is to be omitted from the recovery is labeled as “---------AVAILABLE---------”.

To omit additional disks, repeat Step 5 through Step 7.

With the applicable disks omitted from the recovery, press Esc or F3 twice to return to the System Installation and Maintenance dialog box.

The informational fields in the lower-left corner are updated to reveal the values entered; that is, the Service field is updated to reveal the IP address entered for the NetVault Backup Server.

Use the arrow keys to navigate to the Install the System with Current Settings option, and press Enter to initiate the job.

If all settings were correctly entered, the process continues; otherwise, a red dialog box appears stating that the job could not be initiated.

When the frame in this dialog box is updated with a message stating that the selected disks are erased and overwritten on the Linux NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client if the operation is continued, press the Y key to confirm and start the recovery.

The Boot CD ejects automatically before rebuilding the system.

Monitoring job progress and finalizing a recovery

From the NetVault Backup Server, you can monitor the progress of any job through the Job Status page. While it is not necessary to monitor a job’s progress, Dell recommends that you monitor progress when performing a recovery of a NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client. After the recovery of a Linux® NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client has completed, you must perform a last task to bring it back online. By monitoring the recovery job, you are alerted to the completion of a job and this final task can be performed.


	NOTE: This section offers an example of the use of the Job Status page of the NetVault Backup WebUI for monitoring the progress of a Linux DR recovery operation to finalize the job. The tools made available in this dialog box are not exclusive to the Plug-in Live Client for Linux and complete information on their use can be found in the Dell NetVault Backup Administrator’s Guide.

With the recovery job running, click Monitor Job in the Navigation pane.

In the list of jobs displayed, locate the in-progress Linux DR recovery job.


	IMPORTANT: If you need to stop the job, you can also access the Abort command the same way. If you use this command to stop a recovery job, NetVault Backup stops the transfer of data. However, the System Installation for Linux application currently running on the Linux NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client stalls and its commands, while still accessible are not usable. A full reboot of the Linux NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client must be performed with the CD inserted in the drive to reactivate the application for use.

Various information pertaining to the selected job is displayed, including the plug-in in use and data-transfer-rate values. The Run Status field displays the status of the job (for example, Waiting for Media or Reading from Media). As the recovery finishes, data transfer values stop and this field is updated to Restore Complete.

To complete the recovery process, locally access the Linux NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client machine, and reboot it by using the Reboot the System command in the System Installation for Linux application (type exit at the maintenance shell prompt, or manually shut down the system).

The Linux NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client boots and its file system should be recovered to the point when the DR image was taken.

"Superblock last…" messages appear during fsck process

You might encounter an issue with a restore that causes either fsck errors related to clock inconsistencies or forced checks on systems that do not use Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). These errors appear as “Superblock last mount time is in the future” messages the first time that the system is restarted after the restore. You can ignore this issue, or you can work around it by using the following steps:

Use the Storix® media to boot the target client.

Open a maintenance shell in Storix, and run the following command.

hwclock --hctosys --localtime

Perform the restore.

Completing post-restore requirements

After a restore process completes on a target Linux® Client, the following points apply to that machine:

•

The “hosts” file for the Target is modified: A restore modifies the target NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client machine’s entry in its “…/etc/hosts” file; for example, after recovery, the host name does not appear along with the IP address and the alias for this client in the “…/etc/hosts” file. The machine is still accessible through its IP address, but for it to be accessible through its host name, this file must be edited to incorporate the appropriate host name information. For information on this “hosts” file and how it should be edited to include the proper host name for the target Linux machine, see the relevant Linux documentation.

•

Perform a restore of the modified files backup (if applicable): With the recovery completed, you can now restore the files backed up in the Plug-in for FileSystem backup described in Prerequisites. This process restores these files to their state before the DR recovery.

•

Change to boot loader application: If running a version of the Linux boot loader utility other than GRUB, after a DR image is recovered on a target Linux Client, the boot loader utility is replaced with the GRUB version of this application.

•

GRUB entries: Storix® never assumes that you are reinstalling onto the same physical hardware or restoring to the same storage configuration. Therefore, it is never guaranteed that the previous GRUB entries are valid. The only GRUB entry guaranteed to be valid after restore is the entry created by Storix.

•

Change in the start-end sector location for a DR restore: After a recovery of a DR image, the start-end sector for a restored partition may be different from its original backed-up location. The partition size remains the same size, but no unallocated space is created after the Master Boot Record. Therefore, some boot loaders (for example, GRUB) are not usable, because they require this additional, unallocated space. This requirement is because the Linux Loader (LILO) version of the boot loader utility that is automatically established after a recovery (as explained in the previous point) does not require this unallocated space.

•

Change to swap partition: During a recovery, the NetVault Bare Metal Recovery for Linux module implicitly modifies the “/etc/fstab” file entry for the swap partition.

Example:

For example, before the restore, “fstab” contains the following entry for the swap device:

LABEL=SWAP-sda2 swap swap defaults 0 0

After the restore, the original swap entry is commented out and a new entry is added:

# Updated by Storix System Installation

#LABEL=SWAP-sda2 swap swap defaults 0 0

/dev/sda2 swap swap defaults 0 0

The swap partition is enabled automatically, but the label for the swap partition is removed.

•

File-system checking is enabled: A restore modifies the “Maximum mount count” and “Check interval” parameters, which enable file-system checking. For systems that should not have these parameters enabled based on the number of mounts or a specific period, use the following commands to disable the options manually:

# tune2fs -c -1 <deviceName>

# tune2fs -i 0 <deviceName>

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NetVault Bare Metal Recovery 10.5 - User Guide for Plug-ins

Accommodating for Raw disks

Monitoring job progress and finalizing a recovery

"Superblock last…" messages appear during fsck process

Completing post-restore requirements