NetVault Bare Metal Recovery 12.0 - User Guide for Plug-ins

Prerequisites for backing up data with Plug-in Offline Client

Before initiating a backup with the Plug-in Server, review the following topics for details on prerequisites that must be met.


	CAUTION: Even if there is no difference between the system devices in a backup and a restore, the order of the disks might be different. If the restored data is started without performing a rename, any data that exists on the disks is lost. To compare the information of the physical disk at backup and restore, note the Disk Geometry and Device Size at backup. For more information, see Performing a restore in which Disk Numbers are different from the backup.

Booting the NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client with Plug-in Offline Client

Boot the target NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client with the Plug-in Offline Client to prepare it for the backup. To complete the boot routine, review the steps in Booting with Plug-in Offline Client.

Verifying Disk Geometry and Device Size

Before backing up any portion of a NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client’s hard drive, note the Disk Size and the Disk Geometry of the selected drive. If these items are not accounted for, a restore might fail.

Example of how to note the Drive Disk Size and Disk Geometry

A Client drive is divided into three partitions. The primary partition is 10 gigabytes (GB), the first logical partition is 7 GB, and the second partition is 3 GB. A backup of the first logical partition is performed with the Plug-in Server. On restore of the system after a hard drive failure, if the first logical partition was restored, you must restore it to the proper partition, the first logical partition, or the restore fails.

To verify the geometry and size, perform the following steps.

With the NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client booted using Plug-in Offline Client, as outlined in Booting a NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client with Plug-in Offline Client, access the NetVault Backup Server, and start the NetVault Backup WebUI.

In the Navigation pane, click Create Backup Job.

Next to the Selections list, click Create New.

On the NetVault Backup Selections page, double-click the NetVault Backup Server — the system containing the Plug-in Server — to open it.

Double-click the applicable NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client displayed under the plug-in to reveal the disks contained within.

To determine the Disk Geometry, click the applicable disk, and select Disk Geometry from the context menu Actions list.

The Device Geometry dialog box displays details about the partition structure of the selected disk.

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Partitions: Each individual partition is listed here by number and the partition type.

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Bootable: Displays the current state of the partition (“Yes” or “No”).

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Offset: Displays the amount by which the partition is offset.

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Size: Displays the size of each partition.

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Type: Displays the type of partition.

With this information noted, click OK.

To determine the overall size of a disk, click the applicable disk, and select Disk Size from the context menu.

The Device Size dialog box displays details about the size of the selected disk.

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Device: The number and type of the disk.

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Size: The size of the selected disk.

With this information noted, click OK.

Backing up data with Plug-in Offline Client

Before performing a NetVault Bare Metal Recovery backup, consider the following important points:

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The NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client machine must be booted with the Plug-in Offline Client software before each operation of the Plug-in Server, backup or restore. If this procedure is not completed correctly, the NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client is inaccessible from the NetVault Backup Server. For details on this process, see Booting a NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client with Plug-in Offline Client.

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When Disk Raw Mode is selected, not only is the disk in use backed up, but the entire disk is as well. For example, if 6GB are in use on a 30GB partition, 30GB of media is used to back up the disk. Only use the Disk Raw Mode option when a complete hard drive is selected for a Plug-in Server backup, that is, not an individual partition.

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Dynamic disks must be backed up by using Disk Raw Mode to maintain partition information.

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Plug-in Offline Client does not support DR backup spanning multiple libraries. Attempting to restore a backup job that spans multiple libraries fails.

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If your VM is based on Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2 and you use the Plug-in Offline Client for Linux, update the VMware configuration file to use the E1000 adapter. For more information, see Using a Windows Server 2012-based virtual machine with Plug-in Offline Client for Linux.

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If you use the Windows PE-based VaultOS with BitLocker volumes, you must unlock the encrypted drives before running the backup job.

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As stated previously, the MBR and the Partition Table items are backed up automatically when a partition is backed up using the Plug-in Server. Therefore, these items are not available to select for a backup.

You are now ready to perform a backup of the NetVault Backup Server. The procedure for performing backups includes the steps outlined in the following topics:

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Selecting data for a backup with Plug-in Offline Client

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Setting backup options for backing up data with Plug-in Offline Client

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Finalizing and submitting the job for backing up data with Plug-in Offline Client