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

System administration experience is recommended when using the Plug-in Offline Client or the Plug-in Live Client. Although it is not necessary to have this level of experience to perform routine backups, the initial configuration of each plug-in, the configuration of a target NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client, and the restore procedure require administrator knowledge.

	IMPORTANT: Starting with 10.0.0, NetVault Backup provides a WebUI to configure, manage, and monitor your NetVault Backup system. The procedures described in the user’s guide for this version of the product are intended for the new WebUI. For procedures based on the NetVault Backup Console (user interface available with NetVault Backup 9.x), see the documentation for an earlier version of the product.

Deploying NetVault Bare Metal Recovery

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NetVault Bare Metal Recovery components

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NetVault Bare Metal Recovery deployment scenarios

NetVault Bare Metal Recovery components

NetVault Bare Metal Recovery includes two key components, or plug-ins, each of which provides its own form of disaster recovery (DR) backup, and a third component that serves as a basic OS that is used to prepare a target NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client for backup and restore.

NetVault Bare Metal Recovery includes the following technical components:

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Plug-in Offline Client for x86/x86-64 Clients

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Plug-in Live Client for Windows®

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Plug-in Live Client for Linux®

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Plug-in Server

The sections that follow provide a brief description of each of these components.

Plug-in Offline Client

The Plug-in Offline Client implements a block-by-block backup and restore technique to recover a system. This operation takes the target system offline and makes it unavailable. This step is done to either:

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Backup: An Offline Backup backs up all aspects of a target system (OS, applications, system settings). This step is ideal for new systems that have been configured for use.

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Restore: An Offline Restore recovers a machine that has no functional OS to a previously configured state.

Plug-in Live Client for Windows

The Plug-in Live Client for Windows® makes it possible to back up a full Windows system while it remains online and active. When recovery is required, the Plug-in Offline Client is used to boot the target NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client and recover data; that is, an Offline Restore is required.

Plug-in Live Client for Linux

The Plug-in Live Client for Linux® makes it possible to back up a full Linux system while it remains online and active. The Plug-in Live Client for Linux uses Storix®, a third-party DR boot utility, to boot the target NetVault Bare Metal Recovery Client and recover data; that is, an Offline Restore is required.

Plug-in Server

The Plug-in Server resides on the NetVault Backup Server and enables backup and recovery of a target client’s data by using the Plug-in Offline Client or the Plug-in Live Client.

VaultOS

The Plug-in Offline Client includes a component known as VaultOS. VaultOS is a minimal OS that is used to boot a target DR client system to prepare it for backup or restore (depending on the plug-in in use). This minimal OS starts the target client, loads all applicable device drivers, and leaves its hard drive in a state suitable for either backup or restore.

There are two versions of the VaultOS, one that uses a Linux® boot loader and one that uses a Windows® Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE). The version that you choose to use also affects which Plug-in Offline Client features are available to use.

Important notes regarding VaultOS

Review the following list of important notes regarding VaultOS. The things that you should be aware of varies depending on whether you are using the Linux®-based VaultOS or the Windows® PE-based VaultOS.

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Each version of the Plug-in Offline Client and Plug-in Live Client offers a specific form of the VaultOS (for example, the Plug-in Live Client for Linux system uses its own form of VaultOS). Details on the setup and use of this component are covered in the relevant section of this guide.

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Physical-to-virtual restores and restores to dissimilar hardware are only supported using the Windows PE-based Plug-in Offline Client.

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Plug-in Server versions 2.3 through 2.6 require Plug-in Offline Client version 5.x to perform backups.

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Plug-in Server version 4.x requires Plug-in Offline Client version 6.x to perform backups.

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If you created backup or restore jobs using Plug-in Server version 2.6 or earlier, you must re-create the jobs using 4.x or later.