Rapid Recovery 6.4 - User Guide

Understanding boot CD creation for Windows machines

A bare metal restore for Windows requires a boot CD, which you create from the Rapid Recovery Core Console. This is a bootable ISO image which contains the Universal Recovery Console (URC) interface, an environment that is used to restore the system drive or the entire server by connecting the target machine with the Rapid Recovery Core.

You can create a Windows boot CD using one of two methods: by defining parameters in the Rapid Recovery Core using the Restore Machine Wizard, or from the Boot CDs page of the Core Console accessible under the (More) menu.

Tailor each boot CD ISO image to your specific needs. For example, each boot CD must contain the correct Ethernet network and mass storage drivers. If you anticipate that you will be restoring to different hardware from the machine on which the recovery point originated, then you must include storage controller and other drivers in the boot CD. For information about injecting those drivers in the boot CD, see Understanding driver injection in a boot CD.

If you plan to connect to the BMR target remotely, you cannot use RDS, but you can use UltraVNC. If using UltraVNC, you will need to provide the UltravVNC password defined when creating the boot CD to access the target machine. For more information, see Using UltraVNC for remote access.

After it is created, you will use the boot CD image to boot your Windows-based BMR target machine when restoring to bare metal. To boot from it, based on the specifics of your environment, you may need to transfer the image to physical media. Then virtually or physically load the boot image, and boot the Windows server from the boot image. You will then start the URC, note the single-session authentication information provided, and use that information on the Rapid Recovery Core to connect the target machine to the Core to perform the restore process.

This section includes the following relevant topics:

• Understanding driver injection in a boot CD
• Using UltraVNC for remote access
• Creating a boot CD ISO image
• Transferring the boot CD ISO image to media
• Loading the boot CD and starting the target machine

Understanding driver injection in a boot CD

The boot CD image requires storage drivers to recognize the drives of the server, and network adapter drivers in order to communicate with the Rapid Recovery Core over the network.

To suit this purpose, a generic set of Windows10 x64 storage controller and network adapter drivers are included automatically when you generate a boot CD for Windows. These generic drivers satisfy the requirements of many newer systems. Data restored from the recovery point also includes drivers from the hardware previously in place. If restoring to the same or similar hardware, the included drivers or restored drivers may be sufficient.

Creation of a successful boot CD can be a trial and error effort. When creating the boot CD, you can use driver injection to facilitate interoperability between the recovery console, network adapter, and storage on the target server. If performing a BMR to dissimilar hardware, or if restoring an older system, you may need to inject storage controller or network adapter drivers when creating the boot CD. If you discover the boot CD you created does not contain the drivers necessary to complete the restore, you can also load drivers on to the target machine using the URC. After successfully completing the restore process and booting the OS, you can download and install any additional drivers needed by the OS to interact with its new hardware. For more information, see Loading drivers using the Universal Recovery Console.

Using UltraVNC for remote access

Creating a boot CD ISO image

1. From the Rapid Recovery Core Console where the server you need to restore is protected, in the icon bar, click the (More) menu, and then click Boot CDs.
2. On the Boot CDs page, click + Create Boot CD.
   The Create Boot CD dialog box displays.
3. In the Create Boot CD dialog box, in the Output path text box, enter the path in which you want to store the boot CD ISO image. For example, to create a boot CD for a protected machine named Protected Machine 1, enter the path C:\ProgramData\AppRecovery\Boot CDs\ProtectedMachine1-BootCD.iso.

   NOTE: If you want to store the image on a shared drive which has insufficient disk space, you can create a disk as needed in the path; for example, F:\filename.iso.

   NOTE: The file extension must be .iso. When specifying the path, use only alphanumeric characters, the hyphen, the backslash (only as a path delimiter), and the period (only to separate host names and domains). The letters a to z are not case sensitive. Do not use spaces in the name of the boot CD image. No other symbols or punctuation characters are permitted.

4. Under Connection Options, do one of the following:
   • To obtain the IP address dynamically using Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), select Obtain IP address automatically.
   • To specify a static IP address for connecting to the URC on the BMR target, select Use the following IP address, and then enter the information described in the following table.

     Table 142: Network connection options

     Option	Description
     IP address	The IP address for the restored machine.
     Subnet mask	The subnet mask for the restored machine.
     Default gateway	Specify the default gateway for the restored machine.
     DNS server	Specify the domain name server for the restored machine.

     NOTE: You must specify all four of these parameters.

5. UltraVNC is a third-party utility that lets you manage the URC remotely. If you require remote access to the recovery console, and you have UltraVNC installed, under UltraVNC Options, select Add UltraVNC, and then enter the information described in the following table.

   Table 143: UltraVNC connection credentials

   Option	Description
   UltraVNC password	Define a password. You must enter this password to connect from the boot CD using UltraVNC.
   UltraVNC port	The port you want to use to connect to the BMR target. The default port is 5900.

6. If you plan to restore to dissimilar hardware, inject the appropriate storage controller and other drivers for your target system by completing the following steps:
   1. Download the drivers from the server manufacturer’s website and unpack them.
   2. Compress each driver into a .zip file using an appropriate compression utility (for example, WinZip).
   3. In the Create Boot CD dialog box, in the Drivers pane, click Add an Archive of Drivers.

      The Choose File to Upload dialog box appears.

   4. From the dialog box, navigate through the filing system to locate the compressed driver file. Select the file, and then click Open.

      The Choose File to Upload dialog box closes. The driver file you selected appears in the Drivers pane of the Create Boot CD dialog box.

   5. Repeat step c and step d, as appropriate, until you add all necessary drivers.
   6. In the Drivers pane, select the drivers that you want to inject.

   NOTE: Automatic driver injection is supported by Windows 8.1 and higher, and Windows Server 2012 R2 and higher. If creating a boot CD ISO image for earlier versions of Windows, manually save drivers to C:\Program Files\AppRecovery\Core\BootCdKit\Drivers\.

   For more information about injecting drivers, see Understanding driver injection in a boot CD.

7. Click Create Boot CD.

   Rapid Recovery creates the boot CD and saves it with the file name you provided.

8. To monitor the progress of this task, go to the icon bar and click the Events icon.

   For more information about monitoring Rapid Recovery events, see Viewing events using tasks, alerts, and journal pages.

   When the ISO image creation is complete, a record of the image appears on the Boot CDs page, which you can access from the (More) menu in the icon bar.