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Rapid Recovery 6.3 - User Guide

Introduction to Rapid Recovery The Core Console Repositories Core settings Managing privacy Encryption Protecting machines
About protecting machines with Rapid Recovery Understanding the Rapid Recovery Agent software installer Deploying Agent to multiple machines simultaneously from the Core Console Using the Deploy Agent Software Wizard to deploy to one or more machines Modifying deploy settings Understanding protection schedules Protecting a machine About protecting multiple machines Enabling application support Settings and functions for protected Exchange servers Settings and functions for protected SQL servers
Managing protected machines Credentials Vault Snapshots and recovery points Replication Events Reporting VM export Restoring data Bare metal restore
About bare metal restore BMR Windows and Linux Understanding boot CD creation for Windows machines Managing a Linux boot image Performing a bare metal restore using the Restore Machine Wizard Using the Universal Recovery Console for a BMR Performing a bare metal restore for Linux machines Verifying a bare metal restore
Managing aging data Archiving Cloud accounts Core Console references REST APIs Glossary

BMR Windows and Linux

The main tasks for performing BMR are described in the following table. Differences are noted between the process for Windows and Linux bare metal restores.

Step General BMR Steps Windows Linux

1

 

Prepare the destination machine. Repair or prepare hardware to replace the failed system. The fixed or replaced system is referred to as the BMR target machine.

    

2

 

Specify a recovery point. When restoring to bare metal, you must select the recovery point from which to restore all data, the OS, and applications. Often this is the most recent snapshot. However, there are cases in which you want to select an earlier recovery point (for example, if the failure was due to a recent change in software configuration).

For restore of any machine (Windows or Linux), including BMR, you can identify the recovery point from the Rapid Recovery Core Console in two ways:

  1. Navigate to a protected machine, view its recovery points, and launch a restore from the Recovery Points page of the Core Console.
  2. Launch the Restore Machine Wizard, select the machine, and then the recovery point, and select Restore.

In either case, for BMR, choose to restore from a boot CD.

Select the appropriate recovery point from the Rapid Recovery Core Console.

To perform a BMR from the Recovery Points page of a specific machine, see see About restoring volumes from a recovery point.

See steps 2 and 3 in the task Performing a bare metal restore using the Restore Machine Wizard.

You have two options:

  1. Use the Restore Machine wizard (see steps 2 and 3 in the task Performing a bare metal restore using the Restore Machine Wizard).
  2. Use the command line local_mount utility. If using the command line, do so following step 3 as described in this table. For more information, see Launching a bare metal restore for a Linux machine using the command line.

3

 

Manage the boot image. This step involves the following sub-steps:

For descriptive information on managing a boot CD image for a Windows machine, see Managing a Windows boot image.

For more descriptive information about managing the boot image for Linux, see Managing Linux partitions.

3a

 

  • Injecting missing drivers. If additional Ethernet controller, storage, network adapter, or other drivers are needed, inject drivers into the boot image.

NOTE: The process of injecting drivers is particularly relevant when restoring to dissimilar Windows hardware.

Windows machines may require driver injection, which can be performed on the Driver Injection page of the Restore Machine Wizard. See step 11 in the task Performing a bare metal restore using the Restore Machine Wizard.

The Live DVD has a variety of necessary drivers. Driver injection is typically not required for Linux machines.

3b

 

  • Obtaining a bootable ISO image. Define and create the image for Windows, or download the image for Linux bare metal restores.

Define the requirements for the boot ISO image from the Restore Machine Wizard. Define an export path and generate the boot CD to a location you specify. See steps 6 to 10 in the task Performing a bare metal restore using the Restore Machine Wizard.

Download the Linux Live DVD boot ISO image for the appropriate version of Rapid Recovery Core from the Downloads page on the QorePortal or the Rapid Recovery License Portal.

3c

 
  • Transmitting the image to an accessible location. Place the boot disk image in a location from which the BMR target machine can boot from it. Options include:
    • Transferring the ISO image to physical storage media (for example, a CD, DVD, or a bootable USB flash drive) and moving it to the physical BMR target server.
    • Storing the ISO image on a network location visible to the BMR target machine.
  

 

3d

 
  • Mounting the ISO image. Boot the BMR target machine from the ISO image.
    • If restoring a hypervisor guest, mount the boot media on the hypervisor.
    • If restoring a physical machine, access the boot menu options, point to the ISO boot image, and reboot.
   

4

 

Obtain URC login credentials. On the BMR target machine, launch the Universal Recovery Console (URC) user interface, and capture the session-unique IP address and authentication key credentials provided in the URC.

   If the machine is not able to find the IP address, you may be required to manually configure it.

5

 

Connect the BMR target machine to the Core Console. From the Core Console, connect to the BMR target machine using the credentials from the URC.

See step 14 in the task Performing a bare metal restore using the Restore Machine Wizard.

 

6

 

Map volumes to be restored. From the Core Console, map volumes to be created during the restore process.

See step 16 in the task Performing a bare metal restore using the Restore Machine Wizard.

If using complex LVM or RAID volumes, use the automatic mapping feature in the Restore Machine Wizard if you want to automatically create the appropriate partitions. Otherwise, the partitions must be created manually before you begin the restore process.

If mapping volumes manually, you must first ensure the number and size of volumes from the recovery point matches the number and size of volumes on the machine to which you are restoring data.

To manually create partitions, see Creating partitions on the destination drive.

7

 

Begin restoring data. The next step is to begin the actual restore process.

 

From the Core Console, start the restore process.

Starting the restore process can be performed both from the Restore Machine Wizard in the Core console and from the command line.

For more information on using the command line, see Launching a bare metal restore for a Linux machine using the command line.

8

 

Monitor the restore process. You can monitor the progress on the Events page. For more information, see Viewing events using tasks, alerts, and journal pages.

 

 

9

 

Verify the restore process. During the restore process, and when it completes, you can verify the restore process.

You can verify from the Core Console. See Verifying a bare metal restore.

You can verify from the Core Console or from the command line. For this second option, see Verifying the bare metal restore from the command line.

10

 

Complete your custom configuration. Optionally, establish any unique settings required for your new configuration.

    

Prerequisites for performing a bare metal restore for Windows or Linux machines

Before you can begin the process of performing a bare metal restore for a Windows machine, you must ensure that the following conditions and criteria exist:

  • Backups of the machine you want to restore. You must have a functioning Rapid Recovery Core containing recovery points of the protected server you want to restore.
  • Hardware to restore (new or old, similar or dissimilar). The BMR target machine must meet the installation requirements for a protected machine. For details, see the Rapid Recovery 6.3 Installation and Upgrade Guide. At minimum, the BMR target must have a 64-bit central processing unit (CPU). The Windows boot CD created by the Core uses the Windows Preinstallation Environment (Win PE) 10 operating system. Rapid Recovery BMRs are not compatible with x86-based CPUs. You can only perform a BMR on a 64-bit CPU.
  • Compatible storage drivers and network adapter drivers. If restoring to dissimilar hardware, then you must have compatible storage drivers and network adapter drivers for the target machine, including RAID, AHCI, and chipset drivers, as appropriate. These should be injected to the boot ISO image.
  • Bootable ISO image. You must have an ISO image from which to boot the BMR target machine. The steps are different for Windows or Linux BMR targets:
    • Windows: Generate a Boot CD. You must generate a boot CD ISO image from the Rapid Recovery Core from which to boot the BMR target machine. The boot CD contains the Rapid Recovery Universal Recovery Console UI. From the URC, you can connect the BMR target to the Core to perform the restore. If restoring from a network location, you may be able to boot directly from the ISO image.
    • Linux: Live DVD boot image. Obtain the Linux Live DVD ISO image, which includes a bootable version of Ubuntu Linux. You can download it from the QorePortal at https://qoreportal.quest.com/ or from the Rapid Recovery License Portal at https://rapidrecovery.licenseportal.com. If you have any issues downloading the Live DVD, contact Quest Data Protection Support. When booted from this ISO image, a simplified version of the Universal Recovery Console appears.
  • Image media and software. If you cannot boot directly from the ISO image, move the image to physical storage media such as a bootable USB flash drive, CD, or DVD. This process requires blank storage media and disk burning software, or software to create an ISO image or make one bootable. For BMR on Windows, if managing machines remotely using virtual network computing software such as UltraVNC, then you must have VNC Viewer.
  • Storage space and partitions, as appropriate. Ensure that there is enough space on the hard drive of the BMR target to create destination partitions to contain the volumes you want to restore from the recovery point source volumes. Any destination partition should be at least as large as the original source partition. To perform a BMR, you must restore at least the system volume.

    NOTE: If recovering LVM volumes and RAID volumes on Linux machines (including LVMs and RAIDs with partitions, and complex LVMs and RAIDs), you must either specify automatic volume mapping, or create the partitions prior to starting the BMR.

  • Windows: compatible partitions.Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows Server 2016 operating systems that are booted from FAT32 EFI partitions are available for protection or recovery, as well as are Resilient File System (ReFS) volumes. UEFI partitions are treated as simple FAT32 volumes. Incremental transfers are fully supported and protected. Rapid Recovery provides support of UEFI systems for BMR including automatic partitioning GPT disks, LVM and software-based RAID volumes.
  • Linux: Restore path. Identify the path for the restore, which is the path for the device file descriptor. To identify the path for the device file descriptor, use the fdisk command from a terminal window.

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.

NOTE: BMR for a Linux protected machine requires an ISO image called the Live DVD. For information about the Live DVD, see Managing a Linux boot image.

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 Boot CDs page of the Core Console accessible under the [More] (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

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.

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