For best results, it is recommended that you plan your strategy for disaster recovery before an asset fails. Following is a high-level overview of the steps you must complete to implement hot bare metal protection for your Linux assets. It identifies steps to complete before and after an asset fails.
Perform the following before an asset fails
Step 1: | Review Prerequisites for Linux hot bare metal recovery to verify that the hot BMR can be used for the Linux asset. If hot BMR cannot be used, see Linux cold bare metal protection??? |
Step 2: | Create the hot BMR ISO and boot media as described in Creating the hot BMR ISO and boot media. (You must create this media for each asset you are protecting with hot BMR.) |
Step 3: | Test the boot media as described in Testing hot BMR media. |
Step 4: | Run periodic asset-level full backups that include all files and directories, as described in To create a file-level backup job. (All files and directories are included unless you opt to manually exclude them.) |
Step 5: | (Optional/recommended) Perform a test recovery as described in ??pull info from 'Considerations for bare metal test restores' and put in performing hot BMR topic??Implementing Linux hot bare metal protection. |
To recover a failed asset
Step 6: | Perform hot BMR using the procedures in??? Performing unified bare metal recovery. |
Consider the prerequisites for Linux hot BMR as you plan your disaster recovery strategy. For Windows operating systems not supported by integrated BMR, see Windows image-based bare metal recovery.
Requirement |
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Supported operating systems |
Recovery to identical hardware and virtual machines is supported for the Linux distributions listed in the Unitrends Compatibility and Interoperability Matrix. Recovery to dissimilar hardware is not supported. |
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The backup used for recovery must meet these requirements:
To check whether the system state is included in a backup, run the Backup History report and select the backup in the list. In the Backup Status: Report Entry dialog, check the Output area for System State Excluded or Included. If system state was excluded, you need to modify the backup job to include all critical volumes to create a backup that can be used for integrated BMR. For details, see To create a file-level backup job. |
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Hot BMR ISO and boot media |
To recover the asset, you must boot the recovery target machine from the asset's bare metal boot media. Custom media is required for each asset. You cannot create the boot media after an asset has failed. To prepare for hot BMR, create the media as described in Implementing Linux hot bare metal protection??? and keep it in a safe place.
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Linux configuration |
??All disks present in the system configuration during creation of the bare metal media are configured and used for recovering data. ??WHERE TO PUT THIS?IT MAY HAVE TO DO WITH WHY YOU CAN'T CHANGE VARIOUS CONFIG SETTINGS?? The Linux asset must be configured as follows:
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Network adapter?? |
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Drivers |
Drivers needed for integrated BMR are determined by the operating system of the asset you are recovering and the operating system and hardware of the target recovery machine. You might need to add drivers during different stages of the recovery.
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Recovery target machine |
The machine that you recover to must meet these requirements:
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This info is from Win integrated BMR...do any of these things apply to Linux? Use the procedures in Performing unified bare metal recovery for the following recovery scenarios:
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You must create a custom ISO image and boot media for each Linux asset. An eligible full backup is required to create the ISO and boot media. Be sure you have a full backup that meets the criteria in An eligible asset-level backup before you begin.
It is recommended to create a new ISO and boot media in these cases:
• | After upgrading the Linux agent |
• | After modifying the operating system and/or system critical volumes. |
• | After installing or removing programs. |
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• | stick this in the procedure somewhere: For assets with a default network adapter with a name other than eth0, you might need to edit the configuration file when creating the bare metal media. For details, see KB 1100. The KB says do this if the asset has no IP address at boot time or if it crashes when you attempt to change the IP address. |
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??THIS BELOW FROM OLD DOC MAKES IT SOUND LIKE THE FULL IS USED TO CREATE THE ISO & DURING RECOVERY??
You can use your Linux master backups to create bare metal media, which can then be used to restore your server to similar hardware. Dissimilar bare metal restores are not supported for Linux assets. Ensure you have a successful master backup of the Linux server you wish to restore. This will be used to create your bare metal media. If you do not have a successful master backup of your Linux server, bare metal restore is not possible.
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Note: For assets with a default network adapter with a name other than eth0, you might need to edit the configuration file when creating the bare metal media. For details, see KB 1100.
1 | If you have a physical Unitrends appliance, insert a blank CD into the Unitrends system's optical drive. This is not necessary for a virtual Unitrends Backup appliance. |
2 | From the console interface of the Unitrends system, select option 4 - Advanced Options. |
Note: You may remotely access the Unitrends system using an SSH asset and issue the command /usr/bp/bin/dpuconfig to access the console interface.
3 | Select option 1 - Bare Metal Media Creation. |
4 | Select option 1 - Linux Hot Bare Metal Media. |
5 | Use the arrow keys to select the desired Linux asset. |
6 | The media is created. For physical Unitrends systems, it is burned to the media you inserted into the Unitrends system in Step 1. For virtual Unitrends systems, an .iso is created in the baremetals share, accessible from \\<IP of your Unitrends system>\baremetals. |
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1 | Log in to the Windows server and launch the Bare Metal Media program: |
From the Start Menu, select All Programs > Unitrends Agent, then right-click Bare Metal Media and select Run as Administrator.
2 | Enter the following in the Unitrends System Settings fields: |
• | System Name - The hostname of the Unitrends appliance that is protecting this Windows asset. |
• | System IP - IP of the Unitrends appliance that is protecting this Windows asset. |
• | Select a device in the Select a backup device list. If you are storing backups on the default device, select D2DBackups. |
3 | Review the Asset Settings. These are populated by default, and will be the network settings that your server will have after the recovery process. |
4 | If necessary, check the DHCP checkbox. This will cause the asset to reach out to a DHCP server and grab an available IP address upon booting from the bare metal CD. Leave the firewall and resolve asset IPs boxes unchecked. These features are deprecated and should not be used. |
5 | Review the path in the Save Windows Bare Metal ISO to area. If desired, you can change this path to save to a different location. The default location is C:\PCBP_BM\WinBm.dir\cdrom_images. |
6 | Review the Save Windows Bare Metal ISO As area to see the name of the ISO that will be created. If desired, you can modify the ISO file name. |
7 | Click Create ISO. |
8 | On the Continue page, check for the message All tests are successful, then click Yes to continue. |
If you do not see a success message, modify settings as required, then Create ISO.
9 | Do one of the following (to determine whether WinPE 2.0 or 1.5 is used for your asset, see Implementing Linux hot bare metal protection above): |
For... |
Procedure |
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WinPE 2.0 (Vista and later) |
The system creates the ISO. Proceed to step 10. Note: You will have the ability to inject any drivers while performing recovery. |
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WinPE 1.5 (2003/R2 and earlier) |
You are asked if you would like to insert additional drivers:
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10 | The system creates the ISO and the Success page displays. |
• | If this is a physical asset (or if you will recover to a physical asset), burn the ISO to CD. Refer to the documentation for the burner you are using to walk you through the process of creating a bootable CD from an ISO image, which is not the same as burning an ISO image to a CD. Store the boot CD in a safe place. |
• | If this is a virtual machine (VM) asset (or if you will recover to a VM), store the ISO image in a safe place. |
11 | Test the media as described in Implementing Linux hot bare metal protection. |
To ensure the boot media you created functions properly, use this procedure to verify that the disk can be used to connect to the Unitrends appliance and recover a bare metal backup.
12 | Shut down your Windows server and boot it from its ISO CD. |
The server boots and launches the Integrated Bare Metal Recovery Wizard. This can take a few minutes.
13 | Click Bare Metal Hardware Confirmation in the top right. The Bare Metal Hardware Confirmation dialog displays. |
14 | Check these boxes to select the test options: Ping server, Quick connect server, and Disk read (MBR). |
15 | Click Start to begin the test. |
16 | The results of your test display. If you see Success, click OK and reboot your server into its operating system. If you see Windows Bare Metal Quick Test Failed, do one or all of the following: |
• | Ensure that your server and the Unitrends appliance are able to communicate on your network. |
• | Verify that the Windows server's hostname and IP address in WinPE matches the settings on the Unitrends appliance: |
– | To view settings in WinPE, select Bare Metal Setup from the main menu. |
– | To view settings on the Unitrends appliance, log in to the appliance, go to the Configure > Appliances page, select the appliance and click the Network tab below. On the Network tab, select the adapter (typically eth0) and click Edit Hosts File. |
• | Verify that the Windows server uses MBR partitions. To do this, boot into the Windows operating system, open the Start menu, right-click Computer, click Manage, expand Storage, and click Disk Management. For each of the disks (Disk 0, Disk 1, etc.), right-click and select Properties > Volumes, and verify that Partition Style is Master Boot Record (MBR). |