Looking for guidance on procedures for server backup and disaster-recovery restore

Protocol for server restore post crash

I recently purchase v8 of the server product for a client. My principal interest is being able to restore a system quickly post crash or in the event of Windows becoming totally corrupted. I have a couple of questions:

1. Will a restore from the bootable CD recreate all imaged partitions and restore them such that the server is totally functional as of the image date?
2. If Exchange and/or SQL Server are installed is it better to image via bootable CD or will simply stopping services suffice?
3. For servers running only Win2000/Win2003 performing only file and print services can a "hot" image be used for disaster recovery where the disk subsystem has been replaced (Backup Exec services using MSDE would be active)?
4. Are there any known "gotchas" connected to this product that can be worked around prior to slamming into them in a restore situation?

Thanks so much for any information.

 

I recently purchase v8 of the server product for a client. My principal interest is being able to restore a system quickly post crash or in the event of Windows becoming totally corrupted. I have a couple of questions:

1. Will a restore from the bootable CD recreate all imaged partitions and restore them such that the server is totally functional as of the image date?
2. If Exchange and/or SQL Server are installed is it better to image via bootable CD or will simply stopping services suffice?
3. For servers running only Win2000/Win2003 performing only file and print services can a "hot" image be used for disaster recovery where the disk subsystem has been replaced (Backup Exec services using MSDE would be active)?
4. Are there any known "gotchas" connected to this product that can be worked around prior to slamming into them in a restore situation?

Thanks so much for any information.

 

Re: Protocol for server restore post crash

Yes, if the entire disk has been imaged. If only some of the partitions are included in the image, the MBR will not be included. To include the MBR, you must check the box beside the disk name.

Suspending Exchange and SQL should do the trick. If you haven't already seen it, you may find this article to be of interest in describing exactly how True Image works. It sounds as if you may have already FAQ #19 which discusses database suspension.

That should not be a problem though you may have a driver issue if the entire disk subsystem including controller has been replaced with something completely different. FAQ #30 addresses the 'restoring to different hardware" question.

Take note of my comments regarding inclusion of the MBR in an image.

Always verify images as they are taken.

I'm sure someone else will have something to add to that list.

 

Re: Looking for guidance on procedures for server backup and disaster-recovery restor

Thanks for the comments. I've intended to fool around with one of my servers, nuking it and then restoring, but not having done that I'm a little anxious about affording full trust to the product for my clients. I had in the past used a floppy-bootable approach with Ghost and that worked fine but the image was always made cold. I'm a little more concerned with hot images as created by this product. I guess I've just ran into too many gotchas over the years in restoring systems with even good software like Backup Exec. My hope with this product is that I can make routine images as a baseline and if a rebuild is required restore from the most recent image first and then restore data from the most recent BE backup. While I'm somewhat confident with the product for a generic file and print server, I'm a bit more concerned with respect to ones running SQL and Exchange.

Thanks again.