TECHNICAL NOTES

WINDOWS SERVER 2008 OFFLINE SYSTEM RECOVERY USING WINDOWS SERVER BACKUP WITH AVAMAR
AVAMAR 5.0

TECHNICAL NOTE
P/N 300-010-190 REV A01

Table of Contents
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Installing Windows Server Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Creating a Windows Server Backup image for system disaster recovery . 4 Backup image files produced by Windows Server Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Backing up the WSB image to an Avamar Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 System recovery for Windows 2008 from a WSB backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Overview

Overview
This document describes how to use EMC Avamar in combination with Microsoft Windows Server Backup (WSB) to perform backup and offline disaster recovery of Windows Server 2008 operating systems. This document includes the following procedures to be done in preparation for the event of a disaster: Installing of the Windows Server Backup (WSB) feature. Creating a backup image of WSB for system disaster recovery on Windows Server 2008. Backing up of the WSB image to an Avamar server through the Avamar client for Windows File System Plug-In. Additionally, this document includes the following procedures in the event that a disaster has occurred: Using Avamar to recover this WSB image to a staging area on a network share. Recovering the new machine by booting via a Windows Server 2008 bootable DVD which is then configured to install the OS from the WSB backup image. NOTE: Windows Server 2008 R2 is not supported.

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Installing Windows Server Backup

Installing Windows Server Backup

Windows Server Backup is not a part of the default Windows operating system installation and must be installed as an optional feature. This can be done through the command line or the Windows Server Manager.

Installing Windows Server Backup from command line

To install Windows Server Backup from the command line: 1. Log in to the Windows 2008 server as an account with Administrators group privileges. 2. Click Start > Programs > Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator. 3. At the command prompt, type the following command: servermanagercmd -install Backup-Features

Installing Windows Server Backup using the Windows Server Manager

To install Windows Server Backup using the Windows Server Manager: 1. Log in to the Windows 2008 server as an account with Administrators group privileges. 2. Select Start > Programs > Server Manager, or right-click My Computer on the Desktop and select Manage. 3. Click Features in the left navigation pane. 4. If WSB is not listed in the Features Summary window, select Add Features. The Add Features Wizard displays. 5. In the Select Features window, select Windows Server Backup Features. Click Next. 6. Click Install. Close the window when the installation completes.

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Creating a Windows Server Backup image for system disaster recovery

Creating a Windows Server Backup image for system disaster recovery

A backup image for system disaster recovery can be created through the WSB command line tool wbadmin.exe or the WSB wizard.

Creating a Windows Server Backup image from the command line

You can create a backup image from the command prompt using either a local drive or a UNC format remote drive. In both cases, the volume must have enough disk space for the sum of all the space used on the critical volumes. If a remote drive is used, you must supply the username and password at the command line.

Creating a backup image on a local drive from the command line

To create a backup image from the command line, type the following command: wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:<drive letter> -allCritical -quiet For example: wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:E: -allCritical -quiet NOTE: <drive letter> cannot be a locally-mapped network share. -allCritical instructs the vbadmin.exe command to back up all critical volumes of the system. A critical volume is defined as any volume that has System States, or any part of them, installed, as well as any volume that has Windows services installed. -quiet is required to run in non-interactive mode.

Creating a backup image on a remote shared folder from the command line
To create a backup image from the command line, type the following command: wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:<target name> -allCritical -user:<user name> -password:<password> -quiet For example: wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:\\10.0.0.1\WSBShare -allCritical -user:administrator -password:password -quiet NOTE: <target name> cannot be a locally-mapped network share. -allCritical instructs the vbadmin.exe command to back up all critical volumes of the system. A critical volume is defined as any volume that has System States, or any part of them, installed, as well as any volume that has Windows services installed. -quiet is required to run in noninteractive mode. WINDOWS SERVER 2008 OFFLINE SYSTEM RECOVERY USING WINDOWS SERVER BACKUP AVAMAR TECHNICAL NOTE

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Creating a Windows Server Backup image for system disaster recovery

Creating a Windows Server Backup image from the Windows Server Backup wizard
To create a backup image from the Windows Server Backup wizard: 1. Select Administrative Tools-> Window Server Backup from the Start Menu. 2. From the Action menu of the WSB wizard, select Backup Once to start the Backup Once Wizard. 3. Click Next at the Backup Options page. 4. Select Full server (recommended) at the Select backup configuration page and click Next. 5. At the Specify destination type page: Check the Local drives radio button if you have a local drive that is a non-critical volume with enough disk space for the sum of all the space used on the critical volumes. Check the Remote shared folder radio button if you have a remote shared folder that has enough disk space for the sum of all the space used on the critical volumes. 6. Depending on what was selected in step 5, do one of the following: If Local drives was selected in step 5, at the Select backup destination page, select the local drive that meets the requirements specified in step 5 and click Next. If Remote shared folder was selected in step 5, at the Select remote folder page, specify the path of the shared folder that meets the requirements specified in step 5, using the format \\MyFileServer\SharedFolderName. Leave other options on this screen at their default settings and click Next. 7. At the Specify advanced option page, select VSS copy backup (recommended) and click Next. 8. At the Confirmation page, click Backup. 9. When the backup is complete, click Close at the Backup progress page.

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Backup image files produced by Windows Server Backup

Backup image files produced by Windows Server Backup

All WSB backups are stored in the target drive under the folder named WindowsImageBackup. The following are the list of files that contained in a typical full backup of wbadmin: <Drive Letter>:\WindowsImageBackup -><Server Name> Catalog BackupGlobalCatalog GlobalCatalog MediaId ->Backup <yyyy-mm-dd xxxxxx> 71c87636-c2e2-4ef2-9b97-ddf0ba7c0b5f_AdditionalFilesc3b9f3c75e52-4d5e-8b20-19adc95a34c7.xml 71c87636-c2e2-4ef2-9b97-ddf0ba7c0b5f_Components.xml 71c87636-c2e2-4ef2-9b97-ddf0ba7c0b5f_RegistryExcludes.xml 71c87636-c2e2-4ef2-9b97-ddf0ba7c0b5f_Writer4969d978-be4748b0-b100-f328f07ac1e0.xml 71c87636-c2e2-4ef2-9b97-ddf0ba7c0b5f_Writer4dc3bdd4-ab484d07-adb0-3bee2926fd7f.xml 71c87636-c2e2-4ef2-9b97-ddf0ba7c0b5f_Writer542da469-d3e1473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f.xml 71c87636-c2e2-4ef2-9b97-ddf0ba7c0b5f_Writera6ad56c2-b5094e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0.xml 71c87636-c2e2-4ef2-9b97-ddf0ba7c0b5f_Writerafbab4a2-367d4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485.xml 71c87636-c2e2-4ef2-9b97-ddf0ba7c0b5f_Writerbe000cbe-11fe4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4.xml 71c87636-c2e2-4ef2-9b97-ddf0ba7c0b5f_Writere8132975-6f934464-a53e-1050253ae220.xml f9208a0c-f7c3-11dd-bee7-806e6f6e6963.vhd

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Backing up the WSB image to an Avamar Server

Backing up the WSB image to an Avamar Server

This section describes three different options for backing up a WSB image to an Avamar server: Manually backing up the WSB backup image to an Avamar server. Scheduling a backup of the WSB backup image to an Avamar server. Automating the WSB image creation and backup to an Avamar server. Only the third option has a specific machine configuration that must be observed.

Manually backing up the WSB backup image to an Avamar server

To manually back up the WSB backup image to an Avamar server: 1. Install the Avamar client on the host machine where the WSB image is located. 2. Activate the client with an Avamar server. 3. Start the Avamar Administrator and click on Backup and Restore to start the console.

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Backing up the WSB image to an Avamar Server 4. In the Backup and Restore window, select the appropriate client and check the WindowsImageBackup folder in the file system tree view.

5. Select Backup Now from the Actions menu. 6. Click OK in the Options dialog to accept the default settings.

Scheduling a backup of the WSB backup image to an Avamar server

1. Install the Avamar client on the host machine where the WSB image is located. 2. Activate the client with an Avamar server. 3. Start the Avamar Administrator and click on Backup and Restore to start the console.

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Backing up the WSB image to an Avamar Server 4. Select Manage Datasets from the Tools menu to begin creating a dataset that includes the WindowsImageBackup folder on the client machine.

5. Select the client and click New. The New Dataset dialog will open.

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Backing up the WSB image to an Avamar Server 6. In the New Dataset dialog: (a) Select Enter Explicitly. (b) Select Windows File System from the Select Plug-In Type list. (c) Select Select Files and/or Folders and click the browse button. (d) In the Select Files and/or Folders dialog, select the appropriate client and check the WindowsImageBackup folder in the file system tree view. (e) Click OK to close the Select Files and/or Folders dialog. (f) Click OK again to close the New Dataset dialog. 7. Create a schedule to be used for backing up the WSB image: (a) From the main Avamar Administrator window, open the Policy console window. (b) Select Manage Schedules from the Tools menu item. The New Schedule dialog will open.

(c) Specify the appropriate backup scheduling options. See the Avamar System Administration Manual for more information. 8. Create a new Group which uses the Dataset created above: (a) From the main Avamar Administrator window, open the Policy console window. (b) Select New Group from the Action menu.

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Backing up the WSB image to an Avamar Server The New Group dialog will open.

(c) Enter a name for the group and uncheck Disabled. (d) Click Next.From the Select An Existing Dataset list, select the dataset created above and click Next.

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Backing up the WSB image to an Avamar Server (e) From the Select an Existing Schedule list, select the WSB schedule created above click Next.

(f) At the Retention Policy page, click Next to accept the defaults. (g) At the Select clients to include in the group page, select the domain with the desired client in the left tree pane, then select the appropriate client in the list on the right. Click Finish to create the new group. NOTE: To use an Avamar scheduled backup, it is important that the WSB backup is also scheduled such that it completes before the start time of the Avamar scheduled backup. It may be difficult to synchronize these two events, because the WSB backup time can vary greatly. In those cases, automate the WSB image creation and Avamar backup as described in Automating the WSB image creation and backup to an Avamar server (page 13).

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Backing up the WSB image to an Avamar Server

Automating the WSB image creation and backup to an Avamar server

In order to perform automated WSB image creation and backup to an Avamar server, the following configuration details must be observed: The Avamar client must reside on the Windows Server 2008 machine. A remote machine must contain a shared folder which will be used by wbadmin as the target location for the WSB image file. The Avamar dataset must include the UNC path for this share as the location of the data to backup. NOTE: The use of a UNC path in the dataset to specify the location of the remote WSB image to backup is only supported in the Avamar 4.1 and 5.0 clients. It is not supported in Avamar 4.1 Service Pack 1 clients. To automate the WSB image creation and backup to an Avamar server: 1. Create a script in C:\Program Files\avs\etc\scripts with an extension of .bat, .vbs or .js that calls the wbadmin.exe program, using the command line described in Creating a Windows Server Backup image from the command line (page 4). 2. Create a script in C:\Program Files\avs\etc\scripts that deletes the WSB images. If the WSB image is created on a network share, deleting the WindowsImageBackup folder will be sufficient. However, if the WSB is created on a local drive of the source client, the VSS snapshots may also need to be deleted. Tools such as vshadow or diskshadow can be used in addition to wbadmin. 3. Install the Avamar client on the host machine where the WSB image is located. 4. Activate the client with an Avamar server. 5. Start the Avamar Administrator and click on Backup and Restore to start the console. 6. Select Manage Datasets from the Tools menu. 7. Select the appropriate domain in the tree and click New.

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Backing up the WSB image to an Avamar Server The New Dataset dialog will open.

8. In the New Dataset dialog: (a) Select Enter Explicitly. (b) Select Windows File System from the Select Plug-In Type list. (c) Select Select Files and/or Folders and enter the full UNC path of the location of the network share where the WSB image will be created. (d) Click the + button to commit this path to the dataset. (e) Click OK to close the Select Files and/or Folders dialog. (f) Click OK again to close the New Dataset dialog. 9. Follow steps 7 and 8 from Scheduling a backup of the WSB backup image to an Avamar server (page 8) to create a schedule and group that use this dataset. 10. From the Backup & Restore console window, select Manage Datasets from the Tools menu. 11. Select the dataset created in step 8 click Edit. 12. Select Options tab.

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Backing up the WSB image to an Avamar Server 13. In the Select Plug-in Type list, select Windows File System.

14. Check the Show Advanced Options box. 15. Scroll to display the Pre-Script control. 16. In Run user-defined script at beginning of backup, type the name of the script that was created in step 1.

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Backing up the WSB image to an Avamar Server 17. Check the Abort backup if script fails box. 18. Scroll to display the Post-Script control. 19. In Run user-defined script at end of backup, type the name of the script that was created in step 2.

20. Check Exit process with script failure exitcode box. 21. Click OK.

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System recovery for Windows 2008 from a WSB backup

System recovery for Windows 2008 from a WSB backup

This section describes how to perform a system disaster recovery for Windows Server 2008 from a WSB backup image.

Requirements
Microsoft requires that the hardware being used to restore the system after a disaster is identical to the machine where the backups were performed. Microsoft KnowledgeBase article 249694 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/ 249694) has for more details on hardware requirements for recovery. Prior to using WSB to perform the disaster recovery, use the Avamar Console to restore the WSB backup to a network share that will be accessible from the new system.

Performing a system recovery for Windows 2008 from a WSB backup

1. Restore the WSB backup image from the Avamar server to a network share using the Avamar Console. 2. Configure the new machine to be bootable from a DVD by changing the BIOS setting, if necessary. 3. Boot the machine into installation mode using a Windows 2008 boot DVD. 4. At the initial Windows installation screen, click Next. 5. On the second screen, click Repair your computer. This will initiate WinRE (Recover Environment).

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System recovery for Windows 2008 from a WSB backup 6. When the System Recovery Option dialog is displayed, click Next.

7. Click Command Prompt to open a command window. The command prompt will be used later in this procedure. 8. Return to the System Recovery Option dialog and click Windows Complete PC Restore. The following error message will be displayed:

9. Click the Cancel button to clear the error message.

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System recovery for Windows 2008 from a WSB backup 10. Select Restore a different backup and click Next.

11. At the Select the location of the backup' page, click Advanced. 12. Click Search for a backup on the network. If Search for a backup on network is clicked for the first time, a security confirmation windows is displayed. Click Yes to continue. Once the searching dialog has completed, the Specify the location dialog will be displayed. 13. Click Cancel to clear the Specify the location dialog. 14. Return to the command prompt and type: netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces All available network interfaces will be displayed. If the Local Area Connection is not listed, you will need to install the manufacturer provided network driver, which can be done using the Install a driver link on the Windows Complete PC Restore Advanced dialog. 15. Configure the Local Area Connection to use the same static IP as the original machine by typing the following at the command prompt: start /w wpeinit 16. set the adapter to use by typing the following at the command prompt: netsh interface ipv4 set address name = "<idx>" source=static address=<staticIP> mask=<SubnetMask> gateway=<DefaultGateway> For example: netsh interface ipv4 set address name="2" source=static address=10.5.221.175 mask=255.255.255.0 gateway=10.5.221.1 17. Return to the Windows Complete PC Restore window and repeat steps 11 and 12. WINDOWS SERVER 2008 OFFLINE SYSTEM RECOVERY USING WINDOWS SERVER BACKUP AVAMAR TECHNICAL NOTE
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System recovery for Windows 2008 from a WSB backup 18. In the Specify the location dialog, type the location of the share where WSB backup resides and click OK. Log onto the network if required. NOTE: The path entered here needs to be the complete path of the shared folder that is the immediate parent folder of the WindowsImageBackup folder. 19. At the Select the location of the backup page, select the appropriate WSB backup image and click Next. 20. At the Select the backup to restore page, select the appropriate date and time of the WSB image backup and click Next. 21. At the Choose how to restore the backup page, select Format and repartition disks and click Next. 22. A dialog is displayed to confirm that you want to continue with formatting the drive. Check I confirm that I want to format the disks and restore the backup and click OK. 23. Click Finish. 24. After the restore completes (can take an hour or more), reboot the machine. It will eventually reboot on its own. 25. Proceed with other VSS application restores as necessary.

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