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Recovered NW server but still need to manually scan-in all client indexes?
I'm testing our DR plan for NetWorker server recovery. I have no problems installing a clean copy of Windows Server, then NetWorker, then recovering the RES folder from bootstrap - I restart the NW services and everything looks great.
I then boot one of the clients from the NW DR boot-CD, configure the NIC and it successfully connects to the newly-recovered NW server which reports that there are NO backups available for the client.
I can use NSRCK to scan-in the indexes for the client, then run the same process, and it works fine, but my understanding was that you ONLY need to scan-in client indexes if you want browsable savesets, want to restore individual files or whatever, I thought that just recovering the RES folder was enough to allow DR recovery of clients?
(hopefully my question makes some sense)
crazyrov
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January 20th, 2014 08:00
Disaster recovery of Windows requires the index files to be present on the server for backups to list the backup sets. I assume the index is required as the bare metal recovery first recovers a metadata file that is part of your DISASTER_RECOVERY:\ saveset. Even incase you are not going a baremetal recovery and try to recover the VSS savesets using saveset recovery the Windows server is not restore to the correct state. The system state restore should always be done as a browseable recovery using the networker user or the recovery prompt.
Its all as per the design of NetWorker? Why is it designed so ? Not sure about that.
greenblueyellow
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January 20th, 2014 08:00
but how, when there's no operating system?
Lucky85
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January 20th, 2014 08:00
No, if you run nsrck –L7 it will restore all indexes for you, it doesn’t scan tapes, it uses mm db to locate indexes…
Lukas
crazyrov
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January 20th, 2014 08:00
NetWorker by default does not skip index back up. Check your group properties, you might have select "No index save" in there that is why the index backup aint happening.
Recovering the index files from index backups after completing a bootstrap restore is one of the important steps in NetWorker DR.
I suggest you revisit your group configuration before a real DR.
Lucky85
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January 20th, 2014 08:00
Hello,
Go to NetWorker client/Operation/Saveset recovery. Than you will not need indexes…
Regards
Lukas
greenblueyellow
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January 20th, 2014 08:00
Seems strange that it's not possible to return the NW server to its original state (with indexes in-tact) as it purposely skips the indexes when backing up.
So does this mean that in a DR situation, I'd have to recover the NW server and then manually scan in indexes from 36 tapes (our weekly backup fills 36 tapes) before I can start recovering the clients?
Lucky85
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January 20th, 2014 08:00
If you use, Disaster recovery CD, I’m not sure if there is option to restore whole SS’s, probably you will have to recover indexes…
Lukas
greenblueyellow
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January 20th, 2014 08:00
Sorry I wasn't clear - yes the indexes are always saved to tape, but what I meant was the folder on the NW server that holds the indexes (in our case D:\Indexes\ ) is not backed up as part of that server's backup. There's an NSR.DIR file so that they are skipped.
I just don't understand why the NW server can't be restored bit-for-bit so that it already has the indexes on the hard drive?
Fair enough if it's by design, it just seems weird to me.
crazyrov
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January 20th, 2014 08:00
In bare metal recovery you cannot do saveset recovery. All the volumes that were found critical will have to be restored.
crazyrov
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January 20th, 2014 09:00
The index on filesystem are not backed up as they are open and locked by the nsrindexd during backup. Makes a lot of sense to take a back of the metadata as a separately saveset making it easier to locate n restore.
I personally like the way it designed.
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