NetWorker for Windows: How to save a bootstrap to an optical device

Summary: NetWorker for Windows How to save a bootstrap to an optical device.

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Instructions

OVERVIEW:

This KB is intended for Microsoft Windows NetWorker servers. For Linux based instructions, see: NetWorker for Linux: How to save a bootstrap to an optical device

  1. Create an empty file
  2. Create a networker device, media type: Optical, the name points to the empty file
  3. Label the optical device into a pool for bootstraps (backup type pool).
  4. Create a bootstrap (nsrpolicy start for the "Server Protection" policy).
  5. If it has already been saved to other than an optical device, clone or stage the bootstrap to an optical device
  6. Dismount the device, and create a compressed file
  7. Submit the compressed file (attach the result to the Request)


STEPS:

NOTE: The following is an example session of how to work through the overview from the command line. When following this procedure, ensure to replace the device, group, and pool names with the values from your environment. 
  1. Open an Administrator PowerShell prompt on the NetWorker server.
  2. Find where NetWorker is installed:
Get-Process nsrexecd | Format-List Path
Example: 
PS C:\Users\Administrator.NETWORKER> Get-Process nsrexecd | Format-List Path

Path : C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\bin\nsrexecd.exe
  1. Change directories to the NetWorker install path's tmp directory using the cd command:

cd "<path to nsr>"

Example:

cd "C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\tmp"

  1. In the tmp directory, create an empty file called bootstrap:

New-Item bootstrap -type file 

Example:

PS C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\tmp> New-Item bootstrap -type file


    Directory: C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\tmp


Mode                 LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                 -------------         ------ ----
-a----         4/17/2025  10:55 AM              0 bootstrap
  1. Create an optical device and pool resources in NetWorker, using the nsradmin command prompt:

nsradmin

create type: nsr device; name: "<path to networker>\\nsr\\tmp\\bootstrap"; media type: optical

create type: nsr pool; name: optical-bootstrap; devices: "<path to networker>\\nsr\\tmp\\bootstrap"

Example: 
PS C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\tmp> nsradmin
NetWorker administration program.
Use the "help" command for help, "visual" for full-screen mode.
nsradmin> create type: nsr device; name: "C:\\Program Files\\EMC NetWorker\\nsr\\tmp\\bootstrap"; media type: optical
                        type: NSR device;
                        name: \
"C:\\Program Files\\EMC NetWorker\\nsr\\tmp\\bootstrap";
                  media type: optical;
Create? y
created resource id 51.0.236.26.0.0.0.0.121.196.254.103.192.168.0.11(1)
nsradmin> create type: nsr pool; name: optical-bootstrap; devices: "C:\\Program Files\\EMC NetWorker\\nsr\\tmp\\bootstrap"
                        type: NSR pool;
                        name: optical-bootstrap;
                     devices: \
"C:\\Program Files\\EMC NetWorker\\nsr\\tmp\\bootstrap";
Create? y
created resource id 52.0.236.26.0.0.0.0.121.196.254.103.192.168.0.11(1)
nsradmin> quit
  1. Use the nsrmm command to label and mount a volume for the new optical device:

    nsrmm -lm -b "optical-bootstrap" -f "<path to networker>\nsr\tmp\bootstrap" bootstrap.001
     
    Example:
PS C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\tmp> nsrmm -lm -b "optical-bootstrap" -f "C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\tmp\bootstrap" optical-bootstrap.001
PS C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\tmp> nsrmm
optical disk optical-bootstrap.001 mounted on C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\tmp\bootstrap, write enabled
  1. Use the nsrpolicy command to find the existing pool for the "Server Protection" policy:

Example:

PS C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\tmp> nsrpolicy action display -p "Server Protection" -w "Server backup" -A "Server db backup"
{
    "actionName": "Server db backup",
    "actionSpecific": {
        "actions": {
            "actionType": "server backup",
            "asbDestinationPool": "Default",
            "asbDestinationStorageNode": "nsrserverhost",



.
.
  1. Use the nsrpolicy command to change the pool to optical-bootstrap:
PS C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\tmp> nsrpolicy action update server-backup -p "Server Protection" -w "Server backup" -A "Server db backup" -o optical-bootstrap
121404:nsrpolicy: action 'Server db backup' was successfully updated
    1. Use the nsrpolicy command to start a Server Protection backup:
       
      nsrpolicy start -p "Server Protection" -w "Server Backup"
    2. Once the backup completes, use the mminfo command to confirm the bootstrap is successfully saved to the optical device:

    mminfo -B

    Example:

    PS C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\tmp> mminfo -B
      date     time       ssid         file record volume                device
   4/17/2025 11:30:43 AM  4261486243      0     4  optical-bootstrap.001 C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\tmp\bootstrap
PS C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\tmp>
    1. Use the nsrmm command to unmount the optical bootstrap device:

    nsrmm -u optical-bootstrap.001

    Example:

    PS C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\tmp> nsrmm -u optical-bootstrap.001
Unmounted device: C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\tmp\bootstrap
    1. Zip the bootstrap file from the tmp directory:

     Compress-Archive -Path bootstrap -DestinationPath bootrstrap.zip

    Example:

    PS C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\tmp> Compress-Archive -Path bootstrap -DestinationPath bootrstrap.zip

PS C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\tmp> dir | findstr bootrstrap
-a----         4/17/2025  11:37 AM          46084 bootrstrap.zip
    NOTE: In this example, bootstrap.zip can be used to transport the bootstrap media to another machine. To repeat the process for further (future) bootstraps, if the resources have not been deleted, re-label the volume, re-run the policy, unmount the device, and "Compressed (zipped) folder" it up again.
    1. Reconfigure the Server Protection policy to use the original pool as per the output collected in step 7.

    nsrpolicy action update server-backup -p "Server Protection" -w "Server backup" -A "Server db backup" -o <POOL_NAME>

    Example:

    PS C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\tmp> nsrpolicy action update server-backup -p "Server Protection" -w "Server backup" -A "Server db backup" -o Default
121404:nsrpolicy: action 'Server db backup' was successfully updated

    Additional Information

    How To Export the NetWorker Media Database Using nsrmmdbasm

    Affected Products

    NetWorker

    Products

    NetWorker
    Article Properties
    Article Number: 000020838
    Article Type: How To
    Last Modified: 17 Apr 2025
    Version:  5
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