VERITAS NetBackup 6.0 Bare Metal Restore Technical Presentation

VERITAS NetBackup 6.0 Bare Metal Restore Technical Presentation

Ray Schafer Bare Metal Restore Product [email protected]

Symantec Solutions © 2005 Symantec Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Agenda

Solution OverviewBusiness Challenges Traditional System Recovery Challenges

VERITAS NetBackup Bare Metal Restore™ Technology Overview Installation and Configuration Overview Daily Operations Recovery Scenarios

Key Concepts and FeaturesQuestions


Acronyms Used In This Presentation

BMR – VERITAS NetBackup Bare Metal Restore™

NBU – VERITAS NetBackup

BMR Client – BMR protected NBU client

SRT – Shared Resource Tree

DDR – Dissimilar Disk Restore

DSR – Dissimilar System Restore

Config – The BMR Client’s configuration stored in the BMR database


NetBackup Bare Metal Restore™ - Solution Overview

NetBackup is the first enterprise backup solution that has an integrated bare metal recovery option capable of making use of ordinary backup data to automatically restore a system.

The system being restored does not need an Operating System installed on the disk drives.

The BMR option will allow NetBackup to restore a system to the exact configuration that existed at any point in time for which a valid backup image exists – either full or incremental, including synthetic backups.

The BMR option allows the recovery of Windows Systems to completely different hardware.

The Business Challenges of System Recovery


System recovery takes too longTraditional methods for system recovery are complex and require highly skilled staffRecovery of Windows systems to the same or different hardware is very difficultRecovery procedures and tools vary from platform to platformSystem configurations and changes are not often trackedSystem recovery is complex and often unsuccessful

Business Challenges


Business Challenges

Mins Hrs Days Wks

Recovery TimeRecovery Time

Install/Configure Hardware

Restore Data

Outage

Return to Service

Install or Recover OS

Recovery Timeline


Traditional Recovery Methods

Traditional approaches to business recovery: Reinstall OS and restore data from backup Recover system from imaging technology Home grown or exotic solutions


Shortcomings of Traditional Approaches

Require additional training and process maintenance Challenge to train support teams Maintain the documentation of all processes and procedures required to recover

each system type Home Grown Solutions must be maintained as technology evolves

Generally not considered an enterprise solution Manually intensive procedural process Cannot be leveraged across all platforms Not integrated with existing storage management solution – duplicate data

backups

Lack of scalability Places extra burden on human and machine resources

Questionable data integrity and consistency


What Does The BMR Option Bring To Enterprise System Recovery?

A common method for recovery of most major platforms AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, Windows 2000, XP, 2003

A method of recovery that results in consistent and functional systems Data, OS, and applications are in sync OS and application patches & configurations are recovered

A Recovery solution that: Is easy to manage and administer Uses the data already stored in NetBackup to recover the system

from any incremental or full backup Scales easily when additional systems are added Provides an unusually high degree of automation for recovery


Additional BMR Benefits

Support for multiple technologies VERITAS Storage Foundation support (Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, Windows) AIX LVM, HP-UX LVM, Linux LVM, Windows Dynamic Disks Windows mass-storage support (RAID, SCSI) SAN support (Windows 2000, 2003), coexistence (UNIX)

Centralized administration Using the NBU Administration GUI An extensive command line interface also available

One Button Application Recovery (through BMR External Procedures Feature)


BMR Recovery vs. Traditional Recovery

Step

3.

2.

1.

Step

9.

8.

7.

6.

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

Traditional Recovery

Bare Metal Restore

RebootReboot

Reboot

Reboot

Reboot

Load tape(s) and restore

Reload OS

Reload backup software

Collect all media

Repair hardware

Server R

ecovery Time

Click “Prepare to Restore”

Repair hardware


Recovery Time Using BMR

Recovery time markedly reduced

Recovery is fully automated – allowing simultaneous multiple restores

Mins Hrs Days

Recovery TimeRecovery Time

Outage Return to Service

1 2t t

BMR

Traditional Methods

Install/Configure Hardware

VERITAS NetBackup Bare Metal Restore™ Technology Overview


BMR Primary Functions

Captures system configuration Physical layout of disks, TCP/IP and NBU configuration Windows disk and network device drivers Changes captured with every scheduled backup

Provides restoration environment Enables diskless boot Supplies tools and utilities

Creates customized restoration procedure Builds partitions on drives to be restored Re-creates original layout of filesystems, volumes Restores original OS from NetBackup


BMR Logical Components

BMR Master Server Option Installed on the NBU Master Server BMR database, administration, logging Creates custom restore procedures Allocates/de-allocates recovery resources Holds User-provided External Procedures

BMR Boot Server Installed on any NBU Server or Client Houses the Shared Resource Trees (SRTs) that contain the OS

utilities/images, NBU software, other software such as VERITAS Volume Manager

Provides the Client boot images

NBU Client Collects configuration information when directed to do so by the

NetBackup policy


BMR Shared Resource Tree (SRT)

SRT’s are created on the BMR Boot ServerAn SRT Is: Collection of OS files, NBU software, other

programs, such as VERITAS Volume Manager Created during BMR installation Used to provide a temporary restoration

environment until the OS is restored from NBU

An SRT Is Not: Backup image copied from BMR clients

A single SRT can be used simultaneously by multiple BMR clients

SRT 1

SRT 2


BMR Installation and Configuration

No new hardware required The BMR Master component is installed on NetBackup Master server The BMR Boot Server component can be installed on the NetBackup

Master and/or on a NetBackup client

Small footprint Minimal processing needed Well defined storage requirement

Flexible Architecture Multiple BMR Boot servers Choice of installation options Choice of recovery mechanism


Integration Points With NetBackup

The NBU Client includes the required BMR client software. There is nothing to install on the NBU client.

The BMR Client agent (BMRSavecfg) is run by the NBU Scheduler and is automatically kicked off at the start of a backup if the BMR policy attribute is selected.

The BMRSavecfg Job will show up as it’s own job in the Activity Monitor

The BMRSavecfg Job will complete before the backup streams start A failure by BmrSavecfg will not stop the backup



The BMR Option is licensed by NBU License Keys The BMR node of the Admin Console does not show up if BMR is not

licensed The BMR Policy attribute is disabled if BMR is not licensed

BMR uses NBU’s level of Internationalization / Localization

BMR uses VERITAS Unified Logging (VxUL)

Online help is available for the Admin Console, and the standalone Windows wizards.



The BMR Database is covered by the NBU Master Server Catalog Backups

All of BMR’s volatile Master Server data is stored in the BMR database; including restore scripts, and external procedures.

Boot Server data (SRTs and packages) are NOT covered by the Catalog Backup.

The BMR Master Server is designed to be cluster-able, and follows the same rules as the rest of the NBU Master Server.

• Executables need to be in place

• The Database (catalog) needs to be failed over.


Enabling BMR Protection For NBU Clients

NBU Client

NBU Master Server

1. Install and/or initialize the BMR DB component on the NBU Master Server

2. Enable the BMR option in the NBU Policy

3. Perform an initial full backup

BMR Protected

With BMR Option


BMR Recovery Environment Configuration

NBU Client

NBU Master ServerWith BMR Option 1. Install BMR Boot Server(s)

2. Create Shared Resource Trees (SRTs)3. Optionally Create BMR Media Boot CDsBMR Boot Server

BMR Protected


NBU Client

BMR Daily Operations

1. Scheduled backup begins

BMR Boot Server

2. NBU Client saves it’s configuration3. NBU Client configuration stored on NBU Master Server4. Normal backup is performed

NBU Master Server With BMR Option

No manual action needed for daily operations!

NBU Media Server


NBU Client

NBU Master with BMR Option

BMR System Recovery

BMR Server digests client configuration

BMR Boot Server

NBU Media Server

1. Prepare to Restore (optionally edit the client configuration for DSR)

2. Boot the BMR Client (Network or Media)

BMR Server creates custom restore proceduresBMR Server allocates SRT on Boot Server

Client accesses SRT from the BMR Boot server or from the CD-Based SRTTemporary Win installation (Win only)

Client reboots into restored partition

•Temporary Win installation is removed (Win only)

Client configures diskClient restores data from NBU

Final cleanup is performed upon first login:•BMR Server de-allocates SRT on Boot Server

•DSR Tasks are completed (Win only)


BMR 6.0 Supported Platforms

Clients: AIX, HP-UX, Solaris (Sparc), Windows (2000, XP, 2003), Red Hat

Linux, SUSE Linux

Servers: AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, Windows (2000 and 2003), Red Hat Linux,

SUSE Linux

VERITAS Storage Foundation AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, Windows

Refer to the support matrices at http://support.veritas.com for the latest information

http://support.veritas.com/

Screen Shots of VERITAS NetBackup 6.0 Bare Metal Restore


BMR Management Node in the NBU Administration Console


Prepare to Restore Operation


Prepare to Restore Dialog


BMR Tasks – Queued Restore Task


Restore Task Properties Dialog

Advanced Features of VERITAS NetBackup 6.0 Bare Metal Restore


VERITAS NetBackup 6.0 Bare Metal Restore™Dissimilar Disk Restore (DDR)

BMR’s DDR feature allows a UNIX or Windows System to be recovered to a system with completely different disks.

This is used to recover to a system where the disks have changed. It can be used to change partition types, sizes, and disk location. Modeled after the VEA GUI.

It can also be invoked to change the disk layouts before the disk partitioning/formatting is done.

The interface is consistent across all platforms


Bare Metal Restore Clients Node - Volumes


BMR Configuration Editor - Change Volumes Screen – Disk View


BMR Configuration Editor - Change Volumes Screen – Table View


Windows Dissimilar System Restore

BMR allows Windows systems to be recovered to dissimilar hardware: CPU speeds and number of CPU’s can differ HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) can be incompatible Mass Storage Drivers can differ Network Interface cards can be different IP Address changes can be made NBU configuration can be changed


The BMR Client “config” – The key to Windows Dissimilar System Restore (DSR)

Windows DSR is made possible by a BMR concept known as the Client Configuration – commonly referred to as the “config”.

The BMR client config can be thought of as an abstraction of the system. It is stored as an entity on the NBU Master Server in the BMR database.

The client’s original configuration is called “current” and is locked for editing to ensure that the original system can always be recovered.

The “current” config can be copied and the copy can be extensively edited: Disk and Network Drivers, IP addresses, Network Routes, NBU Client

configuration, and disk volumes can be changed


BMR Configuration Editor

The BMR Configuration editor can be used to edit a configuration in the BMR database

The original system does not need to be available Editing can be done after the system has suffered an outage The destination hardware can be decided upon after an outage of the

original system

The resulting edited configuration can be used in the “Prepare to Restore” operation to recover to dissimilar hardware

The following screens in the configuration editor are used to change the Disk and Network Drivers in the config


Configuration Editor - Summary Screen


Change Drivers Screen


Additional Configuration Editing

The Configuration Editor allows other changes to be made: IP and Network changes

• Interface IP addresses/netmasks can be added or removed

• Additional IP aliases can be defined on a single interface

• DNS Servers can be changed or added

• Network routes can be changed, added, or removed. NetBackup Client configuration

• Additional Media Servers can be added

• IP Addresses of Master and Media Servers can be changed

• IP Address of Client can be changed


&ANSWERS

QUESTIONS

Documents

VERITAS NetBackup 6.0 Bare Metal Restore Technical Presentation