I've seen in mention on the list a few times that when the TSM's system object
backup runs it will backup the files in system32 every time even if they
haven't changeed. I thought I read somewhere that when backing up the system
state an incremental backup is taken of system32. Of course now that I want to
refer to what I read I can't find it so maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Andy could
clarify this for us?
ASR is only available on Win2003 not on other versions of windows. It is a new
feature. I did some testing using the TSM client with it and it works quite
nicely. In my world though I care more about recovery onto dissimilar hardware
so ASR as nice as it is isn't what I use.
Cristie has a product called BMR that works with TSM. I have run a bunch of
test with it to similar hardware and it works nicely as well. The latest
version is supposed to support dissimilar hardware but haven't tested that
function yet. It basically uses a CD running linix to boot from and then runs a
restore of your C:\. After a reboot it converts things from FAT32 to NTFS if
necessary. This might sound like extra work but you can download a trial from
their website. It really does speed up recovery because you don't have to
start by first installing Windows 200X.
At one point there were issues with using TSM to recover the system state. I
can't speak for others but I have found TSM's backup of the systemstate to be
very solid over the past year. I haven't tested every patch of course but of
the 10 or more I did everythign worked.
That being said I am also a person that likes to have a backup to my backup so
I also use NTBackup to backup the systemstate to a flat file which I then
backup with TSM. I started doing this when TSM was having issues restoreing
the system state. I continue to do it today because I believe that if it ever
has a problem again I won't know until I need it and having this backup is my
CYA. Of course useing NTBackup does backup the entire system32 each time.
"Prather, Wanda" <Wanda.Prather AT JHUAPL DOT EDU> wrote:
Kevin,
I agree with Richard's evaluation completely. The TSM backup/restore of the
System Object works ... umm.. well, it works when it works. Many versions
of the client code have had problems doing restore of the System Object. ( I
think the client has to call MS API's 6-7 times to get/restore the data, and
there are just too many opportunities for problems.)
That being said, we've done it many times.
The problem with relying on the Ghost image as you describe, is that you
aren't likely to get that CD cut daily - or even if you do, it's a lot of
work. Which means you would be restoring an OLD copy of the registry, which
isn't usually what you want.
And, there are times when you NEED to backup the system object:
If you have workstations (not servers) where the backup occurs while the
user is logged on, the backup of the user profile occurs as part of the
backup of the HKEY-CURRENT-USER registry key, because ntuser.dat (and other
files) are locked. And the same thing applies if you have servers with
logged-on accounts other than "system" and need to be able to recover those
profiles. Now, based on the traffic on this list, I think only a small
fraction of all the TSM clients in the world have these issues, but
nonetheless some of us have to deal with them.
BUT, if you rely on the restore of the system object, you can't install ANY
client patch without THOROUGHLY testing your bare metal restore. In the
last 2 years, we have had consistent success with 4.2.0.0 and 5.1.6.2.
Another issue: The TSM backup of the System Object on Win2K copies ALL the
system protected files daily, even though they haven't changed. That means
an additional 1800 (approx.) entries per client per day in your TSM DB. Can
be VERY painful if you have hundreds of Win2K clients.
SO, here's what we do:
We create a Ghost image of our "standard" desktop and server configurations.
It contains Win2K, a TSM client, and some other stuff that we always want
installed. That way reloading the Ghost image is faster than starting from
scratch with the WIn2K install media.
We back up the system object for all systems.
On servers, we ALSO create a Win2K scheduled task that does an ntbackup of
the system object to a flat file daily. TSM then backs up the flat file.
(It's easy, costs you almost nothing, and gives you an alternative means of
recovery.)
For workstation BMR, we restore the ghost image, then use TSM to restore the
C: drive, then restore the SYSTEM OBJECT, and restore the user profile if
necessary.
For server BMR, we restore the ghost image, then the Windows admins use the
ntbackup copy to restore system state. If we just want to restore the
Registry, we use the TSM System Object restore.
I know there are others on the list that do NOT back up the system object
with TSM at all and use the ntbackup method only, to reduce the load on the
network and the TSM server DB.
We haven't starting working with ASR yet, we are still all Win2K. If you
search the archives of this list at search.adsm.org, you can find numerous
comments from people who are already working with it.
That should give you some ideas to work with...
Wanda (my opinion and no body else's) Prather
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
443-778-8769
"Intelligence has much less practical application than you'd think" -
Dilbert/Scott Adams
-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Godfrey [mailto:kevingodfrey AT CATHS.CO DOT UK]
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2004 10:15 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Bare metal restore, ASR etc.
I noticed that Richard Sims says on his TSM facts page (a most excellent
site - http://people.bu.edu/rbs/ADSM.QuickFacts) that Bare Metal Restore
is grudgingly performed by TSM. If it's so difficult to do, could anyone
tell me what the best practice is for backing up/restoring a complete
Win 2000 Server? My idea is this:
1) Image backup (with Norton Ghost, for example) of the C drive. Could
be saved onto CDROM for example.
2) TSM backup of all other (i.e. data) drives.
A restore would then be quite straightforward:
1) Restore from the Ghost image.
2) TSM restore of the data drives.
I noticed that TSM now provides for backup of Windows system objects. Do
most people back these up? I personally don't (at the moment at least).
Does anyone have any views on whether or not it's a good idea to back up
system objects? I think that making a Ghost image kind of eliminates the
need.
Also, has anyone any experience of using ASR on Win 2003? If so, is it
easier to use/better than BMR? Does ASR exist for other Windows
versions?
That was a lot of questions! Grateful for any feedback
Kevin
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