(I cleaned up this note as it was getting long - if anyone needs to see=
 the
whole thing again, consult the archives :-)  )

I agree with your assessment that the redbook is NT 3.5 based - I knew =
that
going in.  Your comments partially addressed this issue, but I think mi=
ssed a
key point in my note, that I perhaps did not transmit clearly.   Let me=

clarify.

The process you outlined (to simplify - run your ADSM backups while no =
one is
logged onto the NT machine) is most easily applied to a server - after =
all,
the auditors would probably prefer that the administrator account was n=
ot
logged on all the time on your NT server.

My problem (and I think the growing one) is the NT workstation.  Despit=
e all
of the dribble you read in the trade rags, NT runs very nicely on a Lap=
top,
and we are seeing a large number of them being deployed.  Since corpora=
te
policy in my company requires that we take Laptops home (duh) they are =
not
available in the middle of the night for backup.  Worse, when they are =
here,
there is always someone logged on and using them.

Therefore, what people MUST do on an NT workstation machine (and this s=
hould
probably be done on an NT Server as well) is to run (as part of the "al=
l
user" startup a REGBACK USER CURUSER command to backup the registry.  (=
I have
been doing this religiously.)  Then, whenever a restore is needed, afte=
r the
redbook procedures registry recovery process is followed, and the machi=
ne is
rebooted, another step should be added to run a registry restore (regba=
ck) to
insure the customizations return.  If multiple users share the machine,=
 it
may be necessary to do this for each one, although I am not sure.

IS there someone in IBM who can update the Bare Metal restore redbook
appropriately?

Jerry Lawson
jlawson AT thehartford DOT com



______________________________ Forward Header _________________________=
_________
Subject: Re: BAre Metal Restore on NT V4
Author:  INTERNET.OWNERAD at SNADGATE
Date:    1/14/98 6:11 PM


Even though there's been a lot of response to the NT Bare metal restore=

registry problem I'd like to respond with the following:

After experiencing problems backing up the ntuser.dat file, this is the=

file the holds a user profile (together with ntuser.dat.log) I conclude=
d
that not all documentation on bare metal restore was up to date. What
used to be under NT 3.x for profiles is not under V4, that is to say th=
e
profiles have been moved form \system32\config directory (which is set
for exclusion in the options file) to the \profiles directory. Thus whe=
n
doing a full back-up logged on as a user that user's profile (registry
entry HKEY_USERS housed in the ntuser.dat and ntuser.dat.log) does not
get backed-up it's locked by NT (check this in the ADSM log files) just=

as any other active registry hive is locked (and no, excluding these
files in the options file is no solution). Ultimately any desktop
 persolization for that one user is lost after a B.M.  restore,  I thin=
k
IBM has to do a remake on the way the registry is backed-up under V4.
The solution to the problem is to do a scheduled unattended backup with=

nobody logged on (no ntuser.dat locked), to do this you'll have to have=

the dsmc sched running as an NT service using the system account (or
possibly using a local scheduler to call dsmc inc ...).
Yesterday I went thru the whole scenario without a hitch, I did a full
restore from a repair partition, copied the necessary registry files, a=
s
outlined in B.M. restore, rebooted the system and the restored NT
partition came up just fine, personilizations and all.

Walter Ridderhof,     Mainland Sequoia,    Netherland


=