Zoltan,
Sometimes there just isn't a good answer.
Systemstate consists of different stuff depending on what Windows components
are installed, so sometimes one bunch of clients will fail often and others
don't.
But I've also had customers with clients where the systemstate backup would
fail frequently, and we could not point to any difference between those clients
and the software installed on other Windows clients that worked consistently.
Older TSM clients and older versions of Windows fail more often than later
version of TSM clients on later versions of Windows. And the older Windows
machines definitely need VSS patches to work well, which is time-consuming for
admins.
If you are running VM's, your long-term strategy should probably be a migration
to TSM/VE so that you can just rebuild VM images; that way systemstate restore
isn't needed and you can suppress the systemstate backup.
If you have physical Windows machines that require a Bare Metal Restore at a
recovery site in case of DR, you are stuck needing systemstate backups.
If your failures are always due to the same handful of clients, what I do is to
turn off TSM systemstate backups and use a preschedulecmd to take an ntbackup
of systemstate to a flat file, then let TSM backup the flat file. (On Win2K8
it's called Windows system backup, but works the same.) The problem with that
is obviously an accounting issue; if you have to do a DR, who is in charge of
knowing which of the machines get their systemstate restored via TSM and which
by ntbackup, etc.
Windows system state is evil.
Wanda
-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Zoltan Forray
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2012 10:44 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] Do you perform Windows SYSTEMSTATE backups?
All of our clients are at 6.1 or higher so that isn't it for us.
On Jul 25, 2012 10:26 AM, "Rick Harderwijk" <rick.harderwijk AT gmail DOT com>
wrote:
> Tim, and for those who find this thread through their favorite search
> eninge in the future,
>
> We experience issues with 5.5.1.x and 5.5.2.x clients with system
> state backups. Upgrading the client to 5.5.3.3 solved those issues.
>
> Cheers,
> Rick
>
> On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 3:49 PM, Tim Brown <tbrown AT cenhud DOT com> wrote:
>
> > That is probably true, I don't recall the version that failed
> >
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Tim
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On
> > Behalf Of Rick Harderwijk
> > Sent: Wednesday, 25 July, 2012 9:37 AM
> > To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
> > Subject: Re: Do you perform Windows SYSTEMSTATE backups?
> >
> > Tim,
> >
> > I have seen issues with system state backups with certain versions
> > of the BAClient. You might want to check the version you use, using
> > a newer version of the BA client solved our issue, and we did not
> > have to resort
> to
> > extra backups.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Rick
> >
> > On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 3:07 PM, Tim Brown <tbrown AT cenhud DOT com> wrote:
> >
> > > We actually do both a TSM system state and a Windows ntbackup for
> > > 2003 servers and wbadmin for 2008 to have 2 versions. We
> > > experienced an issue awhile ago where the TSM system state restore
> > > failed but the Ntbackup worked.
> > >
> > > Just insurance!
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > >
> > > Tim
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On
> > > Behalf
> Of
> > > Rick Harderwijk
> > > Sent: Wednesday, 25 July, 2012 8:59 AM
> > > To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
> > > Subject: Re: Do you perform Windows SYSTEMSTATE backups?
> > >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > We always make systemstate backups, as we need the systemstate
> > > backups
> to
> > > do be able to do a full restore of a machine. System states have
> > > become very large with Windows Server 2008 R2, though can probably
> > > be tweaked
> > with
> > > later versions of TSM clients (6.x.x), which we don't use.
> > >
> > > We have restored system states once in a while when we lost a VM
> > > and
> test
> > > all system state restores in our annual DR training.
> > >
> > > We have not yet seen any issues with the system state backups yet
> > > with
> > the
> > > latest Windows Updates installed on our servers.
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > >
> > > Rick
> > >
> > > On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 2:39 PM, Zoltan Forray <zforray AT vcu DOT edu>
> wrote:
> > >
> > > > We are constantly seeing problems with Windows VSS and
> > > > systemstate backups. The recent "black Tuesday" updates has
> > > > causes numerous
> > Windows
> > > > servers to start having backup problem where they previously
> > > > worked
> > just
> > > > fine.
> > > >
> > > > In most cases they require the VSS hotfixes/fixpacks, etc. The
> > quickest
> > > > fix is to simply stop systemstate backups since VSS patches
> > > > usually
> > > require
> > > > reboots.
> > > >
> > > > I bought up the issue of "have we ever restored the systemstate
> > > > or
> any
> > > > objects within" and the response was "No, Never".
> > > >
> > > > So I am wondering, how many folks here who backup Windows
> > > > servers,
> > > include
> > > > SYSTEMSTATE backups and why?
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > *Zoltan Forray*
> > > > TSM Software & Hardware Administrator Virginia Commonwealth
> > > > University UCC/Office of Technology Services zforray AT vcu DOT edu -
> > > > 804-828-4807 Don't be a phishing victim - VCU and other
> > > > reputable organizations
> will
> > > > never use email to request that you reply with your password,
> > > > social security number or confidential personal information. For
> > > > more
> details
> > > > visit http://infosecurity.vcu.edu/phishing.html
> > > >
> > >
> >
>
|
