Disaster Recovery Guide for Windows 2008 and RHEL 5.x platforms with external disk support

1. Assisted Manual Disaster Recovery

This document explains how to prepare and execute an Assisted Manual Disaster Recovery (AMDR)

on Windows 2008 and Linux systems.

2. Overview / Procedure

2.1 AMDR for Windows 2008 systems

The general procedure for Assisted Manual Disaster Recovery of a Windows 2008 client is as

follows:

Phase 0

• Perform a full host backup and an IDB backup (Cell Manager only).

• Update the SRD (system recovery data) file. Collect information on the original system to enable

installation and configuration of the DR OS (disaster recovery operating system).

Phase 1

• Replace the faulty hardware.

• Re-install the operating system. (Create and format the necessary partitions.)

• Re-install the service packs.

• Manually re-partition the disk and re-establish the storage structure with the original drive letter

assignments.

Phase 2

• Execute the Data Protector 'drstart' command that will install the DR OS and start the restore of

critical volumes.

• The computer must be rebooted after the 'drstart' command finishes.

Phase 3

• Use the Data Protector standard restore procedure to restore user and application data.

2.2 AMDR for Linux systems

Phase 0

• Perform a full client backup and an IDB backup (Cell Manager only).

Phase 1

• Replace the faulty hardware.

• Install the Linux operating system. (Create and format the necessary partitions.)

Phase 2

• Install the Data Protector agents.

• Use the Data Protector standard restore procedure to restore user and application data.

• Reboot the server.

3. Requirements

• The partitions have to be the same size or larger than the partitions on the failed disk. This way, the

information stored on the failed disk can be restored to the new disk.

• The hardware configuration of the target system must be the same as that of the original system.

This includes the SCSI BIOS settings (sector remapping).

• If volume mount points were created before the disaster event, these mount points must be recreated

before starting the disaster recovery procedure. This is because volume mount points are not