Bare Machine Recovery in BackupExec Interview Questions
| Question |
| How to take backup/restore of Bare Machine specify steps ? |
| Answer |
| To configure the BMR in BackupExec, Below are the steps. 1. Install client software where we want to protect the Server machine. 2. Configure the Backups & take the full backup of Machine. ( Note While taking SDR LED will be On) 3. Once taken the Backup, Configure the Disaster Storage Disk. For this Windows SDK kit needs to installed for Driver purpose. 4. Once Completed Disaster Disk, burn the disk image to DVD(Bootable Image). 5. Now try booting with Bootable Image to recover the machine. |
| Question |
| How we can configure this feature, any separate policy, pools required ? |
| Answer |
| Depends on the customer requirement, We can configure Media Set and Scheduling for this BMR Backup as well. Separate Pools and Policies are not mandatory. Its optional. Through One time full Backup feature itself we can achieve this BMR config. |
| Question |
| Redirected restore is possible ? if so please provide the steps Is it possible to do BMR restore on different hardware? What is SDR & IDR? |
| Answer |
| Yes, Redirected restore is possible. To achieve this, Hardware Architecture should be same. BE 2k14 supports Different Hardware Architecture also to recover the machine. With the help of Bootable DVD, we can boot the system first. Then temporary IP address needs to assign for communication with BE server. Once done, recovery will start. IDR is Intelligent Disaster Recovery, which was used in BE 2k10. SDR is Simplified Disaster Recovery, which is being currently used in BE 2k12 and BE 2k14. |
| Question |
| What is the pre-requisite to configure bare machine recovery |
| Answer |
| First Backup Exec or the Backup Exec Agent for Windows must be installed on any computers that you want to protect with SDR. Second A writable or rewritable CD or DVD device must be available. Third An Internet connection so that you can download the Microsoft Assessment and Deployment Kit. |
| Question |
| Brief about Bare Machine Recovery in BackupExec ? |
| Answer |
| Bare metal recovery is one of the feature of backup exec mainly used to recover the operating system and all associated application which was running on OS. In BackupExec, Bare machine Recovery concepts are called like IDR & SDR. IDR – Intelligent Disaster Recovery in BE 2k10 version. SDR – Simplified Disaster recovery in BE 2k12 & BE 2k14 versions. |
| Question |
| Is it available for *NIX(Linux/solaris/aix) based operating system ? |
| Answer |
| No, As of now BackupExec supports only Windows machines for BMR. In future release of BackupExec we can expect BMR for Linux/Solaris and AIX as well. |
| Question |
| What is SDR & IDR? |
| Answer |
| SDR & IDR is a same concept which is representing BMR. But In BackupExec earlier versions like 2k10 we will call BMR as IDR (Intelligent Disaster Recovery). New latest releases like 2k12 and 2k14 we will call BMR as SDR (Simplified Disaster recovery). |
| Question |
| So many Backup Applications/Tools available in Market for Win/*NIX Platforms for easy to use also.Why should we go for Bare Machine Recovery application.What is its use? |
| Answer |
| Compare other backup Applications/Tools, BackupExec will be suitable for standard customers where in Single BE console can manage all the machines which is required to backup/recovery. We can take backup to Disk as well as Tape Storage. Below are the uses: Loss of or damage to the hardware (RAID or HDD Failure) Corruption of Operating files. Disasters of entire Data canters. Physical to Virtual conversion with the help of BMR backup |
| Question |
| Whether snapshot BMR backup is possible? |
| Answer |
| BMR is for Physical machines. Snapshot will play role in VMs. For VMs we need to configure as VMDK or VHD snapshot Backup. Both are differ. |
| Question |
| What should be the architecture for implementing this feature ? |
| Answer |
| Client Server Architecture will be used to implement this BMR feature. |
| Question |
| BMR Restore Using Recovery CD Fails: “backup exec job engine system service is not responding”, how to resolve this issue? |
| Answer |
| If this Error occurs, There would be problem with BackupExec Media Server. Because while recovery, only network communication required between Client and media Server. We can restart the BE job engine services in BE Media Server and start recovery again with the help of Bootable CD. |
| Question |
| Can i take the image backup of physical server and restore as VM in any ESX server by using BMR in backup exec? |
| Answer |
| Yes. Its possible. First we have to take the Entire Machine as BMR Data. Then we have to covert the physical BMR disk data to VMDK or VHD. once converted, we can restore the Data to ESX server provided VM license Agent presents in BE media Server. |
| Question |
| Brief on basic troubleshooting |
| Answer |
| If any problem occurred while backup or recovery in Backup Exec, we can check logs with the help of SGMON utility in BE media Server. And default debug logs will be present under /install path/BackupExec/Logs directory. Based on that output logs also, we can analyze the issue. |
| Question |
| Its the same as Bare Metal Restore in NetBackup whereby one could restore the whole machine along with OS from the state of disaster ? |
| Answer |
| Yes. BMR concept is same in Netbackup and Backupexec. Both are Symantec product. |
| Question |
| Share the steps for taking the physical machine image backup and restore as VM in ESX? |
| Answer |
| First you integrate the client physical machine with BackupExec media Server. Second Take the Machine as Full backup where SDR LED enabled. Once done with backup, convert the same to VMDK file format as VM. For detailed step please look on the below link. http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO99484 |
| Question |
| What is the diff NBU and exec ? |
| Answer |
| Both backup softwares are Symantec product. Backup exec is for small infra and Netbackup software is for enterprise infra. BMR feature exists at both backup software but in BackupExec we will call IDR and SDR. Backup exec BMR supported for windows platform where as in Netbackup it supports for major all platforms. |
| Question |
| I have taken the BMR backup of one serverA(Foreg) & i am tryin to restore the BMR backup to serverB on D drive. serverB already running with o.s on c drive. whether it is possible to restore on serverB d drive & check the restoration success or not? |
| Answer |
| In BackupExec, If we are taking BMR Backup we can able to do granular recovery Like C:, D: or any applications to other machines. In our Example, In Server B on D Drive we can able to restore the Server A C: drive where OS is avail. But this recovery is like data recovery. Not Entire BMR restore. So once you done with recovery we can view the data in D drive with the help of existing OS Server B which has restored. It wont boot. if separately, As BMR Restoration of C: Drive we are doing, then we need downtime of Server B OS. D Drive will be formatted and the data would be recovered. In this case bootablity issue will come as the existing backup boot path was differ. |
