Bare Machine Recovery Interview Questions
| Question |
| What is the purpose of Bare Machine recovery? |
| Answer |
| BMR is the server recovery option,we can restore servers without reinstalling operating systems or configuring the hardware manually. BMR restores the operating system, the system configuration, and all the system files and the data files |
| Question |
| How can you convert Bare Metal backup from NetBackup and import into VMware? Is this possible? |
| Answer |
| Physical to Virtual conversion possible using Netbackup and backup exec software but not possible using netvault backup software. below is the steps followed in NetBackup to convert P2V:- 1.Take BMR enabled client backup ( via NBU policy) 2.Register Hypervisor server and NetBackup recovery host in NetBackup master (single time registration) 3.Run “Backup to virtual machine conversion†wizard via NBU admin console or use CLI 4.Once the configuration wizard completes, vmdk or vhd files will be created from BMR P2V feature 5.Find selected client VM created and powered-on the VM |
| Question |
| Is it possible to recover windows system..and how to restore it. |
| Answer |
| Yes its possible to restore windows system. Two methods of restore is there boot media and network boot. Follow below steps for recovery using boot media:- 1)Create a bootable CD or bootable DVD from the Shared resource tree used during the Prepare to Restore. 2)Insert the bootable CD or bootable DVD into the CD-ROM drive. On some systems, you may have to modify the BIOS settings so that the system boots from the CD-ROM drive. 3)Boot the client to restore. 4)The system boot and the restore begin with no further intervention required. |
| Question |
| Without any customization or changes BMR image will be restored as it is. Would you please elaborate about the steps for OS backup and recovery in case of any failure |
| Answer |
| Customization depends on type of the restore you will perform, it may be on same hardware or on different hardware .
Steps for Backup:- Recovery Steps |
| Question |
| How costly is it for a customer to acquire a BMR license when it comes to NetBackup application? Is it included in the basic package ? |
| Answer |
| In Netbackup, Enterprise or Capacity Based Edition licenses included BMR option be default. No need to purchase separate license in Netbackup for BMR. |
| Question |
| There any limits on the number of machines that can be protected/recovered using BMR in NetBackup through the License acquired ? |
| Answer |
| Yes, Based on number of Client Licenses purchased protection is limited. For example to backup 2 machines BMR Data, BMR Option license – By Default presented in NBU and 2 number of NBU Client agent licenses are required. |
| Question |
| Can you please elaborate on the versions of the NBU that supports P2V of physical machines. |
| Answer |
| Upto NetBackup 7.5, only Bare metal restore feature was there. From NetBackup 7.6 onwards BMR with P2V conversion new feature has been added. |
| Question |
| Is Cross hardware BMR is possible in Netvault ? |
| Answer |
| Yes Cross Hardware BMR Restoration is possible in Netvault. For Example: HP hardware Windows OS can be recovered in IBM/Dell Hardware. |
| Question |
| What the process of resotoring the machine called in Netvault and how it differs from NBU and backup exec.? |
| Answer |
| To recover the machine in NetVault:- -> Boot the client machine using bootable CD/DVD -> Assign temporary IP on the target machine -> Start the recovery process. In case of NetBackup Boot server with boot media or network boot configuration required Whereas in Netvault and Backup exec, Creation of bootable CD image is required and we cannot boot the client machine using network boot. NetBackup & Netvault supports multi-platform OS where as backup exec supports only Windows OS. |
| Question |
| Which BMR Process takes less time through CD or DHCP ? |
| Answer |
| CD image boot process takes less time compared to DHCP or network boot |
| Question |
| Does BMR happen in a LAN free process or does it happen only over LAN? |
| Answer |
| BMR Backup can be possible via LAN and SAN as well. While BMR Recovery by default LAN process will be followed. If we required recovery via SAN, as a pre-requisite the Target System should be zoned with TL. |
| Question |
| Lets say i am having a Machine of x vendor with oracle installed on it and i wanted to restore it on Y vendor machine ! after BMR restortion will that oracle work without any manual intervention or i need to have make any changes ? |
| Answer |
| After Recovery of BMR from X to Y vendor hardware, obviously inside OS all applications will be restored. As Hardware perspective, Apart from BIOS settings no change is required in Y machine. As Oracle Perspective, The whole Data (while backed up data) will be recovered. To check the consistency with Y machine we would require help from Oracle Admin. They might change their SSID if required. |
| Question |
| Can u brief about the SRT and how it helps in BMR restoration? |
| Answer |
| SRT stands for Shared Resource Tree. To rebuild client system, including system recovery, critical resources also required. SRT mainly takes care of resources which includes OS files, NBU client software, also other softwares like device drivers,volume manager which are necessary to rebuild the original system. |
| Question |
| Comparatively all three backup tools which tool is having more user friendly BMR restoration ? |
| Answer |
| BackupExec is very much user friendly for BMR Recovery compare to Netbackup and Netvault. In BackupExec, Only Boot media CD is enough. Wherein Netbackup, Boot CD with Boot Server config is required. In Netvault, CLI commands will be genuine compare to GUI recovery. |
| Question |
| What is licensing concept for BMR in netvault? |
| Answer |
| In Netvault, there are three types of Licensing model.Standard, Enterprise and Capacity model. For Capacity model, BMR will be avail in by default. For Standard and Enterprise model, Netvault VaultDR Server License and Netvault BMR Client license needs to be purchased. |
| Question |
| In Exchange Environment, where individual mail box recovery is possible.. Is it same as BMR or will it work in conjunction with BMR?? Please elaborate |
| Answer |
| If GRT(Granularity Recovery) option has been enabled while BMR Backup time, then individual mail box recovery also possible. There wont be any conjunction. |
| Question |
| If am having a machine of X vendor and to be restored on machine of vendor Y , so what all things I need to customize to restore on different vendor Like Mac address. |
| Answer |
| MAC Address will be defined to NIC Hardware. So we cant customize it. Below steps involves to restore on different hardware:- -> Hardware discovery of target hardware using BMR prepare-to-discover operation and map original client configuration with the discovered configuration. -> You must change the network interfaces and network identities in the different hardware configuration -> Add NIC drivers and the MSD drivers to the restore configuration system of target machine -> Change the network interfaces and network identities in the restore configuration. -> Map disks in the restore configuration -> Boot the target system using created boot media -> using Prepare to restore the client, initiate the dissimilar system restore process using the DSR configuration. |
| Question |
| Lets take a Machine X(abc configuration ) to be restored on Machine Y (efg configuration), do customization is possible on these 3 tools , if yes how? |
| Answer |
| In All 3 Softwares, Via Bootable Image CD/DVD we can boot the Target System to recover the Backed up Data. If Dissimilar Hardware Config, We would not be able to restore the BMR Data. For Example, X machine Disk C: was 30 GB config but in Y machine Disk C: is 15GB. This option might be enabled in upcoming software release. |
