Disaster Recovery to Dissimilar Hardware

[CA1161995]

Looking for advice on methods to try for performing disaster recovery restoration to new, dissimilar hardware. It seems like any admin can backup and restore a server to the same piece of hardware or an EXACT duplicate of that hardware. I'm interested in some tricks for restoring Windows Server to an entirely new device with the possibility of containing different array controllers and NICs etc.

[CA859951]

Steve:

Can you list what Array Controller and Server Model you are coming from and what you "might" have to go to?

The NIC can be a driver issue but can be handled after the O/S is up... easy

[CA1161995]

Sure. A typical server for my shop is an HP ProLiant (3000, 5500, ML*, or DL*). When doing disaster recovery we anticipate moving to another HP ProLiant in any of the above mentioned families. You are correct about the NIC issue. It really isn't a big deal since it won't prevent a server from booting. The array controllers are a different story. Example, lets say I do an clone or image-style backup of a utility server using Ghost. If in a disaster I must lay that Ghost image down to a different ProLiant with a different array controller, there is a good chance that it will bluescreen upon loading the array controller driver. It's basically the same problem when using file based backup solutions such as Veritas, Arcserve, or whatever.

[CA859951]

Well... I could expect a BSOD if you are using a SMART-2 type controller and you are going to a 5300 series controller in the new server. They use a different driver set.

Look at the extracts of the drivers that are loaded from the CCISS drivers;

Driver Class: 5x & 6x drivers:
This set will work on the 5i, 6i, 641/642 and 6400 series. These will be Ultra3 & Ultra320 running 64bit
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/support/files/storage/us/download/20313.html

Driver Class: SMART-2, 431 & 4200 Drivers:
This set will work on the SMART-2 / LC-2, 431 and 4200 series. These will be Ultra2 and Ultra3 running 32bit.
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/support/files/storage/us/download/17750.html

So... with that info, you can assume that if the original system was built and running a 32bit controller at the time of the crash/recovery (This also includes the Non-RAID 32bit SCSI Controllers also) that you will "Blue Screen" if installing to a 64bit controller... and vice versa.

It may not be feasable for your shop, but if you try to standardize on the hardware you deploy, then you will have less of these issues. In the end, it is all about planning and good backups.

[CA1180427]

I've had good success using Veritas BackupExec and their IDR process onto dissimilar hardware, well worth looking into.

[ed williams_6]

Hi Steve,

probably bad form replying to a very old posting but I have breaking news for you.

Finally, there are 3 products that will do exactly what you ask :)

(1) Cristie Bare Machine Recovery (CBMR) - have tested this & it works .. within limits. Integrates with Tivoli TSM to give an end to end DR solution. Pretty good idea.

(2) Veritas Bare Metal Recovery, requires Veritas Netbackup. Tested this with support from Veritas in shape of an engineer onsite. Spent 2 days and couldn't get it to work. It might work but it is mightly complicated.

(3) Symantec Livestate 4 with dissimilar hardware restore option. This also works, looks very good, but is still in pre-beta testing. No release date as yet. No indication of whether it integrates with any Enterprise backup solutions.

All the best

Ed

[ed williams_6]

Right, the latest news

Livestate Recovery version 6 (LSR6) recovers OS to dissimilar hardware. Its image based and therefore fast, when the images have been recovered to a suitable diskspace.

Products supports the provision of custom / OEM HAL.DLL files i.e. HP/Compaq, & 3rd party SCSI drivers etc, all the low level ring 0 stuff that is required to get Windows to boot. After that you can just use the SmartStart CDs to supply all your other drivers.

LSR6 is now available in shrinkwrap! BTW I don't work for Symantec, Veritas or a 3rd party reseller of this product. Check it out.