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Bucky Backup Disaster Recovery Information for Windows 2003 Server

Prerequisites & Important Information:

  • This documentation is basically a re-cap of portions of Chapter 5 & Appendix F in the TSM Online Documentation. (This should be located in your Start menu under Tivoli Storage Manager.)
  • Disaster recovery for Windows 2003 uses Windows Automated System Restore (ASR).
  • The ASR process requires that your machine be able to obtain an IP address via DHCP.
  • The hardware configuration of the target system must be identical to that of the original system, with the exception of the hard disks, video cards, and network interface cards.
  • The target system must have the same number of disks as the original system.
  • The size of each disk on the target system must be greater than or equal to the size of the corresponding disk on the original system. Note that disks that appear to be the same size may not have the same number of sectors due to geometry differences. Choose a disk on the target system which has identical disk geometry as the original system or choose a larger disk on the target system.
  • All disks must have 512 byte sectors.
  • All disks (and only such disks) that are available to ASR on which to perform a recovery must be accessible.
  • The ASR files must be accessible from a local floppy drive.
  • The floppy and CD-ROM drives cannot be external PC-card drives.
  • The original system must be an x86 or an Itanium machine. (Itanium is unsupported by DoIT)
  • The disks on the original system must have 512 byte sectors.
  • All basic volumes in the original system must be simple. Non-simple volumes are not supported. If a volume is mirrored, it must be a dynamic volume, not a basic volume.
  • Recovering a Windows 2003 64-Bit Edition system requires the hotfix or circumvention described in Microsoft Knowledgebase article 817708.

ASR Preparation (Things to do before your system crashes):

  1. Make sure you know your node name & password.
  2. Make sure you know the Administrator password.
  3. Make sure you are running TSM v5.2.3 or greater.
    1. Start the TSM GUI via the “Backup-Archive GUI” icon on your desktop, or via Start -> (All) Programs -> Tivoli Storage Manager -> Backup-Archieve GUI.
    2. Enter password if prompted.
    3. Go to Help -> About Tivoli Storage Manager.
    4. You'll need TSM v5.2.3 or later. If the version number you see here is less that 5.2.3, please close the TSM program and follow these upgrade instructions.
    5. If your TSM version is 5.2.3 or later, click once on that window and it'll disappear.
  4. Make sure you are using the Windows Backup Utility to backup user registry hives.
    1. Download this script and save it to your system drive.
    2. If you system drive is not C:, change all references from C: in that script to the proper drive letter.
    3. Add the following line to your dsm.opt file to cause this script to run before scheduled backups begin. This line can be added anywhere in the file, so long as it is on its own line.
      • PRESCHEDULECMD 'c:\ntexport.cmd'
      • NOTE:If you didn't save the script to the root of your C: drive, change the text accordingly.
    4. Save the changes to dsm.opt & restart your TSM Scheduler service.
    5. After your next scheduled backup, go into the TSM GUI, Restore section & make sure that the file ntbackup.bkf is available for restore in the root of your system drive. If it isn't, you may have to adjust your DOMAIN statement and/or your Include's and Exclude's.
  5. If you have uncommented the DOMAIN statement in your dsm.opt file in order to reduce the scope of your backups, ensure that you have systemstate and systemservices listed there too. Example: DOMAIN C: F: systemstate systemservices.
    • systemstate and systemservices contain the Windows Registry, Event Logs, Domain membership info, etc... Basically, it's all of the critical Windows data that can't be backed up as normal files. All of this data is required in order to do a full restore of you system.
  6. Create an ASR disk.
    1. Start the TSM GUI via the “Backup-Archive GUI” icon on your desktop, or via Start -> (All) Programs -> Tivoli Storage Manager -> Backup-Archieve GUI.
    2. Enter password if prompted.
    3. Click the big Backup button.
    4. Put a check next to "Automated System Recovery" and click Backup.
    5. When finished, close the inner-most windows to get back to the main window.
    6. Go to Utilities -> Create ASR Diskette. Put a floppy in the drive and click Finish. TSM will restore the ASR info you just backed up to the floppy disk and name the volume TSMASR. Keep this disk in a safe place.
    7. The ASR disk contains information on your drive partitions & a TSM options file. This information can be used during a Windows 2003 installation to auto-configure your hard disk(s), and the options file is used by TSM later on in the process.
  7. Download this ISO and burn it to CD-R. Or, just keep this file bookmarked on a different machine and only burn the CD when you actually need it. Or just know that you can always bring a blank CD-R to the Helpdesk and they will burn the ISO for you. You will need this CD when it comes time to do the ASR. It's called the TSMCLI CD.

Things to add to your routine 2003 maintenance:

  1. Whenever you install a new Windows 2003 or Internet Explorer service pack or hotfix, make sure you update your ASR Disk (Step #6 above).
  2. If you are running any major applications such as SQL Server, Exchange Server, MS Office, Oracle, etc.. that also routinely releases service packs & hotfixes, update your ASR Disk after installing those types of things too.
  3. If you ever upgrade your TSM client version, you will need a new TSMCLI CD corresponding to the new version. The link in step #7 above will be updated whenever the installation & upgrade instructions for TSM client installation on Windows get updated.

How to restore your Windows 2003 system via ASR & TSM:


  1. Ensure you have your ASR Disk, a TSMCLI CD, & a Windows 2003 installation CD.
  2. Boot off the 2003 CD.
  3. Press F6 if you need to install any third party SCSI or RAID drivers.
  4. Press F2 to enter the ASR recovery mode during text mode section of Setup.
  5. Follow the on-screen instructions, insert ASR Diskette & TSMCLI CD when prompted, etc..
  6. After Windows asks for the TSMCLI CD, it will reboot and say something about not being able to read the CD. Put the 2003 installation CD in the drive and have it try again.
  7. When you get to the point where you see a TSM command prompt window, type 1 and hit enter. Next, your node name should appear between the < >. If so, hit enter. If not, enter your node name and hit enter. Next, type your password and hit enter.
  8. TSM will now restore systemservices & systemstate data. Given that this restore process takes place in a basic VGA graphics mode, the display scrolls by very slowly, and this slows down the restore process. If you minimize this window, the restore process will happen much more quickly.
  9. When finished, your system should automatically reboot and take you to your logon screen. At this point, your system is up to the service pack & hotfix level that it was during your last backup which included systemservices & systemstate.
  10. Log on as an Administrative user.
  11. Browse to the ntbackup.bkf file on the root of your system drive. Double-click on it and select to restore all data to the original location.
  12. Reboot your system.
  13. Log on as an Administrative user and restore your non-system data via the TSM GUI.
    • Go to Start -> All Programs -> Tivoli Storage Manager -> Backup-Archieve GUI. Click the big Restore button.
    • Expand File-level and put a check mark next to all of your local drives EXCEPT for your system drive.
    • Hit Restore, select “Original Location” and hit Restore again.
    • Watch the restore process for a minute or two. You may be prompted to overwrite files, etc.. If so, check the box that indicates this will apply your decision to all future questions and click the “___ to all” button.
    • If TSM prompts you to reboot your system after all data is restored, do so.
  14. Your system should now be fully restored.