Backup and Restore of CONFIGURATION Object on Windows 2008

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Backup and Restore of CONFIGURATION

Object on Windows 2008

Technical Whitepaper

Introduction

CONFIGURATION object is the special data structures maintained by the Windows operating system are not treated as a part of the filesystem backup. Data Protector lets you back up a special data structure known as CONFIGURATION through Data Protector Disk Agent. CONFIGURATION object is the interface between Disk Agent (DA) and Disaster Recovery (DR). During Disaster Recovery (DR), CONFIGURATION object restore is responsible for recovering the system state of the server.

CONFIGURATION object also acts as a part of the critical volumes set for Windows for Disaster Recovery. Windows services are backed up as a part of the CONFIGURATION backup.

CONFIGURATION Backup

To perform a configuration backup, select the object CONFIGURATION or just parts of it when creating a filesystem backup specification.

On Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2 systems, CONFIGURATION backup is performed using Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service.

Windows configuration objects

 Active Directory Service

 Certificate Server

 COM+ Class Registration Database (ComPlusDatabase)

 DFS

 DHCP

 DNS Server

 EISA Utility Partition

 Event Logs

 File Replication Service

 IIS

 Profiles

 Registry

 Removable Storage Management Database

 SystemRecoveryData

 SysVol

 Terminal Service Database

 User Disk Quotas (QuotaInformation)

 WINS

CONFIGURATION components listed on different systems may vary based on different Windows features installed. For some objects, special points have to be considered. These are listed in the sections below.

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Active Directory

When backing up the Active Directory service, the File Replication Service (FRS) and Distributed File System (DFS) also get backed up. All configuration information about replicated files and distributed files is stored in the Active Directory.

DFS

Data Protector backs up Windows Distributed File System (DFS) as part of one of the following: • Windows Registry, if the DFS is configured in a standalone mode

• Windows Active Directory, if the DFS is configured in a domain mode

DHCP and WINS

When Data Protector backs up DHCP and/or WINS databases, the respective service is stopped and then restarted after the database is backed up. It is recommended to schedule the backup of the CONFIGURATION of a server that is running DHCP and/or WINS service during off hours.

DHCP and WINS services also provide their own internal backup copies of their databases. If your environment cannot tolerate occasional shutdowns of these services, you can exclude them from Data Protector CONFIGURATION backups and back up the internal backup copy of the databases via filesystem backup. Refer to Microsoft MSDN documentation for details about location of the internal backup copies and how to ensure that these copies are made frequently enough.

Profiles

If the entire system is selected for backup, “Profiles” is backed up twice, (once as a part of filesystem backup and once as a part of CONFIGURATION). To avoid this, exclude the profile data from the filesystem backup. The user profile data resides in the c:\USERS directory (default location):

These directories contain all user profiles configured on the system and are backed up by Data Protector. If a system is configured for multiple users, each defined user has a separate user profile. For example, the All Users and the Default User profile contain the profile components common to all defined users and the profile components assigned to a newly created user.

Data Protector reads the location of the profiles from the following Registry keys: HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\\

CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders

(where information about common profile components resides) HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\\ CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

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Removable Storage Management Database

On Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 operating systems, to enable backup of the Removable Storage Management Database configuration object, ensure that Removable Storage Manager is installed on the system which will be backed up.

Terminal Service Database

On Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 operating systems, to enable backup of the Terminal Service Database configuration object, ensure that the Terminal Server Licensing service is installed on the system which will be backed up.

Windows services

Backing up the Windows services means backing up the data structures used by the respective services. A particular database is exported (dumped) into a file that is then backed up. The Windows services are always backed up if CONFIGURATION is selected in the Backup wizard.

A Windows service has to be up and running so that Data Protector can detect it and present it as a selectable item in the Backup wizard. If a service is not running at the backup time, the corresponding backup object will fail.

To back up one of the services, select the corresponding folder under CONFIGURATION. If you use Active Directory to publish Certificate revocation lists (CRLs), for example, back up the Active Directory services along with the Certificate Server.

Cluster Database (vis-à-vis Microsoft Failover Clustering)

Cluster Database backup is required in CONFIGURATION object to recover the system state during Disaster Recovery.

Cluster Database restores from CONFIGURATION object does not use Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy and may fail to recover with error “Access is denied”. To overcome this problem, Cluster Database can be successfully backed up and recovered using HP Data Protector with MS Volume Shadow Writers. To use Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy for backup of Cluster Database HP Data Protector MS Volume Shadow integration can be used. For more details about MS Volume Shadow integration with HP Data Protector, refer IntegrationVSS.pdf provided with HP Data Protector Installation.

Requirements

Following requirements must be fullfilled before performing Backup and Restore of Cluster Database using MS Volume Shadow Writers with HP Data Protecor.

• Microsoft Failover Cluster should be running and successfully imported and listed in HP Data Protector GUI in client context under MS Clusters.

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• HP Data Protector MS Volume Shadow Copy Integration should be installed on all nodes of the cluster.

• Cluster Database writer should be available on the cluster nodes “Writer ID: 41e12264-35d8-479b-8e5c-9b23d1dad37e ”.

• Online Extention for One Windows/linux System License should be available.

Backup of Cluster Database

For a Cluster Database backup to succeed in a failover cluster, the cluster must be running and must have quorum. In other words, enough nodes must be running and communicating (perhaps with a disk witness or file share witness, depending on the quorum configuration) that the cluster has achieved quorum.

When you back up a failover cluster, you can back up the cluster configuration, the data on clustered disks, or both.

When you back up data through a cluster node, notice which disks are Online on that node at that time. Only disks that are Online and owned by that cluster node at the time of the backup are backed up.

Listing the Failover Cluster Database Writer

Microsoft Failover Cluster writer is present on a Windows 2008 R2 server on which Failover Clustering component is installed. The writer can be listed from Windows command line by running following command

“vssadmin list writers”

Cluster Database writer is listed as

Writer name: 'Cluster Database'

Writer Id: {41e12264-35d8-479b-8e5c-9b23d1dad37e} Writer Instance Id: {5ec17850-60ef-42d2-93f1-06d72c7573a6} State: [1] Stable

Last error: No error

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Backup of Cluster Database

Backup of Cluster Database is performed using the cluster virtual name. On successful backup following event is seen in Windows Event Logs.

Figure: Windows Event logs show that the backup operation has been initiated and has completed successfully.

Limitations

• Only one CONFIGURATION backup can run on a system at a time. • Active Directory Service and SysVol should be backed up in pair.

• HP Data Protector only supports Backup of Failover Cluster for Microsoft Failover Cluster on Windows 2008 R2 using MS Volume Shadow Writers.

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CONFIGURATION Restore

To restore the Windows CONFIGURATION, select the CONFIGURATION object or parts of it and follow the standard restore procedure.

The CONFIGURATION consists of data structures that influence system operation. Therefore, the system must be prepared for such a restore. The prerequisites depend on the contents of the CONFIGURATION item and the Windows operating system version.

On Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 systems, CONFIGURATION restore is not performed using Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service.

Windows configuration objects

• Active Directory Service • Certificate Server

• COM+ Class Registration Database (ComPlusDatabase)

• DFS

• DHCP

• DNS Server • Event Logs

• File Replication Service • IIS

• Profiles (Users) • Registry

• Removable Storage Management Database • SystemRecoveryData

• SysVol

• Terminal Service Database

• User Disk Quotas (QuotaInformation)

• WINS

Restart the system after the restore of the whole CONFIGURATION object is finished in order for the restored data to become effective.

Some objects require special considerations and tasks.

Active Directory

To restore the Active Directory service, you have to restart the system using the Directory Services Restore Mode start-up option. When the system is started in the Directory Services Restore Mode, the domain user accounts cannot be used. You have to configure the Data Protector Inet and the crs service (for a Cell Manager) to log on using the local system account and then restart the services. When

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restoring the Active Directory, the File Replication Service (FRS) and Distributed File System (DFS) are also restored.

You can restore the Active Directory in one of three replication modes (Windows specific options): • nonauthoritative

• authoritative • primary

Note

To perform an Authoritative restore, you also need to run ntdsutil.exe after the restore session has finished. For example, to perform a typical authoritative restore, at a command prompt enter ntdsutil, then authoritative restore, then restore database. Restart the server and wait for replication to take place.

Tip

You can also create a post-exec command to perform the additional action needed for the Active Directory authoritative restore. For example, to perform an authoritative restore of an entire directory, use the following line:

ntdsutil "popups off" "authoritative restore" "restore database" quit

DFS

Data Protector restores Windows Distributed File System (DFS) as part of one of the following: • Windows Registry, if the DFS is configured in a standalone mode

• Windows Active Directory, if the DFS is configured in a domain mode

Profiles

• A user profile cannot be restored successfully if the respective user is logged on, either interactively or as a service. If the user is logged on at the time of the restore, Data Protector will fail to restore the file NTUSER.DAT which contains the user's registry hive. • You have to log off the system and stop all the services that are running under the user

account whose profiles you want to restore. The restore session can be started from another system or by logging on the restore target system as a different user.

• To restore all user profiles at once, you must stop any services that do not run under the local system account, and log off from the system. Then start the restore session remotely, using Data Protector GUI on another client.

• A user profile can only be restored when its location is already defined on the system. Individual files of existing user profiles or deleted profiles can be still restored as long as they exist among the system’s profiles. If a user profile was deleted from the Control Panel,

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or the user profile no longer exists on the system for some other reason, the restore fails with the following error:

[84:208] Configuration object not recognized by the system => not restored.

• To restore such user profile, you must first recreate it by logging on as that user. The system assigns a directory for the user's profile and creates a default profile. To keep the restored files unmerged, you can delete the files in the newly created profile before running a restore session. Then log off and start the restore session by logging on as a different user or by using another system. The system may assign a different name to the user. In this case, use the Restore As option to restore the files to the newly assigned location.

• When user profiles are restored, files are always overwritten, regardless of the File Conflict Handling options in the restore specification. Also, the Omit deleted files option is not available. Files that exist on the disk, but were not present at the time of the backup, will remain in the user profile after the restore.

• User profiles can also be restored using the Restore As option. You can specify a temporary location for the files and then manually copy the desired files to the user's profile directory. Or, you can restore directly over the user's profile directory, possibly making use of the Move busy files option, which allows you to restore a user profile even if it is in use by a logged on user. However, note that in this case the files that are in use will only be replaced after the system is rebooted.

Registry

If you select the whole Windows Registry for a restore, some of the Registry keys are not restored and some are treated in a special way during a restore. This is because these keys are used by the operating system. You can find them under the following Registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\BackupRestore\KeysNotToRestore

Removable Storage Manager Database

The RSM service must be running on all systems with connected removable storage devices (except for CD-ROMs).

Server configuration objects

The target system must have the respective server installed and running. For all servers except Certificate Server, the data is restored online.

Certificate Server data is restored offline. Stop the Certificate Server Services before starting a restore. You can restore the Certificate Server only using the authoritative mode.

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SysVol

You can perform restore of SysVol directory in one of three modes: • nonauthoritative

• If at least one domain controller in the domain is available and working, files are restored to their original location. The restored data is not propagated to other domain controllers. • authoritative

• Perform authoritative restore if critical SysVol data is deleted from the local domain controller and the deletion is propagated to other domain controllers.

• primary

• If all domain controllers in the domain are lost and you want to rebuild domain controller from backup, the FRS is informed that you are restoring primary files and files are restored to their original location.

Windows TCP/IP services

On a Windows system that runs a Microsoft TCP/IP protocol and is configured as a WINS Server, a DHCP Server, or a DNS Server, you can restore the services that manage network communication.

To restore Windows TCP/IP services, expand the CONFIGURATION item and select WNS, DHCP, or DNSServerDatabase.

Each of these services is automatically stopped before the restore. When the restore has finished, restart the system.

Cluster Database

Cluster Database restores from CONFIGURATION object does not use Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy and may fail to recover with error “Access is denied”. To overcome this problem, Cluster Database can be successfully backed up and recovered using HP Data Protector with MS Volume Shadow Writers.

Restore of Cluster Database

Recovery of a cluster database should be performed only in the event of roll back or “ClusDb” file corruption.

There are two parts to restoring the cluster state:

Restoring the node

If one node of a cluster requires recovery, Disaster Recovery of the node is recommended. Once the recovery completes, and the rest of the cluster is running, you do not want to restore the cluster, stop at this point and restart the node; it should rejoin the cluster.

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Restoring the cluster

Authoritative restore is performed for restoring the cluster database. To perform such a restore, the cluster service has to be installed but not necessarily running on the node being restored.

Once the cluster database is restored, the Windows event logs shows that a restore operation has been performed and succeeded.

Figure: Windows Event log showing successful restore of Clustering.

Once the restore is completed, the cluster service on other nodes needs to be started manually either from Failover Clustering Manager or individually from each node (Start -> services.msc)

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Figure: Starting the cluster service post restores.

Limitations

 Active Directory Service and SysVol should be restored in a pair.

 User Disk Quotas cannot be restored using Data Protector. The backed up information can be restored manually, using Microsoft utilities.

 For complete recovery of some components, a restore might be required.

 HP Data Protector only supports Restore of Failover Cluster for Microsoft Failover Cluster on Windows 2008 R2 using MS Volume Shadow Writers.

Backup and Restore of CONFIGURATION Object on Windows 2008