Recovering a Dell™ DL Backup and Recovery Appliance using Rapid Appliance Self Recovery (RASR) Dell DL Series Technical Marketing Team March 2016 A Dell Technical White Paper
Revisions Date Description December 2015 Initial release This white paper is for informational purposes only, and may contain typographical errors and technical inaccuracies. The content is provided as is, without express or implied warranties of any kind. © 2016 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this material in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact Dell.
Table of contents Revisions ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 2 Executive summary .......................................................................................................................................................................... 4 1 What is RASR and why is it important? ............................................................
Executive summary The Dell DL Backup and Recovery Appliance (DL Appliance) is a turnkey backup and recovery appliance powered by award-winning AppAssure backup and recovery software. The DL Appliance protects both physical and virtual servers, nearly eliminates backup windows, recovers applications within minutes, and guarantees recoverability.
1 What is RASR and why is it important? Rapid Appliance Self Recovery (RASR) is used to quickly and easily recover a DL Appliance to an operating state. RASR offers two recovery options: 1. Recover the DL Appliance to a state very close to when the DL Appliance system failed. The DL Appliance operating system, configurations and settings are recovered. 2. Reset the DL Appliance to its original factory state – a state it was in as it left the factory..
2 RASR Protection and Recovery Options Two main steps are taken when recovering a DL appliance using RASR. The first step is to launch the DL appliance in to RASR followed by choosing a recovery method. The DL Appliance can launch RASR from a number of media types or locations. These include: 1. USB Key 2. RASR Virtual Disk 3. Internal Dual SD Module (IDSDM) 4. Recovery Partition No matter how RASR is launched, RASR offers the same recovery features and capabilities – quick and easy appliance recovery.
3 Launching RASR RASR can be launched from four different media types or locations. No matter what RASR launch method is chosen, RASR recovers the DL Appliance to an operational state by restoring the appliance operating system, applications, configurations and settings. 3.1 IDSDM The Dell DL4300 appliance offers a unique option to launch the RASR process - IDSDM.
3. Select to launch RASR from the ISDSM option. 4. Select your keyboard layout.
5. Click Troubleshoot. 6. Click Rapid Appliance Self Recovery (RASR).
7. Click Windows Server 2012 R2. 8. RASR is now launched.
3.2 RASR USB Key A RASR USB key is used to launch the RASR process. Like the IDSDM option to launch RASR, the RASR USB key provides all logic to restore the DL appliance in the event of OS and/or repository storage system issues. NOTE: Creation of a RASR USB key is described in Appendix-A. NOTE: The DL1000 appliance consists of a mirrored pair of disk drives containing the operating system, appliance applications, and data.
3. Within the DL Appliance Boot Manager utility, select One-shot BIOS Boot Menu. 4. Select the attached USB drive within the Boot Manager Boot Menu 5. 12 Continue with step #4 within section 3.1 IDSDM (page 8).
3.3 RASR Virtual Disk The RASR virtual disk resides on the local DL Appliance non-OS disks and is used to launch RASR. 1. Boot the DL Appliance and enter the PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller BIOS Utility by pressing Ctrl+R when its message is displayed. 2. Select the RASR virtual disk within the PERC Configuration Utility. Note the virtual disk ID and capacity. In this example, the RASR virtual disk ID is 2 and its capacity is 14.
3. Press Ctrl+N to advance to the Ctrl Mgmt page within the PERC Configuration Utility. Select the RASR virtual disk as the boot device. 4. Using the keyboard TAB key, advance to APPLY. Press Return to apply this boot device change.
5. Press the keyboard Esc key several times until the PERC Configuration Utility exits then select the option to reboot the DL Appliance. NOTE: RASR will automatically set the PERC boot device to the OS boot virtual disk if restoration is successful. 6. Continue with step #4 within section 3.1 IDSDM (page 8). 3.4 Recovery Partition A bootable Recovery Partition is located on the DL Appliance operating system disks.
4 RASR Recovery Options Once RASR is launched, three RASR appliance recovery options are presented; System Recovery, Windows Recovery Wizard, and Factory Reset. 4.1 System Recovery During the initial configuration of the DL4300 and DL1300 Appliance, a Windows Backup Virtual Disk can optionally be created that is designated to hold DL appliance Windows backup images.
2. Select the Windows backup that you wish to restore the DL Appliance to. 4.1.1 Recovery Type Within the System Recovery option, there are two System Recovery options. 1. Repair OS System Disk – This option overwrites the current DL operating system and recovery partition with files contained in the backup image selected. This option is best suited when there are missing or corrupt files that cause the DL Appliance to malfunction.
i. Select Repair OS System Disk and click Next. ii. Click Yes to start the recovery process. iii. The DL Appliance Recovery process is finished.
2. Recreate OS Volumes – This option re-creates the DL OS virtual disk if necessary (as in the case of a replaced hard disk), and restores the DL operating system and recovery partitions with the content from the backup image selected. This option is best suited when storage hardware issues are encountered such as a failed OS volume. After replacing faulty hardware, launch RASR and select this option. i. 19 Select Recreate OS Volumes recovery type and click Next.
ii. Select the volumes to recover. You must first select to delete existing volumes if you plan to recover them. iii. Click Yes to start the recovery process. The DL Appliance recovery process is finished.
4.2 Windows Recovery Wizard This RASR recovery option can be used to restore a DL Appliance from a Windows backup located within the appliance (Windows Backup virtual disk), a directly attached disk, or an externally attached disk such as a network share containing the backup image. The Windows Recovery Wizard uses Microsoft Windows Server Backup for recovery.
4.3 Factory Reset The Factory Reset recovery option restores the DL Appliance to its original factory state – the state it was in as it left the factory. If failed operating system drives are replaced, the Factory Reset option detects that the operating system virtual disk does not exist and will prepare a new virtual disk to restore the factory default operating system to it.
2. Select Yes to begin the recovery process. 3. This competes the Factory Reset recovery process. Click Finish to reboot the DL Appliance. 4. After reboot, the AppAssure Appliance Configuration Wizard is automatically launched for initial appliance configuration. The AppAssure Application Configuration Wizard steps are outlined in Appendix B.
NOTE: Ensure that you provide the same information in the AppAssure Appliance Configuration Wizard that was provided during the initial deployment of the DL appliance. Failure to provide the exact same information can result in the inability to recover the Appliance configuration settings and/or AppAssure repository data. 5.
5 Recovering Repositories, Recovery Points and Settings After DL Appliance recovery, the appliance recovery points and settings can optionally be restored. NOTE: The DL1000 will automatically attempt to recover DL repositories and restore the AppAssure Core settings. 1. Select the Appliance tab. Then select Tasks > Provisioning. 2. Click Remount Volumes. 3. Click Yes to continue. 4. This completes the DL Appliance settings, configuration and repository restoration.
6 Appendix A: Creating an USB RASR Key 1. Insert a 16GB or larger USB key into the DL Appliance. 2. Navigate to the Appliance tab. 3. Click the Backup link. 4. Click Create USB RASR Key.
5. After a prerequisite check is performed, select the possible USB target path and click Create. 6. Click Yes to proceed. 7. 27 After the RASR USB key has been created, safely eject the RASR key.
7 Appendix B: AppAssure Appliance Configuration Wizard NOTE: The following is an example of the AppAssure Application Configuration Wizard for a DL4300. Depending on the DL model and/or build version, variances of these steps may vary. 1. The following message can be ignored during the RASR recovery of the DL Appliance. 2. Accept the Microsoft software license terms.
3. Log into the DL Appliance. 4. Define a local password for the DL Appliance and click Finish.
5. Log into the DL Appliance using the credentials applied in the previous step. 6. Examine the notes and messages on the AppAssure Appliance Configuration Wizard welcome screen. 7. 30 Select one DL4300 NIC to begin the recovery of the DL4300 Appliance.
8. Enter network settings for the selected NIC in the previous step. 9. Configure the hostname and domain settings for the DL Appliance.
10. Configure SNMP Settings. 11. Optionally create Virtual Disks. NOTE: If Windows Server Backup is planned to be used for scheduled DL Appliance protection, the Windows Backup Virtual disk option must be chosen here. NOTE: If the Windows Backup virtual disk or bootable RASR virtual disks already exist or have previously been configured, the following message appears “No Windows Backup virtual disk or bootable RASR virtual disk can be created at this time.
12. Apply the provided DL configurations by clicking Next. 13. Reboot the DL Appliance. 14. After reboot, the AppAssure Appliance configuration wizard starts and optionally creates the Windows Backup and/or RASR Virtual disks. When creation is finished, the following message appears. Click Next.
15. The restoration of the DL Appliance operating system is complete. Configure the remaining DL appliance NICs as needed. 16. The restoration of the DL Appliance operating system is complete. Configure the remaining DL appliance NICs as needed.
8 Appendix C: Windows Recovery Wizard – Network Backup Configuration The RASR Windows Recovery Wizard recovery option offers a unique feature - to recover a DL appliance from a backup image that resides on a shared network drive. 8.1 Configure a Scheduled Shared Network Drive Backup Policy The DL appliance must create a recovery image on a network shared drive if it is to restore from it. To do so, Windows Server Backup is used.
1b. 2. Launch the DL appliance Windows Backup Server application.
3. Launch the Backup Schedule Wizard. 4. Select Custom to create a custom configuration.
5. Add the following Items for backup. (Additionally add the item Boot if it exists). 6. Select a backup schedule that fits your needs.
7. Select Backup to a shared network folder. 8. Accept the message describing that only one backup will exist when using a shared network folder.
9. Enter the UNC name to the shared network folder to use as the backup target. 10. Enter credentials to be used to carry out the scheduled backup.
11. Confirm the backup policy settings and click Finish. 12. The configuration of Windows Backups stored on a network drive is complete.
8.2 RASR Recovery using a Shared Network Drive Backup 1. Launch RASR from any one of the supported methods supported by the DL appliance and select Windows Recovery Wizard. (See Section-3 Launching RASR) 2. Select Windows Recovery Wizard. 3. Select Select a system image.
4. Click Advanced…. 5. 43 Click Search for a system image on the network.
6. Click Yes. 7. 44 Enter the UNC name to the shared network folder that hosts the DL system image.
8. Enter network credentials. 9. Highlight the newly added network location and click Next.
10. Highlight the system image that exists on the shared network drive. Click Next. 11. Click Next.
12. If the desired recovery image is correct, click Finish. 13. Click Yes to begin the DL recovery process.
14. The restoration process takes ~ XX minutes 15. Once restoration of the backup image is complete, the DL appliance will automatically restart. This completes the process for a RASR recovery using a shared network drive backup.
9 Appendix D Additional DL Appliance Resources Component DL4300 Manuals and Documents DL1000 Manuals and Documents AppAssure Appliance Configuration Wizard Demonstration DL4300 Specifications, Resources & Documents DL1000 Specifications, Resources & Documents AppAssure Specifications, Resources & Documents AppAssure product Support 49 Location DL4300 Product Support DL1000 Product Support YouTube Video Demonstration DL4300 Appliance web page DL1000 Appliance web page AppAssure web page AppAssure Product
