System State Backup/Restore for Windows 2008

• Overview
• How to get here in the StoreGrid Web Console?
• System State Backup
• Restoring System State backup
• Troubleshooting Tips
• Limitations

Overview

Unlike System State backup in older version of Windows (which uses NTBackup), System State backup in Windows 2008 is supported through a command line backup utility called WBAdmin.exe. NTBackup is not supported on Windows 2008. It is not just the utility that is different for System State backup in Windows 2008. This document describes the aspects of System State backup that is specific to Windows 2008.

How to get here in the StoreGrid Web Console?
 In the top menu, select: "Backup->Add Backup Schedule" and choose the "system state" entry in the tree in step2

System State Backup

1. The dump location should be in a non-critical drive

   For the Windows 2008 system state backup, the dump location in the client machine where the WBAdmin will dump the data (before StoreGrid backs up to the backup server) should be a non critical drive – it cannot be the drive where Windows is installed and it cannot be the drive where StoreGrid is installed. Like for example, if Windows is installed in C:\ drive in a machine and if StoreGrid is installed in D:\ drive, then neither the C:\ nor the D:\ can be specified as the dump location. Also, the location specified has to be the root of the drive, not a folder inside the drive. For example, you cannot specify the dump location as D:\dump_loc; it has to be just D:\.

   

2. Size of the dump could be huge

   System State in Windows Server 2008 backup is typically huge. The number of files backed up could be as many as 50,000 or even higher. The backup could take an hour or more to complete. The size of each backup (full or incremental) could easily be several GBs in size.

3. Incremental backups will upload the entire data

   WBAdmin, which dumps the Windows 2008 system state data, creates the dump files and folders with distinct names during each backup (full or incremental). During every back the file/folder names of the dump are different and also the file/folder names have to be preserved as created by WBAdmin for the backup data to be restorable. Since the file/folder names change during each backup, StoreGrid will not be able to run Intelli-delta (backup only changed bytes) on them and will therefore upload the entire data every backup (full or incremental).

4. Running additional full backups may be unnecessary

   As explained above, since even the incremental backups always upload the entire backup data, doing additional full backups may not be required.

Restoring System State backup

Restoring Windows 2008 system state backup is a 2 step process.

1. Restore the system state backup data from the backup server into a folder in the client machine.

2. Using wbadmin tool apply the restored backup data into the machine.

(Details on restoring System State data on windows 2003)

Note: Before restoring the system state backup from StoreGrid, please confirm whether the backup contains *.vhd files by expanding the restore tree in the restore backup page. If vhd file is not listed, then it could be that the backup failed and is incomplete.

Please follow the below steps to recover the system state:

1. Restore System State backup data from StoreGrid web console.

2. wbadmin identifies the restored system state backup data if it has the following directory structure.

   <Restore_drive>/Windows Image Backup/

   If you have restored the system state backup in alternate location, then copy Windows Image Backup folder to the parent drive. Once the dump is available in restore location, using wbadmin tool you can restore the system state.

   Follow the steps mentioned below to restore the system state from the restored backup data.

   1. At the command prompt, type

      wbadmin get versions -backupTarget:<restore_drive>

      to get the version of the backed up system state data and press Enter. For example, consider you have the restored dump data in <restore_drive>/Windows Image Backup then give the command as shown in the screen shot below:

      

      This gives the backed up version of the system state backup.

   2. Copy the Version Identifier value.

   3. In the Command Prompt window, enter the command

      wbadmin Start SystemStateRecovery -version:<version Identifier> -backupTarget:<restore_drive>

      For example:

      wbadmin Start SystemStateRecovery -version:11/25/2008-19:30 -backupTarget:D:

      

   4. If the command was entered properly, a confirmation will be required to start the System State recovery. Type in 'Y' to accept the System State recovery, and press Enter to start the System State recovery process.

      

   5. The System State recovery will take several minutes to complete.

      
      

   6. Once the system state recovery completed, it will prompt you to reboot the system

   7. After the machine reboots, it confirms the system state recovery is completed and press Enter to continue. Press Enter.

      

Troubleshooting Tips

	Please enter the drive name as dump location for Windows2008 System State backup. Folder/filepath cannot be entered as the dump location.
Cause : StoreGrid uses the wbadmin tool to dump the system state which dumps the system state backups under the parent drive only. Like for example, the dump location can be D:\ and not D:\dump_loc\. Also, the dump location cannot be a mapped drives or a network shared folder. Solution : Please give the root location of the drive as the dump location. Like for example, the dump location can be D:\ (provided D: is a non-critical drive – where neither Windows nor StoreGrid is not installed)

	The system root drive cannot be configured as the System State backup's dump location in Windows 2008 client machines.
Cause : The dump location for Windows 2008 System State backup cannot be the drive where Windows is installed. Solution : Provide the dump location as the drive where neither Windows nor StoreGrid is installed (non critical drive).

	Windows Server Backup is not installed in your System. Please install and try again.
Cause : StoreGrid uses Windows server backup feature to backup the system state in Windows 2008. If this is feature is not installed then you will get this error. Solution : Windows server backup is available in windows 2008 by default. However, if it is not installed, then you need to install it. Please follow the below steps to install Windows server backup feature Click ‘Start’, click ‘Server Manager’, in the left pane and then click ‘Features’. Then in the right panel click ‘Add Features’. This opens the Add Features Wizard In the Add Features Wizard, on the ‘Select Features’ page, expand Windows Server Backup Features, and then select the check boxes for Windows Server Backup and Command-line Tools. You will receive a message that Windows PowerShell is also required to be installed with these features Click Add Required Features, and then click Next. On the Confirm Installation Selections page, review the choices that you made, and then click Install If there is an error during the installation, it will be shown in the Installation Results page.

	Please check dump location has enough space or any other dump is in progress.
To identify the reason run StoreGrid in command prompt Cause 1: If the dump location doesn't have enough space to store the dump data. Solution : Please give drive name that has enough space to store the dump files. Cause 2: If already system state dump is in progress. Solution : Open Task Manager and check whether the process 'Wbengine.exe' or 'wbadmin.exe' is running. If so, kill those processes and schedule the backup again. Cause 3: If the dump location is the StoreGrid installation location. Solution : Run StoreGrid in command line and schedule the system state backup and check if any error message shows up. If it shows that the given dump location is a critical volume (i.e., other than system drive) then check StoreGrid installation location. Make sure you give the dump location as the drive where neither Windows nor StoreGrid is installed. Cause 4: If VSS is diabled. Solution : Run StoreGrid in command line and schedule the system state backup and check if an error message ‘Catastrophic failure’ (as shown in the screen shot below) shows up. Please enable VSS and try again.

Limitations

1. You can't dump System State data to Critical volume (system drive).

2. You can't dump System State data to the drive where the StoreGrid is installed.

3. The dump location should have enough space. On a 32-bit system, the system state image runs about 6.5GB!.

4. wbadmin tool need to be enabled manually.

5. You can't configure the dump location as a network shared folder/ mapped drive /tape drive.

6. If the given dump location is CD/DVD, confirm that there is a media which is writable during backup.

7. VSS services must be enabled.

8. wbadmin tool always gives full dump of the system state with the folder name as backup-timestamp and StoreGrid treats this folder as new folder. Hence it consumes space as much as the full backup consumes.

9. Do not restore the incomplete backups. Before you restore please check whether *.vhd file is available in restore tree.

10. While restoring, make sure you select one incremental to restore. If you select multiple incremental backups in a single restore, the restore data size will be huge. Remember, each incremental could be as large as 6 GB.