RE: Disaster Recovery

Hi Bryan,

Thank you for posting in SBS newsgroup.

From the description, I understand that you want to know if you can restore
the SBS backup to a different hardware platform. As the document stated,
the hardware must be similar for a restore. This rule can be applied to ALL
Windows OS not only SBS. Here, I would like to explain this. When we use
SBS 2003 server backup, the system state will be archived. The system state
includes AD database, IIS metabase, registry, hardware information and
drivers etc. If you restore the system state to a different hardware, the
spare server could not operate because the original registry and drivers do
not match the hardware abstract layer (HAL) of the destination server.

Actually, we do not support restoring a Windows system including SBS 2003
on a different hardware. If you do that, you may not be able to boot up the
server after the restoration. You may experience other unexpected issues
(such as unexpected shutdown) even though you can start the server.

For more information, you can refer to the following document:

Backing Up and Restoring Windows Small Business Server 2003
http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/d/8/bd8e1a40-d202-429a-8eb7-26300d6
2bcc9/BKU_BkupRstr.doc

Also I provide the following disaster recovery steps on SBS:

* Use ldifde utility to export the user list and mail address list
* Use Exmerge to export the messages from mailboxes
* Use Outlook to export the contents in the public folders to .pst files
* Use Outlook to export the Outlook rules
* Back up the SharePoint database
* Copy other data such as the files in shared folders to other location
(removable media, other partition on the server or shared folders on client
workstations)
* Boot the computer with SBS installation CD. Format the original system
partition and clean install SBS 2003 server. When you reinstall the server,
you can duplicate the original domain and server name. Also you may use new
domain name or server name for this new installation.
* After installing all SBS components, configure the SBS server networking
configurations by using CEICW
* Use SBS add users wizard to create user accounts according to the ldifde
list
* Use Exmerge to import the messages to mailboxes
* Use Outlook to import the messages of public folders
* Use Outlook to restore the rules
* Restore the SharePoint database
* Copy other data back to the server

For ldifde:
========
Install Windows server 2003 support tools on the server. You may install
the tools from SBS installation CD#2.

Open a command prompt and then input the following command: (for example,
the server internal FQDN is ds9.starfleet.federation)

ldifde -f c:\userlist.txt -s ds9.starfleet.federation -d "dc= starfleet,
dc= federation" -p subtree -r
"(&(objectcategory=person)(objectClass=User)(givenname=*))" -l
"givename,samaccountname,mail,proxyaddresses"

You will get the user names and e-mail addresses from userlist.txt file

More info:
237677 Using LDIFDE to Import and Export Directory Objects to Active
Directory
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=237677

For Exmerge:
========
You may download the latest Exmerge utility from the link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=429163EC-DCDF-47DC-
96DA-1C12D67327D5&displaylang=en

Also, you can find the instruction after decompressing the file.

It's recommended to create a dedicated user account (normal user account)
to run the Exmerge. You can right-click Exmerge program file and choose
'Run as'. Run the utility as the specific user account. For how to
configure this user account, please refer to:

292509 How to configure an account to use the ExMerge utility in Exchange
2000
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=292509

322312 When the Mailbox Merge Program Tries to Open the Message Store, the
Operation Is Unsuccessful
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=322312

823143 How to configure the administrator account to use Exmerge 2003 in
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=823143

For public folder migrating:
======
1. Use an account on Outlook client computer that has administrative rights
to log on to a mailbox on the server that is running Windows 2000.
2. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Outlook Data File.
3. Click Personal Folders File (.pst), and then click OK.
4. Name the file Public.pst, save the file to a path that has a lot of free
disk space, and then write down the location where the file is saved.
NOTE: The .pst files have storage limits of 2 gigabytes (GB) each.
5. Accept the default settings that are listed in the "Create Microsoft
Personal Folders" dialog box, and then click OK. A new folder group that is
named Personal Folders is created in Outlook.
6. In the Outlook folder list, expand Public Folders, and then expand All
Public Folders.
7. Drag each top-level public folder that you want to export to the
Personal Folders folder that you created in step 4. All top-level public
folders and their subfolders are copied.
8. Log off the Outlook client.
9. From the Outlook client, use an account that has administrative rights
to log on to a mailbox that is homed on the SBS 2003 server.
10. Create new public folders.
11. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Outlook Data File.
12. Click Personal Folders File (.pst), locate and click the .pst file that
you created in step 4, and then click OK two times.
13. Drag the folders from the Personal Folders folder to All Public Folders
in the Outlook folder list.

For CEICW:
========
There is a wizard in SBS 2003 server which can help us easily configure the
Internet connections and e-mail settings. Open Server Management console,
navigate to 'To Do List'. In the right panel, click 'Connect to the
Internet'. For more information:

825763 How to configure Internet access in Windows Small Business Server
2003
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=825763

For Outlook rules:
========
You can use Outlook to export the current rules. Go to the client
workstations, open Outlook application. Click 'Tools'->'Rules and alerts'.
Click 'Options' and then 'Export rules' button. You can export the rules to
a file.

For User profiles:
========
The above steps will help you install the SBS 2003 server. To preserve
client user profiles and settings that were on the original domain to the
new SBS 2003 installation, a manual way is documented in the KB article:

314045 HOW TO: Restore a User Profile in Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=314045

Another way is to create a local profile, copy the original domain profile
to the local profile, and then let the "Setup Computer" wizard do the task
"map local profile to new domain profile" for you.

As long as you create your computer accounts using the server manager's "to
do list" you will be prompted to migrate profile information. When you join
the workstations to the domain by using the web site (ie
http://servername/connectcomputer) part of the process of joining the
domain will allow you to migrate user settings. However, to use this
method, you need to make sure that the profile you want to migrate from is
a local user profile (Not a previous domain profile):

1. Before joining the client to SBS 2K3 domain, create a local profile, and
then copy the old domain profile to a local profile.
2. Add the SBS Server into the network
3. Use the Setup Computer Wizard in SBS 2003 to join the (now) XP Pro
machines to the SBS domain: Server Management, Standard Management, Client
Computers, Set Up Client Computers.
4. On the client, access http//<Server name>/connectcomputer to bring up
the Setup Computer Wizard, it will then allow you to map domain user
accounts to local profiles on the machine thus preserving your profiles:
"Assign Users to this Computes and Migrate their Profiles".
5. You will Add a domain account to "Users assigned to this computer!/, and
then choose the existing local user profile in the "Current User Settings".
By Default, the value for "Current User Settings" is "None".

For SharePoint database:
======

829112 How to back up and restore http://companyweb data in Windows Small
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=829112

827701 How to perform a disaster recovery operation of SharePoint Services
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=827701

Also due to the complexity of this issue, to save your time, we recommend
you contact CSS for better support.

A suggestion would be to contact Microsoft Product Support Services via
telephone so that a dedicated Support Professional can assist with your
request. Please be advised that contacting phone support will be a charged
call. However, if you are simply requesting a hotfix be sent to you and no
other support then charges are usually refunded or waived.

To obtain the phone numbers for specific technology request please take a
look at the web site listed below.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;PHONENUMBERS

If you are outside the US please see http://support.microsoft.com for
regional support phone numbers.

I appreciate your time and look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Crina Li (MSFT)

Microsoft CSS Online Newsgroup Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

=====================================================
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check http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.

Any input or comments in this thread are highly appreciated.

=====================================================

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
--------------------
| From: "Bryan L" <blinton.nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
| Subject: Disaster Recovery
| Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2006 13:44:15 -0600
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|
| I'm considering disaster recovery scenarios and I have a few questions.
| First, my setup:
|
| I have a SBS 2003 as my DC and Exchange server. I have 3 other Win2k3
| Standard servers: one is an additional DC and file server, one is housing
| our customer data in a SQL database, and one is an IIS server hosting a
NET
| application that accesses the SQL server's db.
|
| Currently, I use several technologies to back up this data. My SBS does
a
| full backup to a file on a volume on my SQL server, to which my DLT drive
is
| directly attached. The SBS backup includes all files, system state, and
the
| Exchange DB. The other three servers have enterprise volume imaging
| software configured to make daily full images of their system partitions
to
| the same volume as the SBS file backup. My SQL server runs BackupExec
10,
| and uses its agent on the second DC/server to back up all our file shares
| hosted on that server. It uses the SQL agent to backup the SQL database.
| It also writes the SBS backup file and the three server image files to
the
| backup tape.
|
| My question has to do with how we'd recover if all our hardware were
| destroyed (fire, tornado, etc). If identical hardware were available,
it'd
| be a pretty simple matter to restore 3 of the 4 servers from the system
| images and the SQL and file backups. The SBS could pretty easily be
| reinstalled from scratch so I could do a full restore in Directory
Services
| restore mode. However, if identical hardware were not available (which
is
| what I'm assuming), would I not have issues with restoring the system
state
| on a server whose hardware was different? System state as I understand
it
| includes the entire registry, including hardware configuration. Does
| "system state" restoration somehow allow for this scenario? If I DO need
to
| use different hardware, I'll certainly have issues with my system images.
| What do people normally do? Could I try to arrange for my new servers to
at
| least use the same mass storage controllers? If I did this, wouldn't I
be
| able to restore my system images to the new servers, and then let windows
| detect all my other "new hardware" on startup?
|
| Just wondering whether system imaging software for servers can
realistically
| provide any benefit in such a scenario, or if it's usefulness is
understood
| to be limited to use on the same server.
|
| Thanks in advance, I welcome all thoughts on this. I'm trying to
minimize
| the time it would take to get back up and running in a worst-case
scenario
| where our data is the only thing that survives complete physical
devastation
| of our premises and equipment.
|
| Thanks,
|
| Bryan
|
|
|

.