Symantec Backup Exec™ System Recovery 8 is the gold standard in complete Windows® system recovery, allowing businesses and IT to recover from system loss or disaster in minutes, not hours or days, even when recovering to dissimilar hardware and virtual environments. Helping IT administrators meet recovery time objectives, Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery provides rapid, easy-to-use system restoration or full "bare-metal" recovery for servers, desktops, or laptops.

Pre-requisites
Installation & Setup

• Create A Separate WinPE Configuration for the BESR SRD
• Modify the BESR SRD WinPE Image to include the DAgent
• Intall AutoIt
• Create the BESR Recovery Job and AutoIt Script

Appendix A: Adding DAgent to BESR WinPE.bat
Appendix B: BESR Wizard Automation Script
Conclusion

Altiris Deployment Solution for Dell Servers allows a complete server build to be captured as a simple job. A Deployment Solution job is a series of automated tasks which run sequentially on one or more computers or servers. Deployment Solution for Dell Servers (available for all 6th - 10th Dell Servers) provides a set of prebuilt, tested jobs for provisioning Dell server from bare metal. Once created, these jobs can be easily executed on one or more servers within the Altiris console (with no further involvement by the administrator). The Altiris Deployment Solution controls the entire unattended build process.

Many users have often wanted to use the agility of Deployment Solution for Dell Servers with the power of Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery. The two together would allow administrators to automate the server build process by configuring hardware components such as the DRAC, BMC, and RAID configuration - and provide the speed and flexibility of recovery with Backup Exec System Recovery images. This whitepaper will outline how these two powerful products can be integrated to fully automate Dell Server build or restoration with Backup Exec System Recovery - allowing you to perform a "hands - free" restoration.

Pre-requisites

The following are required to complete the integration:

• Deployment Server 6.9 with WinPE Automation Environment Installed
• The BackupExec System Recovery Disk (BESR SRD)
• A valid BESR Recovery Point with available images (.v2i files)
• AutoIt - a freeware Windows automation Scripting engine

Installation & Setup

This section covers the steps of setting up the Altiris Deployment Server to automate the BESR Recovery process.

CREATE A SEPARATE WINPE CONFIGURATION FOR THE BESR SRD

The follow steps show how to create a separate WinPE configuration on your PXE Servers by using the Deployment Solutions PXE Configuration Utility.

1. Open the PXE Configuration Utility (Tools -> PXE Configuration), and click New to create a new PXE Configuration.
   

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2. Give it a name, (i.e. BESR_WinPE), select WinPE and select Boot Disk Creator as the Image Creation Method. (See Below for reference)
3. 

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4. Step through the Boot Disk Creator Wizard, selecting all the defaults.
5. After the PXE Configuration is created. Click Edit to view its details.
   

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6. IMPORTANT! Make Note of the "Final location on PXE Server". This is the location where the modified BESR WinPE image will be placed. (i.e. \PXE\Images\MenuOption163)
   

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7. Close the PXE Configuration Utility, saving your changes.

MODIFY THE BESR SRD WINPE IMAGE TO INCLUDE THE DAGENT

The next step is to add the DAgent (the agent which communicates back to the Deployment Server from within WinPE) to the BESR SRD WinPE. To simplify the process, the commands to copy, mount and edit the boot images have been added to a simple script. The script is well documented and located in Appendix A: Adding DAgent to BESR WinPE.bat. Few modifications should need to be made, and are highlighted in RED. Alternatively, one could type each command from the script into a command prompt.

Prior to executing the script, perform the following 4 steps.

1. Copy the following 2 files to the root (C:\) drive. (If C: is not the root drive then modify the script accordingly)
   • Extension.Auto.StartWithAltiris.xml
   • Adding DAgent to BESR WinPE.bat
2. Insert the BESR SRD Disk into the CD/DVD drive. (If D: is not the CD drive letter then modify the scrip accordingly).
3. Open a command prompt and navigate to C:\
4. Execute the "Adding DAgent to BESR WinPE.bat" from the command prompt
   

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The script will modify the BESR WinPE image and place it into the appropriate PXE Server location (i.e. PXE\Images\MenuOptionXXX).

INTALL AUTOIT

AutoIt v3 is a freeware scripting language for automating the Windows GUI. Since the BESR Recovery Wizard does not supply any supported command-line execution, AutoIt will manipulate the wizard to automate the recovery process.

1. Download AutoIt3. http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/
2. On your Deployment Server, install AutoIt (Launch AutoIt-v3-setup.exe), choosing all the default options.
3. Create an AutoIt directory in the Deployment Server express share (i.e. C:\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\AutoIt)
4. Copy the entire contents of the C:\Program Files\AutoIt3 to C:\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\AutoIt
5. Create a BESR folder in the pasted AutoIT directory
   

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CREATE THE BESR RECOVERY JOB AND AUTOIT SCRIPT

The next step is to modify the AutoIt script and create a Deployment Server job to execute the recovery wizard. Again to simplify the process a predefined AutoIt script has been provided in Appendix B: BESR Wizard Automation Script. Few modifications should need to be made, and are highlighted in RED.

1. Open the Deployment Console
2. In the Jobs pane, Right Click -> New Job
3. Give the job an name: (i.e. BESR Automated Recovery)
4. In the Tasks pane, click Add -> Run Script
5. In the Run Script dialog add the following script:

   F:\AutoIT\AutoIt3.exe F:\AutoIT\BESR\BESR_Automation.au3

   

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6. Copy the BESR_Automation.au3 file to C:\Program Files\Altiris\eXPress\Deployment Server\AutoIT\BESR

Appendix A: Adding DAgent to BESR WinPE.bat

REM ==============================================================

REM Make Appropriate Directories

REM Change path if C:\ does not exist

REM --------------------------------------------------------------

mkdir C:\BESRSRD

mkdir C:\BESRSRD\mount

mkdir C:\AltirisPE

mkdir C:\AltirisPE\mount


REM ==============================================================

REM Copy boot.wim from the SYMC BESR SRD CD to be mounted

REM D:\ Refers to the CD drive with BESR CD, change to appropriate SRD CD location

REM --------------------------------------------------------------

xcopy D:\SOURCES\BOOT.WIM C:\BESRSRD\

REM ==============================================================

REM Add the WAIK Tools to the Environment Variable

REM

REM --------------------------------------------------------------

call "C:\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\WAIK\Tools\PETools\pesetenv.cmd"

REM ==============================================================

REM Mount BESR boot.wim for editing

REM Mount Altiris boot.wim to copy files from

REM The MenuOptionXXX below should correlate to a WinPE configuration

REM Remove any "line breaks" in the above Deployment Server Path (should be 1 line)

REM --------------------------------------------------------------

imagex /MOUNTRW C:\BESRSRD\boot.wim 1 C:\BESRSRD\mount

imagex /MOUNT "C:\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment
 Server\PXE\Images\MenuOption131\X86PC\sources\boot.wim" 1 C:\AltirisPE\mount

REM ==============================================================

REM Copy files from Altiris .WIM to BESR .WIM - this adds the DAgent and supporting files

REM 

REM --------------------------------------------------------------

xcopy C:\altirisPE\mount\dagent C:\BESRSRD\mount\ /S /E

xcopy C:\altirisPE\mount\reg C:\BESRSRD\mount\ /S /E

xcopy C:\altirisPE\mount\*.* C:\BESRSRD\mount\

xcopy C:\altirisPE\mount\Windows\System32\startnet.cmd C:\BESRSRD\mount\Windows\System32\ /Y

xcopy C:\altirisPE\mount\Windows\System32\startutl.bat C:\BESRSRD\mount\Windows\System32\

REM ==============================================================

REM Rename the Eula.xml extension to bypass the EULA

REM Remove any "line breaks" in the below long command (should be 1 line)

REM --------------------------------------------------------------

rename C:\BESRSRD\mount\Windows\Shell\Extension.Auto.ShowEula.xml Extension.Auto.ShowEula.xml.disabled

REM ==============================================================

REM Copy the AutoStart .xml file the to BESR .WIM to autostart the DAgent

REM 

REM --------------------------------------------------------------

xcopy C:\Extension.Auto.StartWithAltiris.xml C:\BESRSRD\mount\Windows\Shell\ /Y

REM ==============================================================

REM UNMOUNT the .WIM Files - commit changes to the BESR .WIM

REM 

REM --------------------------------------------------------------

imagex /UNMOUNT /commit C:\BESRSRD\mount
imagex /UNMOUNT C:\AltirisPE\mount

REM ==============================================================

REM Copy the modified BESR .WIM to the new PXE Configuration location

REM The below MenuOptionXXX below should correlate to the WinPE configuration create in step 1

REM Remove any "line breaks" in the below long command (should be 1 line)

REM --------------------------------------------------------------

xcopy C:\BESRSRD\boot.wim "C:\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\PXE\Images\MenuOption163\X86PC\sources\boot.wim" /Y

Appendix B: BESR Wizard Automation Script

; AutoIt Version: 3.0

; Language: English

; Script Function: Launches Recovery My Computer Wizard, enters the appropriate values.

Run("X:\Windows\Shell\V2i\V2ISR.exe")

;Wait for the Recover My Computer Wizard to become active

WinWaitActive("Recover My Computer Wizard")

;Welcome Page of Wizard Appears - Continue

Send("!N") ; Alt+N to the next step

Sleep(5000) ; Wait for UI to render

;No recovery points dialog may appear

;Press Enter to supress "Not Recovery Points Found" warning

ControlClick("Recover My Computer Wizard", "", "[CLASS:Button; CLASSNN:Button1; INSTANCE:1]")

Sleep(1000) ; Wait for UI to render

;Provide the valid location to the v2i file

ControlSend("Recover My Computer Wizard", "", "[CLASSNN:Edit1]", "\\dellns\BESR_RECOVERYPOINT\W2K3R2_C_Drive001.v2i")

Sleep(1000) ; Wait for UI to render

Send("!N") ; Alt+N to Continue to the next screen

Sleep(1000) ; Wait for UI to render

;Restore Anywhere Dialog

;Send("!U") ; Uncomment this line to check the RestoreAnywhere option

Send("!N") ; Alt+N to Continue to the next screen

Sleep(1000) ; Wait for UI to render

;Target Drive Dialog

;Send{"!D") ; Uncomment this line to delete the selected drive

Send("!N") ; Alt+N to Continue to the next screen

Sleep(1000) ; Wait for UI to render

;Recovery Options Dialog - Uncomment the below options to change

;Send("!V") ;-Verify Recovery Point Before Restore (default: checked)

;Send("!C") ;-Check for file system errors after recovery (default: unchecked)

;Send("!R") ;-Resize restored drive (default: unchecked)

;ControlSend("Recover My Computer Wizard", "", "[CLASSNN:Edit1]", "8000") ;-Resized drive in MB

;Send("!P") ;-Partition type: Primary

;Send("!L") ;-Partition type: Logical

;Send("!S") ;-Set Drive Active (default: unchecked)

;Send("!o")	;-Restore Original disk signature (default: checked)

;Send("!M")	;-Restore MBR (default: unchecked)

;Send("!d")	;-Preserve domain trust token on target driver (default: unchecked)

Send("!N")	; Continue to the next Step

Sleep(3000)	; Wait for UI to render


;Completing the Recovery My Computer Wizard Dialog

Send("!R")	; Reboot machine after complete

Sleep(1000)	; Wait for UI to render

Send("!F")	; Click Finish Button

Sleep(3000)	; Wait for UI to render

Send("{Enter}")

; Finished!

Conclusion

Altiris Deployment Solution for Dell Server dramatically reduces the cost and time of deploying and managing Dell Servers - combined with Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery - Administrators can easily deploy or restore backup images in an automated fashion. This whitepaper has outlined the steps necessary to perform a complete hands-free restoration of a BESR Image leveraging Deployment Solution for Dell Servers.

In addition to providing best of breed deployment, and backup functionality, Altiris Deployment Solution and Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery both integrate into the Dell Management Console. This integration will give administrators a single pane of glass for hardware management, deployment and backup, among other features. When used together Symantec and Dell Solutions allow Administrators to take a proactive rather than reactive approach when managing their environments.