When SDR is off, you will not be able to restore the server with SDR.  However, you can still do a manual recovery of the server.  The success of this recovery will depend on what files/folders you have excluded from the backup.  For example, if you exclude the Windows directory, obviously the recovery will fail.  For this reason, SDR does not allow you to exclude anything.  Just in case, you exclude a critical component.

SDR icon will turn OFF if you de-select the root node checkbox next to your servername. Please make sure you select the server at this root node level so that the SDR icon is ON and you can recover your system in case of disaster.

The SDR icon will remain ON if you select this root node checkbox and then individually de-select the "non-critical" data volumes or the volumes hosting the disk storage devices.

Most of us know what files are critical. For example, BE2012 cannot save certain temporary XML files that are created by antivirus software. Those files are not critical. Now I have to choose between.

1. keeping explaining a customer, why backup jobs "fail", or
2. excluding that file, denying me SDR, or
3. uninstalling antivirus.

None of the above is truly a solution.

Thanks all for replies to my query.  I am still not clear.  I am explaining what I have done again in little more clear detail:

I created a new backup job (full+incremental), deselected root node of server, and then selected all nodes under the root, i.e. all hard drives, system stat, and SQL Server instance, the SDR indicare turns to off. 

Now, my question is, in case of disaster, if I just boot the server with SDR Disk, and latest backup set created as above, will it recover everything as it was running before desaster?  As pkh's post, what is manual recovery?

Actually, I tested BackupExec 2012 with great success for individual file recovery to complete disaster recovery on the same hardware and OS platform.  After successful trials, I formated and re-installed server as final.  I couldn't understand, if it was working 100% ok in trial run, what kind of problem it experience after re-installation.

Thanks again for reading this much large post.

Dipesh

Hi Dipesh,

When you take backup of a system with the SDR icon ON, at the end of backup a .DR file is created for that system which is used in the disaster recovery process. After completion of the backup you will see a Full backup success alert and it will also advice you to copy that .Dr file to an alerate location as well.

When the system you are recovering has the backedup data locally attached, you can perform local recovery from the SDR wizard, during this process you need to provide the .dr file and the location of the backup sets.

When you are recovering a system which was backed up to a remote media server, during recovery you will perform Remote recovery and then point to the media server to perform the recovery.

For a sever recovery it would be necessary to have the .dr file.

This technote will provide you with the details:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH180099

Is there a particular reason why you are un-checking the checkbox at the root?

You can check the root and still manage to keep the SDR icon ON by un-checking non-critical volumes.

By doing the above, you can have the .dr file created for the server.

Hope this solves your issue.

Thanks,

Gayatri

Hello Gayatri,

I have been backing up to NAS.  I checked, my backup sets do not have .dr file. 

Actually, I had been receiving error something like, 'failed load config xml file' related to p2v, however, I am not converting my backups to virtual.  I followed as commented here: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/bac... to uncheck root node of the server.

Dipesh

Hi Dipesh,

The .dr file is not generated as the SDR icon was off in your case, which is the expected behaviour.

Is the server being backedup a physical server or a Virtual machine?

What kind of disks does the machine have? Does it have atleast one locally attached disk drive (SCSI, SATA, IDE etc)

Thanks,

Gayatri

Hi Gayatri,

The server being backed up is physical server running Windows 2008 Enterprise 32 Bit. It has 2 x 450 GB SAS Drives (Hardware RAID1).

The .dr file has obviously not been generated when SDR was off (in last attempts), but was not generated even when SDR was on but backup ended up with error for p2v xml (mentionedin my earlier post).

Thanks for immediate replies from your side.

Dipesh

Hello,

Now, I selected root node for backup and ran full backup, it ended with error for p2v xml file:

Failed to load the configuration xml file.
C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\Catalogs\PROSERVER\CatalogProcessTemporaryFolder\{5FE9B22B-D746-4D80-A7BA-E9F4CEB84C83}\p2v.xml

server.domain.com Backup-Full -- The job failed with the following error: Failed to load the configuration xml file.
 

but at the same time, .dr file has been generated and following message also has been logged:

You have successfully completed a backup job that includes all critical system components. The computer is now fully backed up.

I understand that now my server is fully backed up and I shall be able to recover it fully off disaster, but isn't there any way, I can get full success message?

Dipesh

Hi,

I have the exact same problem - SDR fails with the p2v.xml error.

Excluding the folder automatically turns off SDR.

This is clearly no use.

I have tried creating a convert-to-virtual job along with the backup in an attempt to have the file created, but this does not work as there is no vmware or hyper-v environment for the server to connect to.

Please help,

Richard

I am also having a similair problem.

When doing full backups of our servers (actually 3 servers are having this problem) the SDR light is on, the entire server is being backed up, but the jobs completes with an exception :

My server is also physical Win 2003 R2 32-bit. It has a locally attached LTO-3 tape drive and a single RAID array, which seems to exclude the knowledge base article which talks about unsuported device types.

I really need an answer to this, as it is preventing me from deploying BE in our environment, without SDR capability.

Thanks,

Richard

Marcusolini,

Thank you for your quick response.

Below is the diskpart information for one of the machines having problems.

Also attached is a backup log file.

Thank you,

Scott

I'll have to provide the information on Monday as our systems are being powered down for building maintenance right now.

However, I am certain that the server has two basic disk partitions only. It does have a remote access card with a virtual cd-rom drive usb device however. But thew KB doc says that an unsupported device cannot be the ONLY disk.

Richard

Marcusolini,

All 3 of my servers are physical servers, with physical disks installed. They are not connected to a SAN. Now that I understand the problem, do you have any ideas why 3 disks would be improperly identified in DISKPART? Or how I can change them? All 3 of my servers display "Fibre" when they all contain physical disks inside the server. These servers did not complete with this exception until we upgraded from BE 12.5 to BE 2012 a few weeks ago.

Thanks,

Scott

Marcusolini,

My server too shows up as having only a "fibre" disk when in fact it has physical disks. Specifically, this server has a Dell PERC 5/i with 3 SAS disks in a RAID5 array. We also did experience this issue before upgrading to BE2012.

Richard

Some more information on the server - below is the RAID controller information and config.

Hi All,  In addition to the currently requested DISKPART and Backup Exec Job Log, please also include the output for the Microsoft Enumdisk Command Line Utility.  Download Enumdisk1 from the Microsoft link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/264203.  Extract, execute, collect, and post the command line output from ENUMDISK.  Thank you.

I've scoured the internet trying to find information as to why DISKPART and ENUMDISK would display incorrect bus types without any luck. There doesn't seem to be much information about this specific problem. Also, my servers are HP and others are experiencing problems with Dell too, so it doesn't seem specific to a certain hardware manufacturer.

Marcusolini,

Any update or any additional information needed to help resolve this?

Scott

Everything seems to have gone quiet here. Any progress?

I'm stuck waiting to for a fix to this - I need to test SDR working for a full backup and bare-metal restore before I can deploy in in production.

Thanks,

Richard

I am also stuck waiting for a fix. It is extremely important to get at least one SDR image of my critical servers ASAP. If this issue is still under investigation, could you please provide some suggestions on work arounds or other ways to ensure that I have valid backup data in the event of a failure?

If I can assist with any additional information please let me know.

Scott

I fixed my problem server by updating the LSI SCSI driver.  The new version apparently now reports the correct "type" so the full backup job is now successful.

Larry,

Could you be more specific? What specific hardware do you have? Make/Part number of your scsi card? Any downtime associated with the updated driver?

Thanks,

Scott

It is an LSI Logic PCI-X Ultra320 controller that is being used for the C drive.  No RAID or anything, just a simple spindle.  My tape hardware is on an LSI SAS controller.  Nothing connected via FC in this server at the moment, but it did have an idle FC HBA installed.

Windows Update was all happy.  But the bottom of http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH184002 mentions "Updating SCSI or Stroage Array Controller drivers can resolve the issue." so I gave it a try.  I just right clicked on the HBA in device manager and let it update from the internet by itself.  I believe that I had to reboot.

This solution probably doesn't work for everybody, but if the newer driver reports the disk as a different type, it could work for you.  The only way to know is to try?

Here is the current output.  I am assuming the "type" used to be "fibre" before I updated the driver.

DISKPART> detail disk

MAXTOR ATLAS15K_18SCA SCSI Disk Device
Disk ID: 301ACE26
Type   : SCSI
Bus    : 0
Target : 4
LUN ID : 0

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     C   w2003     NTFS   Partition     17 GB  Healthy    System

DISKPART>

After Larry's success, I had a look at my servers. They are Dell 2900s and T610s. The 2900s at least have the most current firmware and drivers for their PERC 5/i RAID controllers, so this solution does not help me.

Marcusolini, is there anything further we can check?

Richard

I looked at my HP E200i controller with firmware version 1.84. There is a newer version 1.86 but it was released to correct the issue below.

"Fixed an issue where logical drives were not being detected during POST or reboot on the HP Smart Array E200i controller with firmware version 1.80, 1.82 or 1.84."

I doesnt look like it would resolve the issue we are experiencing. Besides, the idea of upgrading the RAID controller firmware without an SDR image is just asking for trouble.

Marcusolini,  Suggestions?

Scott

Hi All,  An initial workaround fix has been identified, implemented, and unit tested.   The formal hot-fix release process will require more time before the hot-fix is publically available.  Another means to provide this hot-fix sooner is being discussed.  In the meantime, another possible manual temporary workaround, for Windows 2008-R2 only, is to create and initialize a native virtual hard disk (VHD) with a small volume (no drive letter) using the Disk Management console.  At the moment, there is no alternate workarounds for Windows 2003, 2003-R2, and 2008.  Thank you everyone for your continued patience.

Hi Marcusolini,

Thanks for your above response but creating a VHD disk has not fixed the issue. Do you have a date yet for the Hotfix release?

I have multiple servers that only have SAN attached disk & i am getting this error on all of them, meaning i cant get a full successful backup to perform SDR.

Your response would be much appreciated. 

Hi Marcusolini,

Thankyou for your response, info requested is below.

Marcusolini,

Any updates on the hotfix or patch? The suggested workaround above does not work for me since my servers are 2003. I am still unable to successfully get an SDR image of my servers.

Thanks,

Scott

Hi All,  An orphan\interim hot-fix has been packaged.  However, since this type of hot-fix is private and not fully qualified the distribution requires a transaction.  What this means is that customer support must be contacted and a case number generated.   When contacting customer support, be sure to mention Technote 184002 and Etrack 2932596.  Please note that a qualified public hot-fix is planned but is not currently available.  Thank you again everyone for your help and patience.

Hi,

We are having the common issue where we can't unselect anything on the D drive of a server with a standard raid5 container which has 1 logical drive divided into two partitions (C & D). The C drive is the system drive and the D drive is a standard data partition. The SDR light turns off if any file on D is unselected. I have run diskpart and the disk details are below. Can someone please tell me what I need to move off the D drive in order to be able to do selective backup of D drives data.

C Drive

DISKPART> detail disk

HP LOGICAL VOLUME SCSI Disk Device
Disk ID: 9C16D835
Type   : RAID
Bus    : 0
Target : 4
LUN ID : 0
Read-only  : No
Boot Disk  : Yes
Pagefile Disk  : Yes
Hibernation File Disk  : No
Crashdump Disk  : Yes

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 1     C   OS           NTFS   Partition    137 GB  Healthy    System

DISKPART> select disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

D Drive

DISKPART> detail disk

HP LOGICAL VOLUME SCSI Disk Device
Disk ID: 41237368
Type   : RAID
Bus    : 0
Target : 5
LUN ID : 0
Read-only  : No
Boot Disk  : No
Pagefile Disk  : No
Hibernation File Disk  : No
Crashdump Disk  : No

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 2     D   DATA         NTFS   Partition   1117 GB  Healthy

DISKPART>

Hi Marcus,

Log file attached, hopefully will have the correct info in it.

Hi Marcus,

Many thanks for that, having looked through the log it's gonna be quite easy to determine for all of the other clients we have the problem at so many thanks for the registry key and debug info. Most helpful!