INFO: Stand Alone Backup & Disaster Recovery Utility)

INFO: Free Stand Alone Backup & Disaster Recovery Utility

UBQ ID Number: UBQ000061

Last Modified: 2000-06-08 at 10:44:06

SUMMARY:

DETAILS:

Overview

Image backup and restore is typically the fastest method of both backing up and restoring a crashed or failed disk. The process runs close to manufacturers rated speeds for disks and tape devices. The restore process is very simple and requires only minimal training. This is a perfect tool to insure the recovery of a failed server.

The SADR (Stand Alone Backup & Disaster Recovery) Utility has been designed for use on both Intel and Alpha servers as a fail-safe method of recovering a server after an operating system crash or disk failure. The SADR Utility boots from Stand Alone floppies and allows a fast "Ultra Clean" image backup to tape, or a fast static mirror disk copy to another disk (cloning).

Achieve Immediate System Recovery by booting machine with SCSI controller allowing alternate boot address, switch boot address to static mirrored disk, or reboot machine using alternative operating system disk.

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Free SADR Utility vs. UltraBac's Image Extra-Cost Option

The Free SADR Utility is, of course, free and will backup and restore Disk Images (disk copy - cloning). In addition to Disk Imaging, UltraBac's Extra-Cost Image Option provides scheduled Image backups, media spanning, software compression, Partition-Level Images, and MBR (Master Boot Record) only restores.

Creating Stand Alone Floppies – Intel & Alpha

In order to restore a Boot Disk Image, we recommend the user create UltraBac's SADR Floppies/CD-ROM on the computer where the restore will be performed and before the boot disk fails. This is not mandatory however, so when creating UltraBac's SADR Floppies on a different computer that does not have the necessary drivers installed, the user must copy these drivers over to the third SADR floppy manually.

See UBQ: UBQ000026 Supporting Proprietary & Multiple Drivers with Stand Alone (Recovery) Floppies.

See UBQ: UBQ000152 Creating SADR Floppies for the Free SADR Utility - Intel

Stand Alone Backup

Any time after the Stand Alone floppies have been created, an administrator can boot from the diskettes and perform an "Ultra Clean" backup to either tape or to another locally connected disk device. Services that typically start at boot-up will not start when booting from the SADR Floppies. Thus the data on disk will be in a stable state, avoiding a "dirty" backup and producing an "UltraClean" backup.

Note: Disk-to-disk backups currently require that the output disk be equal to or greater in size than the input disk.

A Stand Alone Backup is essentially an Image Recovery with the source and target reversed. Boot the computer using the Stand Alone floppies. Use the production disk as the source device and a tape device as the target device.

See UBQ: UBQ000058 Stand Alone Image Backup/Restore Using Floppies – Intel & Alpha

Stand Alone Recovery

This step uses the floppies created in the "Creating Stand Alone Floppies – Intel & Alpha" Section shown earlier.

A Stand Alone Restore is essentially an Image Backup with the source and target reversed. Boot the computer using the Stand Alone floppies. Use the tape device as the source device and the production disk as the target device.

See UBQ: UBQ000058 Stand Alone Image Backup/Restore Using Floppies – Intel & Alpha

NOTE: The "MakeDisk.exe" utility, which provides for the creation of the SADR diskettes, will not be included in UltraBac 6.3 and above, in favor of the UltraBac Disaster Recovery (UBDR) utility.

See User Manual: UBDR: UltraBac Disaster Recovery

MORE INFORMATION:

See UBQ: UBQ000024 – What is an Image Backup?

See UBQ: UBQ000026 – Supporting Proprietary & Multiple Drivers with Stand Alone (Recovery) Floppies

See UBQ: UBQ000027 – Restoring Individual Files from an Image Backup

See UBQ: UBQ000028 – PCMCIA SCSI Controllers and Disaster Recovery

See UBQ: UBQ000051 – Defining an Image Storage Device

See UBQ: UBQ000052 – Defining a Partition Storage Device

See UBQ: UBQ000057 – Creating SADR (Stand Alone Disaster Recovery) Floppies - Intel & Alpha

See UBQ: UBQ000058 – Stand Alone Image Backup/Restore Using Floppies – Intel & Alpha

See UBQ: UBQ000059 – Integrated Image Recovery (Non-System Disk)

See UBQ: UBQ000060 – Static Mirror Image Recovery