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| Hello,
Been a while I've visited and posted anything in this grou. Back for a
short spell to share some info with you people...
This might help starting admins, and some of the experienced people as
well, especially people who are working in a small office with tight
budgets running a few small servers and supporting few users!
Let me give you a summary first:
The following will describe a method to perform a scheduled ghost
imaging of a server HD to either a tape streamer, a second HD or to
another workstations with enough HD capacity to hold the ghost image
file, to be used for the purposes of recovering a server in case of HD
failure!
I will mainly talk about imaging to the tape streamer since it is more
interesting, and a bit about imaging to another workstation as it
involves a few networking details. Imaging to another HD is pretty
straightforward job and any one of you can figure it out on your own
with what is presented here for the other 2 options!
Ghosting the HD to a Tape streamer:
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This is an example of a situation when you are limited with your
hardware, and want to go for the cheapest solution, and want to
automate the ghosting process. Think of also a situation where you do
not have enouh storage space or media to perform the job, and you need
to do it immediately, such as when you have a single computer with a
single HD that is already installed and in use, and the streamer is
your only other storage device!
Also, when I say "automate" I mean:
1. The server will shutdown windows NT and boot into DOS.
2. Perform a Ghost imaging of the HD
3. Reboot into Windows NT
And you should not baby-sit the server to walk it through these steps!
In my case I had a small server (pentium-II, 350 MHz, 128 MB RAM, IBM
SCSI HD 8.6 GB capacity with 4.5 GB used space, and a HP Streamer
C1537A, and a SymbiosLogic SCSI card), running Exchange 5.5, and a
small database, in a windows network environment with a few users
(less than 20). An example of low budget situation.
Don't want to invest in new HD, other hardware, or expensive software!
System backup was always being done with NTBackup; considering its
limitations, less than satisfactory, since many files cannot be backed
up as they are in use/locked by an application or the system.
If the HD or server crashed, restoration will be a lengthy and painful
operation!
The only extra expense to improve the situation was to shell out some
bucks for a license of Ghost program! (Ghost ver 7.5).
There are of course Backup programs and other software that allows you
one or two step disaster recovery options and better, etc (such as
Arcserve Backup, Seagate Backup Exec, Tivoli, etc)... But they all
come with a heavy price tag!
There are also hardware solutions with hefty price tags as well...
Now back to the situation..
Currently the HD was partitioned with 4 partitions; 1st partition is
Primary NTFS (where NT and some apps reside), the remaining 3
partitions on an extended partition (all NTFS) with database and user
files, etc...
Because I wanted the whole process to be automatic and Ghost requires
DOS environment, I needed to repartition the HD, and restore the
original data from the 4 partitions back to the new partitions! Adding
a second HD would be the easiest solution and not so expensive, but
for the purposes of demonstrating what is possible even without
changing/adding new hardware, the following should be interesting...
Fully format a diskette under WinNT, and copy ntloadr, ntdetect.com,
boot.ini, and bootsect.dos files to the diskette to have a boot
diskette to boot the computer to WinNT! You will need the files to
convert your system to a dual-boot configuration!
Create also an ERD diskette before progressing further!
Prepare a DOS boot diskette (Modular boot diskette) with ASPI drivers,
and ghost.exe and make an image of each partition to a tape under DOS
(total 4 tapes required, as ghost can put a single image on each tape)
- the details of modular boot diskette, ASPI drivers, and ghosting to
streamer will become clear when you read further along.
This way we have images of each partition, and we can destroy current
partitions and repartition the HD, and then place the data from each
partition to the new corresponding partitions!
I will not bore you with details of the operation, and give out the
new configuration:
1st partition: Primary, FAT16, 15 MB capacity, for DOS and ghost use,
and marked ACTIVE
(under DOS the drive is called C, under WinNT drive is called H)
2nd partition: Primary, NTFS 1 GB cap, for Winnt and applications,
restored from ghost image of original C-drive!
(under DOS the drive is seen as foreign drive and unaccessible,
under Winnt the partition is seen as Drive C, and is the original
partition from the first configuration)
3rd, 4th and 5th partitions are on an extended partition and are all
NTFS formatted, and restored from ghost images of original D, E and
F-drives!
(under DOS it cannot be accessed, under WinNt they retain their
original drive letters of D, E, and F from their first configuration).
The IDE CDROM (is drive G under WinNT).
The funny way of drive lettering is because of the problems associated
with applications, user data, and other shares that are being referred
to within WinNT environment. If I had let the normal drive lettering
happen, then each drive letter will shift and WinNT will have
problems!
So in comparison with the original partitioning scheme the only
difference is that a small primary partition is placed in front of the
original 4 partitions, ending up with 5 partitions!
Remember that IDE CDROM is drive G under WinNT!
Original:
Prim1 (active, NTFS) - C (under WinNT)
Log1 (in extended, ntfs) - D (under WinNT)
Log2 (in extended, ntfs) - E (under WinNT)
Log3 (in extended, ntfs) - F (under WinNT)
New:
Prim1 (active, FAT) - H (under WinNT) / C (under DOS)
Prim2 (nonactive, NTFS) - C (under WinNT)
Log1 (in extended, ntfs) - D (under WinNT)
Log2 (in extended, ntfs) - E (under WinNT)
Log3 (in extended, ntfs) - F (under WinNT)
Since we have a small and FAT16 formatted partition the system can be
dual booted to DOS or WinNT.
Using Windows 98 CD format the 1st Primary partition FAT16, and
transfer the system files (for Win98 DOS)- format c: /s
Make the necessary changes to Boot.ini (to specify each OS, and their
respective boot drive - refer to MS KB articles for more info), and
using WinNT boot Diskette, copy NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, BOOTSECT.DOS, and
BOOT.INI files to the 1st Primary partition!
Set the 1st Primary partition as the active partition, using
Fdisk.exe.
With the modified boot.ini file, you can specify which OS you want to
boot into (NT or DOS). If you have problems then research the dual and
triple boot configuration issues on MS Knowledgebase articles, and the
Resource Kit, as there is a wealth of info there!
A short reminder: the booting process will be controlled by NTLOADR,
and will use boot.ini (to boot into NT or DOS) and if required
bootsect.dos (to boot into DOS) files to boot into the required OS!
Test your system for proper booting to WinNT and to DOS as required.
If encountered problems then identify the source of the problems and
solve them. Most of the problems relate to Boot.ini, so you should be
able to figure it out with all the reading material available or
asking here!
Now you need some serious information and good tools and scripts to
use, and what better place than Bart's web-site (www.nu2.nu).
He has some nice free utilities and tools that can be easily adapted
with very little work (programming wise...)
May be just a few lines of batch files, and using his tools to create
some CAB files that will contain some DOS stuff (which you need a
license and are not readily available from Bart's web-site), and ready
to use network, and ASPI drivers (that you can download from Bart's
web-site).
I created the modular boot diskette stuff and placed it directly onto
the FAT16 partition. Apart from that I made a folder to hold Ghost
executables and copied Ghost to the folder on that partition, and some
of the most used DOS commands and executables to the DOS folder!
Since there is enough capacity on the small partition (more than
diskette capacity), and the partition is bootable, it is faster and
easier to run the DOS stuff directly from the HD. Furthermore to
automate the process of:
1. Boot into DOS
2. run Ghost to ghost the hd to streamer,
3. reboot into winnt
you need to have the stuff available on the HD. You cannot really
automate the stuff if you have to have a bootable diskette in the
floppy drive or a bootable CD on the CDROM drive, and you have to
manually remove the diskette or cd when the operation is finished!
The modular boot diskette design by Bart allows you to plug in network
drivers, TCP/IP networking under DOS, as well as ASPI drivers to
access SCSI devices. Using his design it is easy to access the SCSI
streamer.
The new version (7.5) of Ghost can do a lot (as its predecessors) but
is much improved.
Of the many options, you can ghost over the network to another
computer (slow but depends on your network - switched 100 MB network
is pretty good) or to a streamer directly (slow also but depends on
your SCSI bus, HD speed and streamer speed) as well as ghosting one
local HD to another local HD (which is the fastest method).
The final phase is to write some scripts...
You need to use a trick that is made possible by Boot.ini file. You
can set a timeout period and also specify the default OS you want to
boot into in Boot.ini file. So create 2 boot.ini files, DOSBOOT.INI
(which specifies default OS as DOS), and NTBOOT.INI which specifies
the default OS as NT).
You need also Win98 executable called Restart.com to automatically
boot the computer under DOS, and winNT utility (from Resource Kit)
called Shutdown.exe which you can use to boot the computer under
WinNT.
One script file which you will run or schedule within Windows NT,
should do the following:
1. copy the DOSBOOT.INI as BOOT.INI on the 1st Primary partition,
2. use shutdown.exe to reboot the windows NT server
NOTE: This file will execute under WinNT, so the correct copy
statements should refer to drive H (the 1st primary partition).
With this script you have taken care of shutting down windows NT and
booting into DOS (because the Boot.ini references DOS as the default
OS for booting into, when time out expires).
Once the system boots into the DOS, your autoexec.bat and Bart's
modular boot diskette design (which is available on the 1st primary
partition) comes into play, and starts an automatic search for ASPI
drivers, and initializing the SCSI card (so the streamer is made
available to Ghost), and then runs a script to perform the following:
1. copy NTBOOT.INI as BOOT.INI
2. Start Ghost and perform ghosting the HD to streamer
(ghost supports lots of switches that you can place in a
configuration file, and also batch commands, so you can do pretty much
whatever you want. Refer to Ghost documentation for details.)
3. use restart.com to boot the system
NOTE: The copying of INI files are being done on Drive C under DOS, so
take care you refer to the correct drive!
When Ghosting is complete and the system is rebooting the current copy
of BOOT.INI (which specifies NT as the default OS), this will ensure
your system is booted into NT!
With above mentioned hardware (average speed HD, slow Streamer, and
average scsi card throughput), I have managed to get a HD ghost image
onto the tape in 1 hr (HD is 8 gb capacity, 4.5 GB full with data).
That Ghost image can be later used to restore the complete system in
case the HD fails, and is replaced with a new HD. The total money
spent is the license cost of Ghost, and way down cheaper!
Ghosting Over the Network to a Workstation:
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The only difference for this method is that you will need the NIC
drivers for your server's network card from Bart's web-site, and
design your modular bootable diskette based on a Network boot diskette
(as explained in his web-site). Copy the designed files to the HD
keeping the modular design structure!
Test boot your system, and configure your networking options.
Make a network mapping to a workstation that has enough free space to
hold the ghost image. You can save all these network settings
including the drive mapping, etc in a profile file, so that all the
necessary settings can be used automatically time after time, when the
computer is booted to DOS!
Call a script as the last step from the Bart's Modular Network booting
design!
The script should perform the following steps:
1. copy NTBOOT.INI as BOOT.INI
2. Start ghost and image the server HD over the network to the
workstation
(ghost supports lots of switches that you can place in a
configuration file, and also batch commands, so you can do pretty much
whatever you want. Refer to Ghost documentation for details.)
3. use restart.com to boot the system
When Ghosting is complete and the system is rebooting the current copy
of BOOT.INI (which specifies NT as the default OS), it will ensure
your system is booted into NT!
Ghosting One HD to Another HD:
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I will not even talk about it, as it is pretty simple operation. You
do not even have to deal with modular boot diskette stuff.
Just add the necessary script to perform a ghost image of one hd to
another, and call it from your autoexec.bat!
I have to stress one point: You need to check out and go over the
material available in Bart's web-site, since booting your system under
DOS and having scsi drive access or network access is made easily
possible using the tools and information available there, and it is
almost plug 'n play (pun intended) considering you only need to
download a few files and place them in a specific folder structure if
you want to do it manually. You can also use his tools to create the
whole lot on diskette and then copy the diskette to the FAT16
partition!
The whole process is quite simple but as can be seen from the above
example, it was complicated by one factor. Having a Windows NT system,
that was originally installed as a single-boot (NT boot) instead of
dual-boot system, and most of the time was spent on converting the
system to dual boot!
If you start fresh, then it is easier as you can perform DOS and NT
installations with proper order, and have less trouble dealing with
proper boot loader and boot.ini and related issues!
All the above methods give you different options of difficulty and
cost (time, money, etc), so there's enough choice to come up with a
solution that will answer your disaster recovery situation.
Depending on how much data you have, and the hardware specs, you can
do it slow and cheap or fast (and possibly slightly expensive).
However they still offer you a solution that will not cost you an arm
and a leg if you don't want to go for the professional backup or
disaster recovery solutions available in the market today!
Sincerely,
L.O.
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