backup/restore of SC

[technick22]

Hi,
In case of system failure of our SmartCenter server what needs to be backed up, so we can restore on a different box and be up and running.
We are running on W2K3

Thanks
Nick

[gavvys]

Hi
Regarding Checkpoint you can take the backup of Checkpoint setting using the upgrade tools and save the backup on some other server and you can restore the setting from there.
Regarding the OS you can use the ghost image or any other tools.
What i did for disaster recovery is that, I took 2 harddisks and installed the smartcenter server on both and used 1 at a time, and regarding the Checkpoint settings I keep them updated by using alternatively.If something goes wrong I just Swap the Harddisk and again prepare the harddisk by taking the Checkpoint setting from another harddisk.

I hope this will help you.

Regards
Ranjit

[trinity]

Is it possible to use Norton ghost on a VM and restore the image onto a physical box? Would this work as the hardware settings on a VM are different to those on a physical machine.

Thanks

[RayPesek]

1. Use upgrade_export to make a platform-independent backup of the configuration. Make them often and save them some place safe and secure.

2. Install a new server using the operating system and hardware of your choice.

3. Do a default install of SmartCenter.

4. Use the upgrade_import tool to import the platform-independent configuration backup.

This lets you move from any supported operating system to any other operating system.

Ray

[trinity]

Thanks ray. But since it's the windows server OS I know this needs to be hardened down. Thought it would easier to take an image of the VM, is this possible?

Originally Posted by RayPesek

1. Use upgrade_export to make a platform-independent backup of the configuration. Make them often and save them some place safe and secure.

2. Install a new server using the operating system and hardware of your choice.

3. Do a default install of SmartCenter.

4. Use the upgrade_import tool to import the platform-independent configuration backup.

This lets you move from any supported operating system to any other operating system.

Ray

[Thorpuse]

No reason you can't take an image of the VM and achieve the same - my question would be why you're having to worry about all that hardening stuff when you could just use SecurePlatform, with its own built-in hardening and snapshot tools.

[trinity]

Originally Posted by Thorpuse

my question would be why you're having to worry about all that hardening stuff when you could just use SecurePlatform, with its own built-in hardening and snapshot tools.

Well I would personally but in work they all love Microsoft!!
For some reason I thought it wasn’t possible to take a virtual image and put it physical box due to hardware differences.
I guess I was wrong.

[RayPesek]

It would depend on what you're using for VM software. We do it with ESX all the time. We build up the test system in VM and then deploy it to hardware.

Ray

[trinity]

Originally Posted by RayPesek

It would depend on what you're using for VM software. We do it with ESX all the time. We build up the test system in VM and then deploy it to hardware.

Ray

We're using the Microsoft VM software (no surprises there then!). I guess I'll just have to try it out, not really ghosted many images though.

Thanks for your help

[RayPesek]

I used Virtual Server 2005 at my last job for about a year. I do not remember ever reading anything about being able to do this. Now that I'm in a VMWare environment, I cannot believe how archaic and behind the times VS 2005 is.

Ray