Backup / Restore of Windows 2008
Creation Date: May 24, 2010
Revision Date: September 15, 2017
Product: DS‑Client (Windows)
Summary
This article contains information specific to Windows 2008.
Backup of a Windows 2008/R2 and 2012/R2 Cluster
DS-Client can back up these components within a cluster:
• Individual nodes
• Shared storage
Path required to back up individual nodes or shared storage
To create a backup set for an individual node, including its local shares and system state files, enter either of the following as the Path in the New Backup Set Wizard:
• IP address of the individual node
• Computer name of the individual node if the DNS has been configured properly
To create a backup set for the shared storage of a cluster, enter the IP address of the virtual node as the Path in the New Backup Set Wizard.
Do not use the virtual node’s IP address or name to back up a Windows 2008/R2 or 2012/R2 cluster.
With Microsoft’s introduction of file share ‘scoping’, local shares on cluster nodes are not accessible via the virtual node. Backing up through the virtual node also means alternating between nodes as the backup source, which can result in these restore issues:
• Generations of the same file share the same file name but may contain nonequivalent content because they are taken from different nodes.
• Files may be mistakenly marked as “deleted” when not found in one node though initially and previously backed up from another node.
Restoring a Windows 2008/R2 Cluster
A cluster can work when a minimum of 2 resources are up and running and can communicate with each other. Therefore, there are two restore cases:
These restore examples use the following backup environment.
Cluster configuration:
• Node and Disk Majority.
Backup sets items:
• Node1 contains C$, Q$(cluster's share), System State, Services Database
• Node1 is the active node for the entire duration of the backup.
• Node2 contains C$, System State, Services Database
• Node2 is a passive node for the entire duration of the backup.
Case A. Cluster will be available after both nodes are restored.
Restore Steps:
Availability of 2 machines with two network adapters each.
1. Install the same operating system (Windows 2008) on each machine. Set up the IP addresses for both public and private cluster networks.
2. Do not start the machine that has the IP of Node2. Restore the backup set of Node1.
a) After the restore is finished, reboot the Node1 machine for all changes to take affect.
The restore will not retain the network settings; therefore, you need to reset the IP addresses.
b) Bring quorum disk online (click Server manager > Disk Management). After this is finished, shut down the Node1 machine.
3. Keep Node1 shut down, and power on the Node2 machine. Restore the backup set belonging to Node2.
a) After the restore is finished, reboot the Node2 machine for all changes to take affect.
The restore will not retain the network settings; therefore, you need to reset the IP addresses.
b) Bring quorum disk online (from Server manager > Disk Management).
4. Power on the Node1 machine.
5. Connect to the active node and open the Failover Cluster Management console. Run Validate a Configuration to ensure that the environment is correctly configured. Even if the validation does not return any error, the cluster might not work properly because some resources could be off-line.
• If the Cluster Disk1 is off-line, select Repair, then bring this resource online.
• If the Cluster Name is off-line, select Repair Active Directory Object, then bring this resource online.
Case B. Cluster will be available after Node1 is restored and witness disk signature corrected.
Restore Steps:
Availability of 1 machine with two network adapters.
1. Install the same operating system (Windows 2008) on that machine. Set up the IP addresses for both public and private cluster networks.
2. Restore the backup set of Node1 (the one with the cluster’s share). After the restore is complete, do not reboot the Node1 machine.
3. In the Windows operating system Event Log > Windows Logs > System, there will be an error message:
Cluster physical disk resource 'Cluster Disk 1' cannot be brought online because the associated disk could not be found. The expected signature of the disk was 'B46F3BE8'. If the disk was replaced or restored, in the Failover Cluster Management snap-in, you can use the Repair function (in the properties sheet for the disk) to repair the new or restored disk. If the disk will not be replaced, delete the associated disk resource.
4. You will not be able to use the suggested functions because the Failover Cluster Management will not be able to connect to the cluster (because the minimum of 2 resources communicating to each other is not yet available).
• At this stage, the restored Node 1 cannot see the quorum disk because it is a new disk, and it has a different signature from the original one.
• If you want the cluster to run with only one node and the quorum disk, the quorum disk’s signature must be modified to the expected (original) signature.
5. To modify a disk signature you can use the “Diskpart” tool on the Node1 machine.
• To access the utility, type diskpart at Windows command prompt.
• To display the available disks, use the command list disk.
• To select the disk whose signature you want to change, use the command select disk # (where # is replaced with the corresponding disk number).
• To view the present disk signature, use the command uniqueid disk.
If the original disk id was ‘abcd1234’, you would type the following command to change it:
uniqueid disk id=abcd1234
6. Open the Failover Cluster Management console and connect to the cluster.
• If the Cluster Disk1 is off-line, select Repair, then bring this resource online.
• If the Cluster Name is off-line, select Repair Active Directory Object, then bring this resource online.
DFS (Distributed File System) Namespaces
Distributed File System (DFS) allows you to create DFS Namespaces. You can group shared folders that are located on different servers into one or more logically structured namespaces.