Restoring NetWare Servers (6.5)
Creation Date: June 14, 2001
Revision Date: January 21, 2015
Product: DS‑Client
Summary
Following are the prerequisites to perform a bare metal restore of a NetWare 6.5 server.
Details
If you did not use DOSFAT.NSS (or any other tools) to backup the DOS partition, the latest support pack must be installed prior to restore.
To execute a full NetWare server restore after hardware failure you must do the following:
• Install the NetWare server. Install the NetWare licenses. In NetWare 6.5 the "admin" account does not have rights to backup the licenses. Unless you grant these rights manually, the backup of NDS will not contain the licenses. However Novell does this automatically.
• During the installation, provide the same NDS tree, and the same server context, otherwise DS‑Client will not be able to restore (DS‑Client cannot perform an alternate restore of NDS).
• Apply the latest NetWare support pack. This step is necessary because NDS will fail to load if it is not in synch with the rest of the modules in NetWare 6.5. If you have a backup of the DOS partition, you can restore it, and in this case there's no need to apply the support pack.
There are two scenarios when you perform a full restore:
• Scenario A ‑ NDS tree with a single server.
1. Restore only NDS in a single session. This step is necessary because the NDS object(s) must exist prior to applying trustee assignments.
2. Add Name Space (if any).
3. Restore the file system in the next session, and then reboot the server (see the above requirement on applying the latest NetWare support pack).
• Scenario B ‑ NDS tree with multiple servers.
1. Restore only NDS on the master replica in a single session.
2. Add Name Space (if any).
3. Restore the file system on the master replica in the next session (see the above requirement on applying the latest NetWare support pack).
4. Install the rest of the servers. When asked for the NDS tree name ‑ select the existing one and connect to the master replica.
5. Add Name Space (if any).
6. Restore the file system on the rest of the servers (see the above requirement on applying the latest NetWare support pack).
NOTE: Novell claims that for multiple server environments, you do not need to restore the NDS. The restored server will be able to pull NDS updates from the rest of the servers. However, in mass disasters (or when emulating a mass disaster) you may need to perform a full NDS restore to all of the servers.
Certificate Server
At the end of NDS restore you must perform some extra steps because of the inability to restore the certificate server. According to Novell you cannot back up and restore the certificate server. To resolve this problem, remove the certificate server first and then to reinstall it:
1. After a successful restore of NDS, delete the following items using ConsoleOne:
• All certificates
• the SAS object
• everything in the Security container (check TID 10056795 from http://support.novell.com ‑ especially if you have a Multi‑Server environment).
2. Run NREPAIR.NLM. This utility can be downloaded from http://support.novell.com. This utility is the only way to remove the certificate server and properly initialize NICI:
a) Follow the prompts from the screen
b) After successful removal, mount the Certificate Server Installation CD
c) Install the certificate server through the GUI
After the above steps are complete, your server will have the proper NDS. The only exception would be any previously used certificates that are no longer valid. You can test the functionality of the certificate server by trying to create a new server key.
NOTE: From now on the version of NDS that you restored will no longer be useful since the certificate server and all the certificates are different. (i.e. you should backup NDS immediately after completing the restore.)
3. After applying all the necessary steps, start restoring the file systems. You MUST clear the check box for the NICI subdirectory from SYS volume \SYSTEM\ because it contains information related to the previous version of the certificate server and NICI. If you do not remove this directory from the restore process, you will have to clean the certificates again and run NREPAIR, and then reinstall the certificate server.
Notes
• When doing a full file system restore you may encounter some errors. They are recorded in the DS‑Client Logs. Once the restore is completed, check the Activity and Event Logs. If there are any errors, perform a restore for each of the files that had errors. This is a known issue and we are working with Novell to resolve it.
• If you have more than one NDS partition, you must reconfigure it manually.
• If you encounter the error The network name cannot be found when trying to restore, this means the NetWare SERVER has been rebooted too many times. This has caused the NetWare CLIENT on the DS‑Client computer to cache too much data. This can be fixed by either performing a "login" to a NetWare server, or rebooting the DS‑Client computer.
• After restoring NDS, CIFS may not function. This limitation is not only exhibited by DS-Client, but also SMS Backup. To fix CIFS, follow the directions described in Novell Support Knowledge base - TID 10071043. You have to recreate the login sequence.