Restore PNs Using QUARK
The following disaster recovery workflows prompt you to use Quorum Ultimate Automated Recovery Kit (QUARK):
QUARK is an easy-to-use wizard that walks you through two types of restores:
• Bare Metal Restore (BMR). You have a server failure or site failure and you want to restore a Recovery PN from scratch.
• Incremental/Reversion Restore. You have a server failure and you want to restore to the latest snapshot, or you have a corruption problem and need to restore to a previous snapshot (aka reversion).
You can also restore PN data using two other methods:
file level restore (FLR) and
Windows Share Restore (WSR). These methods are commonly used in non‑disaster recovery scenarios.
To learn more about BMR/QUARK support and limitations, go to:
(Step 1) To download the QUARK software:
QUARK supports two boot options:
• USB. This media is used for most installs. If for any reason QUARK cannot inject the necessary drivers, you can add drivers to this USB for use during the BMR without needing additional media.
• ISO. Burn this ISO to a CD‑ROM or, in the case of virtualization, save this ISO to your network and point to it from your virtualization infrastructure.
2. Go to APPLIANCE CONFIG tab > ADVANCED button > SOFTWARE UPGRADES page > Check for Updates button.
This step ensures that you have the most current version of QUARK for your onQ Appliance. However, if your disaster scenario is critical, skip this step so as not to add more complexity to your recovery in the event that your upgrade results in unusual complications.
3. Save the QUARK image. Later you will reconfigure the Recovery PN’s BIOS to boot QUARK.
a. Go to APPLIANCE CONFIG tab > ADVANCED button > DOWNLOADS.
b. Select the Quark_BCV-<release>-<date>-<time>.iso, click Download, then save the .iso file to your virtualization infrastructure, or burn it to a CD-ROM or USB flash drive.
Now you’re ready to perform your BMR.
(Step 2) To restore data to your PN:
In this procedure, Recovery PN (also called Recovery OS, BMR target, restore target, or simply target) refers to the server to which you are restoring. This Recovery PN can be a physical or virtual machine.
If your Recovery PN is a virtual machine, QUARK requires a “shell” (and necessary disks and network cards) onto which QUARK can load its snapshot(s). You can retrieve this “shell” by building a new virtual machine from scratch, restoring to the original PN, using a snapshot of your virtual machine, or deploying a clone from a template. In any case, this virtual machine need not look like your Recovery PN. Simply reconfigure the machine’s BIOS to boot QUARK, then QUARK will walk you through the BMR.
| Note: Although QUARK attempts to inject the necessary drivers for your system, it’s a best practice to have a copy of these drivers as part of your business continuity plan. |
Your Recovery PN must have enough resources to accommodate the new data. To be safe, ensure that your Recovery PN has at least the same amount of disk space and memory as the failed PN.
| Warning: Do Not Restart! In the event of a restore failure, QUARK provides you the opportunity to resume the restore (see Step 8 and Step 12). However, this capability will not be available if you: • Restart protection. Therefore, do not stop, then start protection (aka restart) on the onQ. • Restart a BMR for a different PN from the same onQ. Therefore, wait for the BMR to complete before beginning another from the same onQ. |
1. Verify that your platform is supported. Go to
Support.
2. Configure Hardware RAID on the Recovery PN.
If necessary, configure any hardware RAID controllers in the BIOS of the Recovery PN. For instructions, refer to the hardware manufacturer’s documentation.
3. Launch the QUARK wizard:
a. Configure the Recovery PN’s BIOS to boot QUARK.
b. Boot the Recovery PN to load the QUARK image.
The Start BMR page appears.
4. From the Start BMR page, allow the QUARK wizard to check for basic network and disk controller drivers on which QUARK depends, then Next.
If the QUARK wizard detects a missing driver, upload the missing network driver.
| Note: To manually launch the Add Drivers utility, run the following command from the command prompt: # QUARK_Wizard.exe AddDriver |
5. (Optional) In the Network Configuration page, change the default network configuration, then Next:
• If the wizard detects a DHCP server, the wizard displays the assigned default IP address and netmask.
• If DHCP is not enabled on the network, the wizard displays the assigned default Windows workgroup address.
a. Select a NIC from the Interface drop‑down list.
b. Specify a temporary IP address for the restore target. DO NOT set the IP address to the PN's original IP address; doing so prevents onQ from communicating with the restore target. After onQ restores PN data, the restore target will automatically be set to the PN's original IP address. Select the Set Static IP check box to set the default IP address to a static IP.
The Disk Cleanup / iSCSI Configure page appears.
6. Do one of the following:
• Reset all local disks. Select this option if you intend to perform a BMR.
| Note: Resetting the disks ensures that you do not write PN data on top of corrupted data. Reformatted and clean disks are ideal. However, if you’ve already created the disk partitions outside of QUARK using a disk partition tool, you can skip this task. |
• Skip disk reset. Select this option if you intend to perform an Incremental/Reversion or your last restore interrupted prematurely.
• Configure iSCSI disks. Select this option if your Recovery PN has iSCSI disks. The
QUARK Disk Configuration wizard launches. (1) Add QUARK (BMR target) to the iSCSI target’s initiator list, then (2) In
Disk Configuration page, specify the iSCSI target’s IP address to attach the iSCSI devices to QUARK.
The Log on to onQ page appears.
7. In the Log on to onQ page, type the IP Address and credentials of the onQ Appliance that manages the Recovery PN’s snapshot to which you want to restore, then Next.
The onQ Appliance analyzes the snapshots that belong to the Recovery PN, and determines the restore types (Full BMR or Incremental) that are available for this recovery, then displays the Select PN page.
8. In the Select PN page, select the restore type and the Recovery PN from the drop-down list of PNs that the onQ Appliance manages, then Next.
• Full BMR. Restore a Recovery PN from scratch. If the onQ Appliance doesn’t have the incremental backups that are needed to perform the Incremental/Reversion restore (that is, the PN is a new server and does not have any data on its disk), the wizard displays the Full BMR option only; otherwise, both options are available.
• Incremental/Reversion. Use the Incremental/Reversion restore type to: (1) Restore to the latest version; simply choose the latest snapshot, or (2) Revert to a previous version (also known as a reversion); simply select the snapshot that represents a point in time. This scenario is ideal when you know that the latest version is corrupt.
• Resume restore. Appears when onQ detects an incomplete restore (aka restore failure) on the target. An incomplete restore (see
Step 12) may occur if a restore doesn’t complete within 48 hours. Choose Resume restore to resume “beginning where QUARK left off.” You also have the choice to start over.
9. In the Select Snapshot page, select the snapshot to which you want to restore the Recovery PN, then Next.
10. From the Begin PN Restore page, click Next to confirm your PN and snapshot selection. The QUARK Disk Configuration wizard launches.
11. Configure the Recovery PN with the same disk configuration as the original PN, then Close.
| Note: If a USB/CD-ROM takes a PN drive letter, QUARK automatically reassigns the USB/CD-ROM a different drive letter. |
a. For every volume that appears in the PN Layout field, add a corresponding volume. The volume can be either a drive or a mountpoint. Optionally, you can change the
Volume restore size of the drive or mountpoint; the default is the allocated size as shown in the onQ Portal.
b. If the drive is a boot drive, specify the partition style when the QUARK Disk Configuration wizard prompts you:
• If you want the PN to boot with BIOS, select MBR/BIOS.
• If want the PN to boot with UEFI, select GPT/EFI.
Optionally, change the partition size.
c. Select the volumes that you want to restore. Typically you’ll want to select all the volumes; however, you might want to restore only the operating system so as to get the PN up and running quickly as demonstrated in the example below; you can always restore the remaining volumes later using QUARK, FLR, WSR, or a third party tool.
d. If you want to delete a volume or view volume information (for example, file system), right‑click on the volume and
Delete Partition and
Volume Information respectively.
e. When the Begin PN Restore page appears, click Next.
If you receive the following error message, the volumes that you added do not match the PN layout. However, as outlined in
Step c, you do not need to restore all the volumes.
f. Wait while the wizard formats the drives. This process can take several minutes.
| Note: If you accidently close the QUARK Disk Configuration wizard or you need to reconfigure your disks before you restore, you can launch the wizard from the command prompt: # QUARK_Wizard.exe showDiskConfig |
The
PN Restore Progress page appears.
12. Wait for the onQ Appliance to restore the Recovery PN to the snapshot you selected.
a. If the onQ Appliance detects a problem, the QUARK wizard aborts the BMR, then displays a status message. Browse the list of error messages in
(Step 4) To interpret QUARK Errors: to correct the problem.
b. If QUARK does not display any errors, verify that the restore completed successfully. Log on to the onQ Appliance’s onQ Portal, then go to
RESTORE >
SNAPSHOTS. Locate the target snapshot that you chose. If the
Status icon is red, hover‑over the icon to display the status message.
If the status message indicates
Incomplete: Unexpected Disconnect, then you will need to launch QUARK and perform the restore again. When you select the PN from
Select PN page, onQ notifies QUARK of the restore failure, then QUARK provides you the opportunity to resume the restore (see
Step 8).
If the status message indicates
Completed Successfully and if you attached iSCSI devices in
Step 6, verify that the Microsoft iSCSI initiator assigned the correct drive letters for each iSCSI device. If not, change the drive letters:
Computer Management >
Disk Management.
Sometimes the restored PN can have incorrect drive letters for iSCSI devices if the target has an unexpected Microsoft iSCSI initiator version.
13. Verify that all disks are online. onQ cannot back up offline disks. If there’s an offline disk, bring it online by using the OS’s Disk Management interface. For more information, see the pertinent
troubleshooting tip in
BMR Problems.
14. If video reverts to 640x480 or 800x600 resolution, change the related video boot option. For more information, see the pertinent
troubleshooting tip in
BMR Problems.
15. Do the following, after you verified that the restore completed successfully:
a. From the P2P Adjust OS Wizard, select the Recovery PN’s operating system and, when prompted, choose Adjust the OS to the new hardware automatically, then Next.
If the Recovery PN’s hardware is different from the image, the wizard needs to inject the necessary drivers into the image to adjust for this change.
Your snapshot might contain the necessary drivers in its cache; if so, this wizard will inject those drivers; otherwise, you’ll need to supply the drivers.
b. When prompted, click
Yes apply the changes physically, then
Next:
c. Select Reboot the system or Shutdown the system to complete the restore, then Finish.
If you reboot the PN without adjusting for new hardware, you can perform the adjustments after the restore completes. Simply launch the wizard again by repeating
Step 3 and
Step 4, then select the
Perform OS Adjustment workflow from the
Continue onQ Restore page.
(Step 3) To manually adjust a PN’s operating system for new hardware:
If after performing a BMR your PN does not boot (BSOD), you’re missing boot‑critical drivers. In the rare case that the P2P tool did not properly adjust your PN’s operating system for the new hardware, you need to manually adjust the operating system using the P2P Adjust OS Wizard’s Set parameters for the OS adjustment option. Before you begin, retrieve the necessary drivers.
1. Launch the QUARK wizard:
a. Configure the Recovery PN’s BIOS to boot QUARK.
b. Boot the Recovery PN to load the QUARK image.
The Start BMR page appears.
2. From the Start BMR page, allow the QUARK wizard to check for basic network and disk controller drivers on which QUARK depends, then Next.
3. From the
Continue onQ Restore page, select the
Perform OS Adjustment workflow.
4. From the
P2P Adjust OS Wizard, select the Recovery PN’s operating system, then
Next.
5. Choose
Set parameters for the OS adjustment, then
Next.
6. Specify the path to the driver, select the
Inject all necessary drivers from the specified repository check box and the
Keep the latest driver version check box, then
Next.
7. Select the driver, then
Next.
8. Select the
Yes, apply the changes physically radio button to make the necessary adjustments, then
Next.
9. Click
Finish. Now that your PN has the correct boot‑critical drivers, your PN should now boot.
10. Select Reboot the system or Shutdown the system to complete the adjustments, then Finish.
(Step 4) To interpret QUARK Errors:
Error | Cause | What do I do? |
Authentication failed for onQ | You typed the incorrect credentials. | Try again. |
Command Failed, IP Address is in use by a Protected Node | When you specified an IP address for the QUARK client, you typed an IP address that’s already listed in the onQ’s hosts file. The QUARK client needs an IP address to communicate with onQ. A common mistake is to specify the PN’s original IP address. | Change the IP address in QUARK’s Network Configuration page. |
Failback already running for a different target | The onQ Appliance is busy performing a BMR for a different Recovery PN. An onQ Appliance can only perform one BMR at a time. | Wait for the in‑progress BMR to complete, then perform the next BMR. |
onQ Protection turned off. Could not continue with BMR process | Protection on the onQ Appliance is off. | Turn on protection. |
onQ connection timeout | If the wizard doesn’t get a response from the onQ Appliance within 60 seconds, the wizard displays this timeout error. | Try again. |
Could not connect to onQ | The wizard could not connect to the onQ Appliance. | Try again. |
Could not retrieve PN list from onQ | There was either an unexpected database error; or There are no PNs in the onQ Appliance’s list of protected node (the list is empty). | Try again. If the problem persists, verify that you logged on to the correct onQ Appliance. |
No Snapshots available for the selected PN | There are no snapshots available on this onQ Appliance for the PN you selected. | Verify that you logged on to the correct onQ Appliance. |
onQ already started failback for a different target. onQ terminating current BMR session. | onQ allows concurrent BMR logins to the same onQ Appliance; however, precedence is given to the last BMR user. If you are not that user and you try to start a BMR/Incremental restore, you will be rejected by onQ: QUARK automatically redirects you to the logon page and displays the aforementioned message. | Perform the BMR at a later time. |
EFI system partition not detected. Please check disk configuration. | BMR for EFI boot based PNs require EFI system partition to be created prior to restore. If the user's intent is to perform a EFI based restore, then QUARK checks the presence of EFI system partition before the start of the restore. QUARK returns this error if QUARK cannot detect an EFI partition. | Specify the correct partition style in the QUARK Disk Configuration wizard. |
(Step 5) To troubleshoot PN boot problems: