Perform Bare Metal Restore

Before you begin, learn more about BMR support and limitations:

•	Bare Metal Restore Limitations

•	Bare Metal Restore Support

A Bare Metal Restore (BMR) refers to the process of recovering from a server failure by restoring a Recovery PN from a snapshot on the onQ Appliance.

To perform this BMR, use the Quorum Ultimate Automated Recovery Kit (QUARK), which has an easy-to-use wizard that walks you through the entire BMR.

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.

1.	Log on to the onQ Portal.

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.

3.	Go to APPLIANCE CONFIG tab > ADVANCED button > DOWNLOADS, then do one of the following.

•	USB method. Select the Quark_usb_BCV-<release>-<date>-<time>.zip, Download, then save the .zip file to a USB key.

•	ISO method. Select the Quark_BCV-<release>-<date>-<time>.iso, Download, then save the .iso file to your virtualization infrastructure, or burn it to a CD-ROM.

Now you’re ready to perform your BMR.

To perform a bare metal restore:

In this procedure, Recovery PN (also called 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, this procedure assumes that you have a snapshot of your virtual machine or a template from which to deploy a clone. In any case, this virtual machine is only a “shell” onto which QUARK can load its snapshot(s). 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.

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, the Add Drivers page appears.

Note:  To manually launch this Add Drivers utility, run the following command from the command prompt: # QUARK_Wizard.exe AddDriver.

5.	(If necessary) In the Add Drivers page, upload the missing network driver, then Next.

•	If the wizard detects an existing image, the Continue onQ Restore page appears. Proceed to Step 6.

•	If the wizard detects a raw disk, the Network Configuration page appears. Skip to Step 7.

6.	From the Continue onQ Restore page, select the Continue with onQ Restore workflow, then Next.

•	If the wizard detects a DHCP server, the wizard displays the assigned default IP address and netmask in the Network Configuration page.

•	If DHCP is not enabled on the network, the wizard displays the assigned default Windows workgroup address.

7.	(Optional) In the Network Configuration page, change the default network configuration, then Next. The Log on to onQ page appears.

Select the Set Static IP check box to set the default IP address to a static IP.

8.	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 analyses 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.

If this process fails, browse the list of error messages in BMR Errors to correct the problem.

9.	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.

If the onQ Appliance doesn’t have the incremental backups that are needed to perform the restore, the wizard displays the Full BMR option only; otherwise, both options are available.

10.	In the Select Snapshot page, select the snapshot to which you want to restore the Recovery PN, Next, then Yes to reset the disks.

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.

From the Begin PN Restore page, click Next to confirm your PN and snapshot selection.

•	(Full BMR) The following dialog appears, and the The QUARK Disk Configuration wizard launches.

•	(Incremental BMR) The PN Restore Progress page appears. Skip to Step 12.

11.	Configure the Recovery PN with the same disk configuration as the original PN:

a.	For every volume that appears in the PN Layout field, add a corresponding volume. You can change the size of the drive.

b.	For the boot drive, the QUARK Disk Configuration wizard prompts you to specify the partition style:

•	If you want the PN to boot with BIOS, select MSR.

•	If want the PN to boot with UEFI, select GPT.

Optionally, you can change the partition size.

If you want to delete a volume, right‑click on the volume and Delete Partition.

c.	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. You must change the configuration to match the PN layout.

d.	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 from the onQ Appliance to restore the Recovery PN to the snapshot you selected.

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 BMR Errors to correct the problem.

13.	Do the following:

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 BMR, then Finish.

Troubleshooting 

•	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.

•	If your PN will not boot, go to Manually Adjust PN’s OS.

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