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CD Recovery

Backup > CD Recovery

The CD Recovery page restores volume backup images to the same machine or same type of machine that the backup was created on. CD Recovery requires the target machine be booted from a CD.

Use CD Recovery to restore backup images if the target machine's agent can not currently communicate with the KServer. The target machine must be physically connected to a network that provides access to the KServer. Once the target machine boots up from the CD, no further user interaction is required. The network card is configured automatically. The KServer automatically downloads and restores a backup image to the target machine.

Procedure

  1. Create an ISO file - If an ISO image file record doesn't already exist in the paging area, create a new ISO image file by clicking the Create New ISO button. The same ISO file is created each time this button is clicked, but with a different filename. It is the ISO filename on the recovery CD that tells the KServer which machine ID and backup image to restore from.

    Note: You can leave the the machine ID and backup image unassigned or change the machine ID and backup image associated with an ISO image file at any time. This lets you create and distribute the recovery CD in advance to all the locations you manage. Then use this page to select the backup image you want to restore from just before the target machine is booted up from the CD. However, you must assign a machine ID and backup image before you start the restore or an error will result.

  2. Select a Machine ID - Associate a machine ID with the ISO file. The machine ID must specify an Image Location that contains the backup image you want to restore.
  3. Select a Backup Image - Associate a backup image timestamp with the ISO filename and machine ID.
  4. Download the ISO image - Download the created ISO file to a workstation that can write the ISO file to a CD.
  5. Create the Recovery CD - Use a CD recording application to write the ISO file as an image to a CD. Do not simply copy the ISO file to the CD as a data file.
  6. Boot the target machine using the recovery CD - The target machine must be physically connected to a network that provides access to the KServer. No further user interaction is required.

Restore Failure

Restores can fail for the following reasons:

  • The Image Location points to a local driver letter - When Windows boots, drive letters are automatically assigned to hard drives starting with C:. With the disk manager, you can reassign these to any other unused drive letter. For example, you may decide to turn your D: drive into G: and set the Image Location path to G:\backups. The recovery boot process will not know about the driver letter mapping and will assign D: to the hard disk. The restore will then fail trying to access G:\backups. You can resolve this problem by setting your image location to D:\backups prior to selecting the restore options. Restore will then successfully access D:\backups.
  • Image stored on a USB drive - Similar to the issue above, when the recovery boot process assigns drive letters, it may assign the USB drive a different drive letter than Windows assigned it. You can resolve this problem by setting your Image Location to the new drive letter prior to selecting the restore options. Restore will then successfully access the USB drive.
  • Image stored on a network drive - If the remote drive, or the machine hosting the drive, is not turned on, or if the username and password have changed, then the recovery boot process will not be able to access the network drive.
  • Unable to establish a network connection - CD Recovery allows the recovery of an image without the need for the user to enter details such as the image to be restored, its location, the password, etc. Instead the machine connects to the KServer to retrieve this information. However, if there is a proxy between the managed machine and the KServer, or DHCP is not enabled, that machine may not be able to establish a network connection to get out to the internet and retrieve the settings. In cases where a DHCP server is not enabled or there is a proxy in place, use Universal Restore, as there is no way to configure network connection information for CD Recovery.

Create New ISO

Click Create New ISO to create a new ISO image file, if one does not already exist that you can use. Creating a new ISO image file creates a new record in the paging area.

Delete

Click the delete icon to delete an ISO image file record.

Edit

Click the edit icon to change the Title of an ISO image file record.

Share

By default, ISO images are private to the administrator that created it. You can share an ISO image with other administrators, administrator roles, or make the ISO image file public.

Title

A descriptive title of the backup image being restored.

Machine ID

Select a machine ID. The machine ID must specify an Image Location that contains the backup image you want to restore.

Backup Date

Select the backup image, by date, to restore from.