System State Backup/Restore for Windows 2008

• Overview
• How to get here in the Gbackup Web Console?
• System State Backup
• Restoring System State backup
• Troubleshooting Tips
• Limitations

Overview

Unlike System State backup in older version of Windows (which uses NTBackup), System State backup in Windows 2008 is supported through a command line backup utility called WBAdmin.exe. NTBackup is not supported on Windows 2008. It is not just the utility that is different for System State backup in Windows 2008. This document describes the aspects of System State backup that is specific to Windows 2008.

How to get here in the Gbackup Web Console?
In the top menu, select: "Backup->Add Backup Schedule" and choose the "system state" entry in the tree in step2

System State Backup

1. The dump location should be in a non-critical drive

   For the Windows 2008 system state backup, the dump location in the client machine where the WBAdmin will dump the data (before Gbackup backs up to the backup server) should be a non critical drive – it cannot be the drive where Windows is installed and it cannot be the drive where Gbackup is installed. Like for example, if Windows is installed in C:\ drive in a machine and if Gbackup is installed in D:\ drive, then neither the C:\ nor the D:\ can be specified as the dump location. Also, the location specified has to be the root of the drive, not a folder inside the drive. For example, you cannot specify the dump location as D:\dump_loc; it has to be just D:\.

   

2. Size of the dump could be huge

   System State in Windows Server 2008 backup is typically huge. The number of files backed up could be as many as 50,000 or even higher. The backup could take an hour or more to complete. The size of each backup (full or incremental) could easily be several GBs in size.

Restoring System State backup

Restoring Windows 2008 system state backup is a 2 step process.

1. Restore the system state backup data from the backup server into a folder in the client machine.

2. Using wbadmin tool apply the restored backup data into the machine.

(Details on restoring System State data on windows 2003)

Note: Before restoring the system state backup from Gbackup, please confirm whether the backup contains *.vhd files by expanding the restore tree in the restore backup page. If vhd file is not listed, then it could be that the backup failed and is incomplete.

Please follow the below steps to recover the system state:

1. Restore System State backup data from Gbackup web console.

2. wbadmin identifies the restored system state backup data if it has the following directory structure.

   <Restore_drive>/Windows Image Backup/

   If you have restored the system state backup in alternate location, then copy Windows Image Backup folder to the parent drive. Once the dump is available in restore location, using wbadmin tool you can restore the system state.

   Follow the steps mentioned below to restore the system state from the restored backup data.

   1. At the command prompt, type

      wbadmin get versions -backupTarget:<restore_drive>

      to get the version of the backed up system state data and press Enter. For example, consider you have the restored dump data in <restore_drive>/Windows Image Backup then give the command as shown in the screen shot below:

      

      This gives the backed up version of the system state backup.

   2. Copy the Version Identifier value.

   3. In the Command Prompt window, enter the command

      wbadmin Start SystemStateRecovery -version:<version Identifier> -backupTarget:<restore_drive>

      For example:

      wbadmin Start SystemStateRecovery -version:11/25/2008-19:30 -backupTarget:D:

      

   4. If the command was entered properly, a confirmation will be required to start the System State recovery. Type in 'Y' to accept the System State recovery, and press Enter to start the System State recovery process.

      

   5. The System State recovery will take several minutes to complete.

      
      

   6. Once the system state recovery completed, it will prompt you to reboot the system

   7. After the machine reboots, it confirms the system state recovery is completed and press Enter to continue. Press Enter.

      

Note: To restore a System State backup to the same physical computer or to a different physical computer, refer the following URL for more information http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249694

Troubleshooting Tips

Please enter the drive name as dump location for Windows2008 System State backup. Folder/filepath cannot be entered as the dump location.

Cause : Gbackup uses the wbadmin tool to dump the system state which dumps the system state backups under the parent drive only. Like for example, the dump location can be D:\ and not D:\dump_loc\. Also, the dump location cannot be a mapped drives or a network shared folder. Solution : Please give the root location of the drive as the dump location. Like for example, the dump location can be D:\ (provided D: is a non-critical drive – where neither Windows nor Gbackup is not installed)

	The system root drive cannot be configured as the System State backup's dump location in Windows 2008 client machines.
Cause : The dump location for Windows 2008 System State backup cannot be the drive where Windows is installed. Solution : Provide the dump location as the drive where neither Windows nor Gbackup is installed (non critical drive).

Windows Server Backup is not installed in your System. Please install and try again.

Cause :Gbackup uses Windows server backup feature to backup the system state in Windows 2008. If this is feature is not installed then you will get this error Solution : By default, Windows server backup is available in Windows 2008. However, if it is not installed, then you need to install it following the steps mentioned below. Go to ‘Start/Server Manager and select the‘Features node. Click ‘Add Features which opens the Add Features Wizard On the ‘Select Features’ page of the Add Features Wizard, expand Windows Server Backup Features. Next select the check boxes for Windows Server Backup and Command-line Tools. You will receive a message that Windows PowerShell is also required to be installed with these features Click Add Required Features and go to Next. On the Confirm Installation Selections page, review the choices you have made and then click Install If there is an error during the installation, it will be shown in the Installation Results page.

	Error occured while creating System State dump file. Please refer the log file [log_file_location] for more details.
To identify the reason, open the log file generated by Gbackup Cause 1: If the dump location doesn't have enough space to store the dump data. Solution : Please give drive name that has enough space to store the dump files. Cause 2: If already system state dump is in progress. Solution : Open Task Manager and check whether the process 'Wbengine.exe' or 'wbadmin.exe' is running. If so, kill those processes and schedule the backup again. Cause 3: The location for backup is a critical volume Solution : It is always recommended to store backup data at locations other than the critical volume and Windows services installed drive. But you can tweak your Windows 2008 server registry in order to allow system state backup on a system drive following the steps mentioned below: Open the registry editor and browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services/wbengine Create a new 'SystemStateBackup'key by right clicking the 'wbengine' key Again, right click the 'SystemStateBackup' key and select DWORD. Create a registry value 'AllowSSBToAnyVolume' . By default, this key value is set to '0'. Change the value to '1'. Now schedule the system state backup and check if the dump has started Cause 4: If VSS is disabled. Solution : Run Gbackup in command line and schedule the system state backup. Check if an error message ‘Catastrophic failure’ (as shown in the screen shot below) shows up. Enable VSS and try again. Cause 5: Enumeration of the files failed. Solution : If you have find any service or registry entry like/../ please change i­t to the exact location that service is available. for ex: "C:/Program Files/Trend Micro/Client Server Security Agent/../BM" this is the registry path for trend micro agent you can chage it to "C:/Program Files/Trend Micro/BM". This issue mainly occurs if Trend Micro anti virus and 'watch guard' installed also some Intel applications are installed and that may create a directory "//" like the path "Program Files (x86)//Intel". This path "//" is also notsupported here Cause 6:System writer is not found in the backup Solution : Check if the VSS service is started in services.msc. If not started, start it. If VSS is already started, then execute the following command in command line 'vssadmin list writers' and check all the writers particularly 'System Writer' is available with no errors. If System Writer is not available, then the user does not have enough permissions for the folder '%windir%winsxs/filemaps/'. The following sequence of commands resets the permissions and restores the System Writer, Takeown /f %windir%/winsxs/filemaps/* /a icacls %windir%/winsxs/filemaps/*.* /grant "NT AUTHORITYSYSTEM:(RX)" icacls %windir%/winsxs/filemaps/*.* /grant "NT Service rustedinstaller:(F)" icacls %windir%/winsxs/filemaps/*.* /grant "BUILTINUsers:(RX)"

Limitations

1. You can't dump System State data to Critical volume (system drive).

2. You can't dump System State data to the drive where the Gbackup is installed.

3. The dump location should have enough space. On a 32-bit system, the system state image runs about 6.5GB!.

4. wbadmin tool need to be enabled manually.

5. You can't configure the dump location as a network shared folder/ mapped drive /tape drive.

6. If the given dump location is CD/DVD, confirm that there is a media which is writable during backup.

7. VSS services must be enabled.

8. Do not restore the incomplete backups. Before you restore please check whether *.vhd file is available in restore tree.

9. While restoring, make sure you select one incremental to restore. If you select multiple incremental backups in a single restore, the restore data size will be huge. Remember, each incremental could be as large as 6 GB.