Recovering a Windows 2008 Server with Avamar

Thanks to Sean Dobes for sharing this procedure with me.

• Implement the Windows 2008 System State backup using the Windows 2008 native tool " wbadmin ".
• It is the replacement for "ntbackup" in Windows 2003, but works in quite different way.
• Windows 2008 System State includes additional data (e.g. Program Files), what makes it very big. 8-15GB of size in my case.
• Therefore you need to allocate additional space to create it, before Avamar starts de-duplication.
• "wbadmin" is not the default feature, so you need to install it "servermanagercmd -install Backup-Features –allsubfeatures"
• Windows by default does not allows you to store the System State backup in the system drive e.g. C: * However if you do not have another drive you can bypass it. You need to modify the Windows registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\wbengine\SystemStateBackup\

Name: AllowSSBToAnyVolume

Data type: DWORD

Value data: 1

- Now you can prepare the Avamar pre-script which will create the System State backup, e.g.:

@echo off

if exist "C:\WindowsImageBackup" rmdir /S /Q C:\WindowsImageBackup"

wbadmin start systemstatebackup -quiet -backuptarget:C:

if not %errorlevel% == 0 (

echo **** System State Backup Failed ****) else (

echo **** System State Backup OK ****)

Recovery Steps – "worked in my case"

• Install Windows 2008 with the same SP as the original
• Define the same IP and hostname for the new system
• Install Avamar client and re-activate it
• Restore System State backup from Avamar -> C:\WindowsImageBackup
• Boot system in the Directory Service Restore mode
• Restore the System State:

wbadmin get versions -backuptarget:C:

wbadmin start systemstaterecovery -version:XXX -backuptarget:C:

• - Reboot the system
• - Restore the system drive e.g. C:\ with the following options:

Overwrite existing files = If modified

Restore open files = Defer until reboot

Restore hidden folders and files = Yes

• - Reboot the system and restore another data volumes (if needed)