emulator Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 First of all, I am troubleshooting this with EMC through our support contract. But, I thought that I'd post here to see if anyone else has had this problem. Here's a rundown of what is going on: 1. A test machine with IIS fully configured (Windows Server 2003) is set up as a Retrospect backup network client. 2. The test machine is backed up. 3. The test machine’s hard drive is wiped, and Windows Server 2003 is reinstalled with all updates being applied to match the original configuration (SP2, security updates, etc). 4. The client is restored via Retrospect. Once the Retrospect Helper Service runs and the system reboots, IIS does not work. When bringing up the IIS Administration console, the system pauses for about one minute, and then comes up blank (no sites configured, and no way to connect to the IIS service). The only way to correct this is to uninstall IIS, resintall IIS, and reset up the websites from scratch. This is NOT something that we relish in a disaster recovery scenario. We have tested this on three different servers, all running Windows Server 2003/SP2. There are no errors in the backup/verification or restore logs. We are running the following: Retrospect Multiserver 7.6.123 on Windows Server 2003/sp2/x64 Retrospect Client 7.6.107 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted March 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 Has anyone else been able to test this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted March 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2009 I may have found a solution for this. IIS does regular backups of itself, and these backups get copied when Retrospect does a backup of the server running IIS. I performed the following steps, and I was able to successfully restore my test IIS system: 1. Backup the system as normal. 2. Wipe the hard drive clean and reinstall the OS. 3. Apply applicable service packs. 4. Install Retro client. 5. Restore the client. 6. Reboot the client as needed. 7. Uninstall IIS (this takes VERY long time, which would indicate to me that there is definitely something foobarred here). 8. Reinstall IIS. 9. Open the IIS Administration console and right-click the local computer name. Select All Tasks --> Backup/Restore. 10. A list of backups appears. Select the proper backup from the time when the server was working correctly, and click Restore. This did it on my test box. I’ll do more tests tomorrow with more complex systems to ensure proper operation. I have informed my EMC tech on this as well. PS: Robin, do you think a knowledge base article might be in order until this problem is fixed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted March 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2009 After doing further testing, I've found that there are more steps needed to successfully restore an IIS system to working order. As it turns out, the automatic backups of IIS do not translate well into the restored system. Therefore, the user must set up an automated backup of IIS using the iisback.vbs script, located in the %systemroot%\system32 directory. Note: more information on this script is available here: How to create a metabase backup of IIS 6 I created a *.cmd file named iisbackup.cmd that calls the iisback.vbs script. I used the following parameters: cscript.exe %systemroot%\system32\iisback.vbs /s localhost /backup /b IISBack /v NEXT_VERSION This tells the system to back up the IIS configuration on localhost (the local computer), name the backup IISBack, and attach version numbers to each backup. I then set this script as a scheduled task to run every day. Note: in order for this to work correctly, the scheduled task must run with administrative privileges. I did a Retrospect restore as laid out in my tutorial above, and sure enough, the iisback.vbs backups were right where they needed to be: %systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\MetaBack. I then did a restore via the IIS management console as laid out in the tutorial above, and the system began working correctly. On a side note, my EMC rep told me that they are aware of the IIS issue and what is causing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted March 13, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2009 I tested this on a more complex system with Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager installed. This software makes extensive use of IIS. The restore was only partially successful, with out half of the Endpoint Protection Manager being functional. I'm still optimistic, though, as Endpoint Manager is very complex. I'm thinking that the only way to correct this problem is for EMC to fix the IIS restore issue. But for basic IIS restores, I am cautiously optimistic that Retro can still restore the data with the extra steps laid out above. I'll post more when I hear from EMC on this issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted March 16, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2009 (edited) EMC believes that this problem is related to the Retrospect Helper Service (rthlpsvc.exe). EMC provided me with a new rthlpsvc.exe, and this appears to have resolved the issue on our test systems. I will be trying this on our Symantec Endpoint Protection server this evening. Edited March 16, 2009 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted March 16, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2009 WHAHOOO!!!!!!! Endpoint Protection restored perfectly with EMC's fix. Robin, do you think that a formal statement from EMC might be in order? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted March 17, 2009 Report Share Posted March 17, 2009 When we have an official solution we will make it available to users. Right now the fix you have been given may only be 1/2 of the fix depending on the user's configuration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
typhoon43 Posted March 19, 2009 Report Share Posted March 19, 2009 (edited) I am SOOOOO going to watch for this "fix". I am at wits end with backups failing nightly with "Can't backup IIS Metabase" errors. We are starting to leverage Sharepoint HEAVILY in my company, and Retrospect is on the chopping block thanks to the inability to properly backup and restore our web data. I'd much rather get this fixed than have to deploy an entire new backup solution. Edited March 19, 2009 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted March 19, 2009 Report Share Posted March 19, 2009 Have you followed the technical note in the KB to correctly backup Sharepoint? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted March 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2009 Robin... Is this the article that you were speaking of: Sharepoint Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted March 20, 2009 Report Share Posted March 20, 2009 yes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted March 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2009 (edited) Apparently, the tech article has been removed. Robin, do you have an alternate link? Edited March 20, 2009 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted March 20, 2009 Report Share Posted March 20, 2009 I don't understand. It has not been removed. You provided the link and the link works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted March 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2009 It worked last night when I posted it. But when I go to: http://kb.dantz.com/al/12/1/1132.pdf I get the following error: The page cannot be found The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted March 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2009 And....it's back. Happy Friday, everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted March 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 It appears that the link has changed. Here it is: http://kb.dantz.com/article.asp?article=1132&p=2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted May 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 14, 2009 Robin... Do we have an update on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted May 15, 2009 Report Share Posted May 15, 2009 Retrospect support for Sharepoint is the same as it always has been. See linked article above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted May 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2009 Robin... I was speaking of the IIS restores, and not the Sharepoint restores. Recall the EMC gave us a custom Retrospect Helper Service application that corrects the problem for us. I was wondering when EMC might make this a pubic release. In it's current, shipping state, Retrospect is NOT able to restore IIS configurations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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