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Retrospect Client Disaster Recovery Builder


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I have been playing with DR (before I need it) and trying various things but one thing which has occurred to me as being potentially useful would be a product called "Retrospect Client Disaster Recovery Builder".

 

 

 

Currently with network backups, in the event of a complete failure of a client it is necessary to rebuild the client machine before a network restore can be performed. The current DR process works pretty well given the tough task its required to do but the only way to build a Restore CD is to have Retrospect installed. Wouldn't it be cool if there was a product called "Retrospect Client Disaster Recovery Builder" which didn't do backups, but built a bootable CD image which contained the Retrospect Client instead of a full copy of Retrospect.

 

 

 

With such a product you could install it on every machine, run it off a CD, a network drive or even bloat out the existing client, so that a bootable image could be made of every machine/configuration in a network. Then when a client has a disaster you could replace the disk, boot from the Client DR CD, have it install an OS, and reboot, then all you have to do is find the DR Client on the network and do a network restore.

 

 

 

This came to me while I've been trying to build a basic 2 CD DR process for XP ... one CD is the Retrospect DR CD, the other my basic XP configuration without layered products. I don't think its going to fit! It was helped along by the fact that the current DR CD build process does not include RDUs so I needed to stop and install the latest RDU before doing the restore. It occurred to me that instead of installing the RDU I may as well install the client and do a network restore. The DR CD wouldn't even need a catalog of the backup to be restored.

 

 

 

 

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  • 3 months later...
  • 2 months later...

Hi-

 

 

 

I just wanted to second this suggestion. I am using a Windows XP server (Retrospect Professional 6.0) to back up a Mac OS X 10.1.5 client. I would love to have a way to create a disaster recovery CD, even if the only thing it contained was a bare minimum system with networking capabilities + properly configured Retrospect client, so that I could boot off it and run the network restore without having to do anything else.

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

d.

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

My wish: When restoring a PC from zero (i.e. hard disk went kaput), it would be nice to run a loader CD that connects the PC to Retrospect, then select the PCs image from a menu and do a total recovery, without needing OS CDs, etc. up to the point of the last backup. Just like running a Knoppix CD.

 

Wouldn't it be nice?

 

 

When a PC is down, the pressure is very high, and there's no time to read manuals, locate lost Windows CDs, etc. Yes, I know, everybody should be well organized and have all needed resources at hand, right? ...right?

 

Saludos

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  • 1 month later...

I was looking online for this very sort of thing and came across BartPE Tool.

 

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

 

It allows a user to build a CD that runs Win XP off the CD drive. It has network support and I think you could get the retrospect client to run off that CD. What a cool idea. With some other freeware / shareware tools you could have a full DR solution to do a bare metal restore using Retrospect.

 

Is anyone at Dantz able to help making the Retrospect client a plugin for this tool. I think I am pretty close. This solution is only really valid for people like me who use the Retrospect Server and network client.

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  • 2 months later...

Hi,

 

Progress update

 

I am in the process of testing my BartPE plugin.

 

Here is the process

 

You install BartPE to your hard disk drive

You boot of BartPE on your hard disk

You run the BartPE version of the retrospect client

You then add the client to your retrospect server

You can then restore files from the backup server to the BartPE install.

 

 

Tested on

 

Windows 2000 PRO (Works fine)

Windows XP PRO (Does not work from memory)

 

Issues

 

You have to enter the password by setting the value in the registry which means that you have to install a client on another machine using your password and then save this value out and copy this into the BartPE plugin.

 

Benefits

 

BartPE takes < 5 mins to install on a bare hard disk drive.

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  • 1 month later...

Quote:

Hi,

 

Progress update

 

I am in the process of testing my BartPE plugin.

 

 

 


 

Everything here sounds really good, but is this really a plug-in?

I had thought that the BARTPE was some sort of stripped down Windows XP, that could fit entirely on a CD, AND run entirely off the CD. smile.gif

 

Quote:

 

Here is the process

 

You install BartPE to your hard disk drive

You boot of BartPE on your hard disk

 

 

 


 

Now I'm really confused. tongue.gif

 

Are you "dual-booting" your system, that is, two different boot images on the same hard-drive, and at boot-up time you pick the one you want?

 

Quote:

 

 

You run the BartPE version of the retrospect client

 

 

 


 

Did you skip a step here? Don't you need to install the Retro client into BARTPE?

Quote:

 

 

You then add the client to your retrospect server

 

 

 


 

That part is easy to understand! smile.gif

Quote:

 

You can then restore files from the backup server to the BartPE install.

 

 

 


 

And when this restore process is over, do you have the full Win XP back on the hard disk, with SIDs and any other such esoterica all OK? Does Win XP badger you to re-activate?

 

Quote:

 

Tested on

 

Windows 2000 PRO (Works fine)

Windows XP PRO (Does not work from memory)

 

Issues

 

You have to enter the password by setting the value in the registry which means that you have to install a client on another machine using your password and then save this value out and copy this into the BartPE plugin.

 

Benefits

 

BartPE takes < 5 mins to install on a bare hard disk drive.

 


 

Thanks for your replies. smile.gif

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I have made Retroclient a p[lugin for bartpe that gets installed onto the BartPE CD.

 

The plugin allows retroclient to be run from the BartPE OS. I was unable to install the retrospect client in BartPE so I had to install it on a PC and then transfer over the files and registry settings etc.

 

For the restore to work I have had to use the install BartPE to hard disk option and run Retroclient under a BartPE booted off the hard disk. The reason here is that the retorspect client modifies the windows that the DR client runs under.

 

Perhaps the best thing is for me to upload the retrospect plugin I made somewhere and then let people play with it. Does that sound like a good idea?

 

Regards

 

Brad

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