Bare-Metal Restores Fail When Using RecoveryCD

Symptom

Bare metal restore fails - Device not found - /dev/sdaX not found

Cause

Many newer Linux versions, especially with kernels newer than 2.6.22, use the newer libata for devices,
which assign all IDE drives a /dev/sdXx path, rather than the legacy /dev/hdXx method.
Backups work fine, but restores attempted using our recoveryCD, which uses the legacy method,
may not find and restore the proper partitions, due to the naming differences, especially with LVM Volumes.

Resolution

Boot from a LiveCD that matches up with the Linux distribution or version you are trying to restore, and install our CDP agent into that running system.

Once the LiveCD is booted, download the latest generic linux version of the CDPAgent.

Then install the generic linux agent using this syntax.

This installs the agent software without building or loading a module, and sets the agent up in disaster recovery mode.

Next, run the r1key utility.

This adds the IP address of your CDP server into the server.allow file, and allows communications between the CDPagent and CDPserver. Be SURE to get an affirmative message that the IP was added to the agent.

Failure to add the IP means that there are network issues such as closed ports, not allowing the CDPagent and CDPserver to communicate.

Next, start the agent.

Now you are ready to begin the bare-metal restore, using your own LiveCD!

Access your CDPserver, and follow the standard procedures for bare metal restore, same as when using our recoveryCD version.

Other items to watch for:

Several distributions offer automounting features that can cause errors during BMR operations, as we don't want any of our partitions to mount during the restore process. Fedora 8 , for example, will automount a restored drive immediately after it's restore, causing other partition restores to fail.
Disable automounting ( kill pid for gnome-volume-manager ) or proceed thru the BMR in a runlevel 2 or single-user environment when booting the LiveCD

Documentation for BMR procedures can be found at http://wiki.r1soft.com/display/R1D/Restore.

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