Automated system recovery (ASR) overview


Automated system recovery (ASR) overview
Prev	Performing automated system recovery (ASR)	Next

Automated System Recovery (ASR) is a disaster recovery feature that is part of the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating system. ASR extends the functionality of a traditional backup and restore application by providing an external mechanism to save information about the system state and configuration, including Volume Replicator specific information. ASR captures and stores the information to a floppy disk and tape or other backup media. Information that is saved includes the system registry, critical Windows files, and volume configuration information, including the number and type of partitions as well as file system and drive letter information. If a disaster or other event causes a computer to reach an unusable state, ASR can be used to restore a system to a bootable state and prepare it for data recovery. Volume Replicator supports ASR on systems running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and any backup and restore application specifically designed to support ASR, such as Backup Exec, NetBackup, or the Backup Utility that is packaged with Microsoft Windows Server 2003.

An ASR backup should be performed after the system is initially configured and repeated whenever there is a change in the system configuration. Examples of such changes include adding of new volumes into an existing RVG, or creating a new RVG, or installation of a patch or service pack.

Warning:

As part of the ASR backup process, Storage Foundation saves the configuration information only of those dynamic disk groups which are currently imported on the system running the ASR backup. For example, in a cluster setup, configuration information about cluster dynamic disk groups currently imported on the node which is backed up is saved, but cluster dynamic disk groups currently owned by other nodes is not saved.

Note:

ASR attempts to make the target system bootable and recovers the original disk and volume and RVG configuration where possible. Sometimes it may not be possible to recover all of the disk, volume, and RVG configuration. In this case, ASR attempt to create a bootable system and allow the administrator to manually reconstruct the disk and volume and RVG configuration.