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Restoring System State Components Using the Windows File System Agent

Updated

Use the System State Restore to restore all the system state components.

To view the system state components that can be restored, see System State Components for the Windows File System Agent.

Note

You cannot filter the system state during a restore operation.

Before You Begin

  • If the client computer is not a Windows 2003 or XP, install Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 or 4 on the client computer.

  • Include system state in your subclient content.

    For more information, see Configuring System State Backups for Windows File System.

  • Perform a backup of the subclient.

    For more information, see Performing Backups for Windows File System Subclients.

  • Granular recovery of system state components are not supported.

  • If you have excluded any critical system state components from the backup, you cannot use that backup for the system restore. For more information on critical and non-critical components, see Critical and Non-Critical System State Components for Windows File System.

    Make sure that the following critical system state components are not excluded from the backup:

    • Registry

    • System Protected Files

    • Active Directory

    • Cluster DB

    • Sysvol (For 2000 or 2003 domain controllers level)

    • DFSR (Windows 2008 Domain controller level)

  • Make sure that the required free space is available on the drive where the Job Results folder resides and where the Windows operating system is installed. Verify the size of your system state backup as it varies from one version of the operating system to another and make sure that your local disk has the same or a greater amount of space.

  • During the system state restore some components are staged in the job results folder and are deleted after the restore of those components is complete. If a file needs to be moved during reboot, the file will not be deleted from the job results folder till the computer restarts.

  • For 1-Touch Recovery, the source and the destination computer must be Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) or BIOS based computers. You cannot restore system state data from an UEFI computer to a BIOS computer.Additionally, you cannot restore system state data from a BIOS computer to an UEFI computer.

Procedure

  1. From the CommCell Browser, expand Client Computers > client > File System > backup_set.

  2. Right-click the appropriate subclient and click Browse and Restore.

  3. In the Browse and Restore dialog box, click View Content.

  4. On the CommCell Browser, select the System State, and click Recover All Selected.

    To restore specific system state components, expand [System State] and select the required components in Components and Services.

  5. After the restore operation is complete, if the drive is different from what it initially was, manually change the drive letter.

  6. On the Restore Option General tab, choose whether you want to run the restore job immediately or schedule it.

    For more information about general restore options, see Restore/Recover Options (General).

  7. On the Restore Option Job Initiation tab, choose how you want to initiate the restore jobs.

    For more information about job initiation options, see Restore Options (Job Initiation).

  8. Optional: To further customize the restore operation, click Advanced.

    For more information about the Advanced Options, see Advanced Restore Options.

    To determine which combination of options is required to meet your needs, refer to "Restore Options", below.

  9. Optional: To save the current backup options as a script file, click Save as Script.

    For more information, see Command Line Interface.

  10. Click OK.

  11. After the restore is complete, restart your computer.

If you selected to run the restore operation immediately, you can monitor the progress of your restore job from the Job Controller. If you chose to run the backup job according to schedule, the restore operation runs according to the schedule you defined. For more information, see Job Controller.

After the restore job is complete, you can view the restore job history. For more information, see Job History.

Restore Options

Out-of-Place System State Restore

You can perform an out-of-place restore of the following entities in system state:

  • SYSVOL to restore deleted group policy objects (GPOs) back to the Active Directory server without having to do a full system restore.

    Note: SYSVOL is restored from the DFS Replication Services. The files are restored with system state extensions and not the original file extensions. Also, the restore process does not retain the original folder structure.

  • Registry hives. This can be helpful if the server has crashed and you need a version of the registry. Once these hives are restored, you can manually replace the hives that exist on your server. You can also load them into the registry to view the contents before replacing them on server.

  • IIS metabase file to repair a IIS server using Microsoft procedures.

  • These methods require advanced skills. Be sure to visit the Microsoft support website and look for articles that describe these methods in more detail.

  • By default, the system state data is unconditionally overwritten. However, for Windows Vista and higher versions of Windows Operating System, the system state data is overwritten only when the data on the media is newer than the data in the restore destination.

Make the following selections when you perform the restore procedure:

  • On the Restore Options - General tab:

    • Clear the Restore to same folder check box.

    • Select the client from the Destination client list to restore the System State to another client computer.

    • Click Browse. In the Browsing for destination folderon <client> dialog box, select the folder where you want to restore your data, and then click OK.

    • Click OK.

  • On the Advanced Restore Options - Paths/Filters tab, exclude the following folders:

    • *:\drivers\*

    • *:\win*\inf\*

Cross-Hardware System State Restore

The system protected files are always overwritten during the system state restore. When you are performing cross hardware restore, the drivers on the destination computer may be different than the drivers on the source computer. Therefore, it is recommended not to overwrite any data under %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\Drivers folder. For Windows Vista and higher versions of Windows, you can avoid overwriting any data under %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\Drivers folder.

All the system state components and services data on the destination client will be overwritten, except the %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\Drivers folder.

Note

For Windows Vista and higher versions of Windows, the system protected files are overwritten only if the file on the media is newer than the file in the destination computer.

In-Place System State Restore

The service user who performs the system state restore must be a local administrator and the services must be running on a local computer.

The Unconditional Overwrite option in the Restore Options dialog box does not apply to system protected files.

  • On the Restore Options - General tab:

    • Click the Overwrite Files check box.

    • Select the Unconditional Overwrite option.

    • Click the Restore to same folder check box.

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