Understanding BMR system behavior

Intended use cases

The Bare Metal Recovery (BMR) utility is specifically designed to address the following disaster recovery scenarios:

• Hardware failure replacement
• Primary drive failure
• System corruption requiring complete restore
• Ransomware recovery
• Migration to new hardware

IMPORTANT  BMR is not intended to be used as a system imaging or cloning solution for deploying multiple identical systems.

Post-recovery system behavior

You can expect the following conditions when recovering a system using BMR:

1. The restored system maintains the identity and configuration of the original asset.
2. Upon first boot, the system will automatically:

• register with the Endpoint Backup service.
• use the original asset's configuration.
• begin checking in under the original asset's identity.

Duplicate systems warning

IMPORTANT  Do not perform BMR while the original system is still operational, connected to the network, or checking into the backup service.

Doing so will result in:

• backup verification errors.
• increased storage consumption.
• potential data integrity issues.

Proper recovery workflow

To avoid complications:

1. Ensure that the original system is offline or decommissioned.
2. Perform BMR on replacement hardware.
3. Verify successful recovery.
4. Remove or re-image original system if it's still operational.

Asset management

For scenarios requiring multiple similar systems:

• Use standard OS deployment tools for system imaging.
• Install and configure fresh Endpoint Backup agents.
• Use Restore Through Agent for data migration if needed.

NOTE  These steps ensure that each system maintains a unique identity and proper backup chain.