USB Bare Metal Restore: Beginning the Restore

Topic

This article describes the process of starting a USB Bare Metal Restore (BMR).

Environment

  • Datto Bare Metal Restore

Description

A Bare Metal Restore is used to restore a backup point to new hardware.

Prerequisites

This article assumes that you have already imaged a USB stick with the Datto Utilities, and that you are booted into the Datto Utilities environment. If you have not already done this, see the Imaging a USB Drive with Datto Utilities and Booting a Target Machine with Datto Utilities articles.

Connecting to your network

The Datto Utility uses DHCP to automatically connect to your network, so no network configuration should be required. However, If network settings need to be adjusted for any reason, click the CONFIGURE NETWORKING button in the top right corner of the page and make any needed changes before proceeding.

Networking Settings
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BMR Procedure

  1. In the Datto Utilities environment, select the BMR option.

  2. Select the Datto appliance that contains the restore information. Log into the Datto device with the user credentials you created to access its GUI. There will be a message and a gear icon at the bottom right of your screen to notify you of the action being taken.

  3. Click Next.
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  4. Select the protected machine to restore.
    fig5.png

  1. Click Next.

  2. Select a recovery point to restore to the target.
    fig6.png

    NOTE  If you created a Rescue Agent for the Disaster Recovery virtualization, you can apply any changes made in the VM during the BMR to the production machine by checking the Continuously Mirror box. If you choose this option, see the Important considerations when using Continuous mirroring section at the bottom of this article.

  1. Once you've made your selections, click Next. The wizard will calculate minimum volume sizes, and then display the Partition Machine screen.

  2. Click Automatic Partition (Recommended).
    fig7.png

    If a partition is sized incorrectly, diskpart (external link) can be used to resize the partition.

  1. Click Next, then proceed to the Data Transfer article for next steps.

    Alternatively, if you need to partition the target machine manually, click Manual Partition, and proceed to the USB Bare Metal Restore: Advanced Partitioning article.

Important considerations when using Continuous mirroring

  • Continuous mirroring requires automatic partitioning to ensure adequate space for incremental changes. You will not be able to select the Manual Partition option if the Continuously Mirror option is enabled unless automatic partitioning fails.
  • When performing Bare Metal Restore with mirroring enabled, all disks must be greater than the value in the Recommended Space column for the volume you want to restore. Failure to take this step may cause the boot to fail or mirroring to not succeed.
  • With continuous mirroring enabled, Datto recommends using disks on the target that are larger than the source in all cases.
  • In the event that the mirroring process is interrupted by an unexpected crash or a reboot of the production machine, it can automatically resume. If the most recent snapshot the mirroring process captured is unusable because of the crash, the process will take another snapshot, and perform a differential merge between the new snapshot and the last good snapshot to reconcile differences between the two points.
  • Continuous mirroring does not work with encrypted agents and is unavailable on ALTO and NAS products.