Bare Metal Restore: Getting started

Topic

This article describes the Cloud Continuity for PCs Bare Metal Restore (BMR) process. The Bare Metal Restore utility is a tool that performs a total re-image of target hardware.

Environment

  • Datto Utilities
  • Datto Cloud Continuity for PCs Bare Metal Restore

Description

Is a Bare Metal Restore the best option?

If you need help to determine which restore method will work best for your situation, see our Datto disaster recovery guide.

Warnings

  • The Bare Metal Restore feature is not a deployment or migration tool. You should only use it in an emergency recovery situation.
  • A Bare Metal Restore will cause the target device to perform a full backup when the restore finishes.
  • Due to the wide range of touchpad drivers, custom drivers, and hardware configurations available for both laptops and all-in-one workstations, restoration support for these platforms is 'best-effort' only.
  • Operating systems restore as a single partition.
  • Support of RAID hardware is dependent on compatibility with the Bare Metal Restore environment's kernel and version. See Ubuntu's list of certified compatible hardware for compatibility guidelines.
  • Bare Metal Restore does not support software RAID or FakeRAID (also known as 'HostRAID' or 'BiosRAID').

Prerequisites

General

  • Performing a Bare Metal Restore of a BitLocker-protected system will result in a non-encrypted restored machine. For more information, see our BitLocker Considerations article.
  • Touchscreens may not work after a Bare Metal Restore until you manually reinstall their drivers.

Requirements for the target hardware:

  • Datto recommends verifying that the target hardware is healthy, including checking the SMART values on hard drives to ensure healthy target disks.
  • Must be able to boot from USB.
  • BMR requires internet access via Ethernet. WiFi is not supported.
  • Must be 64-bit hardware.
  • The hardware must be able to support the system image you are restoring to it fully.

You should have the following items available when starting this process:

  • A USB stick that is at least 8 GB.
  • We will automatically detect storage controllers and inject them as needed. You may still want to collect any other drivers to apply after the imaging is complete.

Process

Overview

  • The BMR process will auto-partition the desired machine to the same configuration used by the original hardware.
  • The BMR process will then auto-image the target hardware from the cloud snapshot you select.

Procedure

  1. Image a USB stick with the latest version of the Datto Utilities Image. For more information about this process, see Imaging a USB Drive with Datto Utilities
  2. Once the imaging process completes successfully, unplug the USB stick, and proceed to the article Datto Utilities: Booting the target machine from USB.