POWERSOLUTIONSMarch200488SystemRecoveryUsingWindowsServer2003onDellPowerEdgeServersByunderstandingdifferentwaystorecoverafailedserver,administratorscanminimizeinterruptionstocriticalbusinessprocesses.
ThisarticleexploresseveralpowerfulmechanismsfortherecoveryofDellPowerEdgeserversrunningtheMicrosoftWindowsServer2003operatingsystem.
Businessinterruptionsandlossofproductivitycausedbysystemfailurecanbedamagingandexpensive.
Tohelpavoidunplannedoutages,MicrosofthasimprovedtherobustnessoftheWindowsServer2003operatingsystem(OS),introducingenhancedsystemrecoveryfeatures.
Atthesametime,WindowsServer2003continuestosupporttherecoveryoptionsthatwereprovidedintheMicrosoftWindows2000ServerOS.
Dellalsoprovidessupportforsystemrecoverywithbothsoftware-andhardware-basedservermanagementproducts.
Dellremoteaccesscontrollers(RACs)areonesuchcategoryofhardwaredevices.
RACsaresupportedinmostDellPowerEdgeservers.
Together,MicrosoftandDellrecoveryfeaturescanhelpprovidesmootheroperationofDellPowerEdgeserversrunningWindowsServer2003.
MostrecoverymethodsrequireadvancedknowledgeoftheOS.
Therefore,attemptingtorecoverthesystemusingbasicrecoveryoptionssuchasWindowsSafe-ModeBoot,LastKnownGoodConfiguration,andDeviceDriverRollback—afeaturenewtoWindowsServer2003—isrecommendedbeforeproceedingtomoreadvancedfeatures.
ThisarticlecoverstwoadvancedMicrosoftWindowsrecoveryoptions:EmergencyManagementServices:AnadvancedrecoveryoptionintroducedinWindowsServer2003,EmergencyManagementServices(EMS)1providespowerfulout-of-bandmanagementcapabilities.
AutomatedSystemRecovery:AsalastresortwhenEMSfunctionalitydoesnotsolvetheprob-lem,AutomatedSystemRecovery(ASR)2maybeusedtoformattheharddisksandrecoverthesystemfrombacked-upfiles.
Understandingin-bandandout-of-bandmanagementIn-bandmanagementreferstothemanymechanismsavail-abletomanageasystemthathasafullyfunctionalOSandserverhardware.
Forexample,theDellOpenManagesystemsmanagementproductsuiteoffersin-bandserverSYSTEMSMANAGEMENTBYRANJITHPURUSH,NEFTALIREYES,ANDEDWARDYARDUMIAN1MicrosoftEMSshouldnotbeconfusedwiththeDellOpenManageITAssistanteventmanagementsystem(EMS),whichmonitorsserversforspecificevents.
FormoreinformationoneventmonitoringbyITAssistant,see"UnderstandingandSelectingEventstoMonitorinITAssistant"byManojGujarathiinDellPowerSolutions,May2002.
2MicrosoftASRshouldnotbeconfusedwithautomatedserverrecovery(ASR),whichisahardware-basedfault-tolerancefeature.
AllASRmentionsinthisarticlerefertoMicrosoftASR.
managementthatenablesadministratorsinanenterpriseenviron-menttomanagehundredsofserversoverthenetworkfromasinglemanagementconsole.
Anin-bandconnectioncanbeusedonlywhentheserverisfullyoperationalandaccessibleoverthenetwork.
Whentheseconditionscannotbemet,out-of-bandmanagementmethodsmustbeusedtomanagetheserverremotely.
Administratorscanuseout-of-bandmanagementwhenattemptingtorecoverasystemthathashadacriticalfailuresuchasanunresponsive,orhung,OS.
Anout-of-bandconnectionusesaserialport,amodem,oraded-icatednetworkinterfacecard(NIC)togetherwithspecializedadmin-istrationsoftware—suchastheEMSsuiteofapplications—tocommunicatewiththeremoteserver.
Theout-of-bandsystemsman-agementapproachdoesnotreplacein-bandsystemsmanagement;itsimplyenablesadministratorstoquicklyreturnaservertoitsfullyfunctionalstatesotheycanonceagaincontroltheserverusingin-bandmethods.
Inatypicalout-of-bandmanagementnetwork,administra-torscontroldevicesoverarouteseparatefromthemaincom-municationnetwork.
Whenin-bandcommunicationoverastandardnetworkpathfails,administratorsusetheout-of-bandnetworktoconnecttotheservers,diagnosetheproblem,andeffectrepairs.
Figure1showsanetworkthathasbothin-bandandout-of-bandconnections,thelatterimplementedthroughserialconnections.
Anout-of-bandconnectionthroughaserialconsoleportreliesonthemostprimitiveOSservices.
Aslongasthekernelisfunctioning,thesystemcanbeaccessedthroughtheserialconsoleport—evenifthenetworkstackorgraphicaluserinter-face(GUI)isnotoperational.
Becausetheconsoleportdeliversonlytextdata,itoffersgoodperformanceoverlow-bandwidthconnectionssuchasdial-uplines.
UsingWindowsEMSforout-of-bandmanagementEMSisapowerfulnewout-of-bandsystemrecoverysuiteintroducedinWindowsServer2003.
EMSfeatures,whichinvolvemultipleele-mentsoftheWindowsServer2003OS,allowforsystemrecoverythroughtheserver'sserialconsoleportevenwhentheserverisunavailablethroughthenetworkbecausetheoperatingsystem'snetworkstackanduserinterfacearenotfunctional.
EMSsupportonDellPowerEdgeservershastwoprimaryrequirements:BIOSsupportforconsoleredirection:Tocontrolandrecoveraserverusingout-of-bandmanagement,theserverfirmwaremustsupportconsoleredirection;additionalrequirementsmaydependonanorganization'sspecificservermanagementimplementation.
Fifth-generationPowerEdgeservers(suchasthePowerEdge2500and2550)andnewerPowerEdgeservers(suchasthePowerEdge2650and6600)supportconsoleredirectionbyallowingthelocaldisplaytobedivertedtoaremoteconsolethroughserialports.
Toenableorverifythisfea-ture,administratorscanaccesstheBIOSconfigurationpageofaDellPowerEdgeserverbypressingF2immedi-atelyaftertheserverstartsbooting,andthensettingConsoleRedirectionto"Enabled.
"BIOSsupportforSPCRtable:WiththeexceptionofthePowerEdge1550,allfifth-generationandnewerPowerEdgeserverssupporttheSerialPortConsoleRedirection(SPCR)table.
TheSPCRtableprovidesEMSwithinformationabouttheout-of-bandmanagementportaswellasrelatedconfigu-rationdetails.
IftheDellPowerEdgeserverdoesnotsupporttheSPCRtable,administratorsmustprovidetheEMSconfig-urationparametersandinformationabouttheout-of-bandmanagementporttotheWindowsServer2003OSbyusingthebootcfgcommand.
3ThesamecommandmaybeusedtochangethedefaultconfigurationofEMSeveniftheserversupportstheSPCRtable.
ThemaincomponentsofEMCarethetworemotemanagementconsolesthatareavailableonlywithinEMS:theSpecialAdminis-trationConsole(SAC)andthe!
SpecialAdministrationConsole(!
SAC).
EMSalsoincludescomponentsthatarestandardfeaturesoftheWindowsServer2003OS,towhichEMShasaddedconsoleredirectioncapability.
SYSTEMSMANAGEMENTwww.
dell.
com/powersolutionsPOWERSOLUTIONS893FormoreinformationaboutusingbootcfgtoenableEMS,visithttp://msdn.
microsoft.
com/library/default.
aspurl=/library/en-us/ddtools/hh/ddtools/bootini_58xf.
asp.
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