If you choose to perform a bare metal restore as a test, there are several special conditions you need to be aware of:
| • | Network considerations - (These do not apply to integrated bare metal restores. See Performing a test integrated bare metal recovery instead.) |
When booting from a bare metal test CD, the client will come on the network using the IP and hostname of the client the CD was made for. When creating the bare metal boot disk for Windows clients, you have the option to manually change the IP and hostname when creating the disk. For all other client operating systems, and for Windows clients whose bare metal boot disks’ IPs and hostnames were not changed, it’s critical that the test system not be connected to the same physical network if the original server is still online as this can cause an IP/DNS conflict.
When you boot a server or virtual machine using a bare metal boot disk, the bare metal restore software will look in the Unitrends system’s host file to match a client to its data. Therefore, when testing bare metal restores it may be necessary to edit the client’s entry in the system’s host file to a free IP address before booting from the bare metal media. See To modify a hosts file entry for details.
Note: Standard backup and restore procedures for a client whose host file entry you edit cannot occur until the entry is edited back.
| • | Active Directory considerations - Clients that are dependent on Active Directory for day to day functions may not function properly when recovered to a test network if a domain controller is not recovered into the test network first. If you plan to recover a domain controller with bare metals, it is extremely critical to perform this restore into a test network. |