Windows Server Hacks 12, 77, and 98 - Windows Server Hacks 98:

Automated System Recovery (ASR) is a new feature of Windows Server 2003 that makes recovering from a disaster a whole lot easier.

Rebuilding a server after a disaster is generally not a trivial task. The process usually involves reinstalling Windows from scratch, reconfiguring disk partitions to the exact configuration they had before the failure, and then restoring the system volumes, boot volumes, and all your data volumes. The process is not especially complicated, but it takes a considerable amount of time to do it right, usually with significant involvement of the administrator along the way.

With Windows Server 2003, however, things have suddenly gotten much easier. Automated System Recovery (ASR), a new feature included in the Backup utility, greatly simplifies the process of recovering a server that won’t boot because of severe problems with the system/boot volume, such as Registry corruption. By automating the process of restoring a failed server, ASR saves you time and reduces the chances for making mistakes. ASR is an essential part of the Recovery Roadmap [Hack #99] (in the book) for troubleshooting problems that might happen to Windows servers, and this hack leads you through the process step by step. I’ll also clarify how best to use this feature and how to resolve problems that can arise.

ASR Backup

The simplest way to back up your system with ASR is to use the Backup or Restore Wizard that starts by default when you select Accessories -> System Tools -> Backup. Simply start the wizard, select “Back up files and settings,” and choose the option to back up “All information on this computer.” Then, specify the remaining backup job parameters as usual. The result is that all information on your hard drives is backed up, including the boot, system, and data volumes. Later, should a disaster occur, you can restore your system by using the ASR restore process to the exact configuration it had earlier.

The backup is done by using shadow copies [Hack #95] to ensure that any open files on the system and boot volumes are properly backed up. Note, however, that this applies mainly to the system and boot volumes, which are critical for successful ASR backup. While shadow copies are also used to back up data volumes, these shadow copies are deleted afterward unless you’ve specifically enabled shadow copies on these volumes to help protect users’ work from accidental loss or damage.  

An alternative method for performing ASR backup is to start Backup and switch to Advanced Mode. Then, under the Welcome tab (Figure 1), select the Automated System Recovery Wizard button. This wizard lets you back up only information on your system and boot volumes that is critical to restore your system; it does not back up any data volumes, which are usually best left for your regular backup program to handle anyway.

 Figure 1. Starting the Automated System Recovery Wizard

During the ASR backup process, you’re asked to insert a blank, formatted floppy to create a system recovery disk (commonly called an ASR floppy). This floppy is critical to the ASR restore process, so it’s worth digging a little deeper into how it’s used. The ASR backup process saves two files onto your floppy: the ASR state file ( asr.sif), which contains information about the disk signatures and configuration of disk volumes on your machine, and asrpnp.sif, which contains information about different Plug and Play devices on your system. These two files are critical for the recovery of your system, because they connect the underlying hardware configuration with the operating system above it. As we’ll see in a moment, you need to insert this floppy at the beginning of the ASR restore, in order to rebuild the disk subsystem and hardware configuration of your system before restoring the contents of the system and boot volumes.

What if you have no floppy disk drive on your machine? Fortunately, you can still use ASR to back up your system, but its a bit of a workaround. During the ASR backup process copies of these asr.sif and asrpnp.sif files are also saved in the %SystemRoot%\Repair folder on your server. So, when you receive a prompt at the end of the backup process to insert a floppy, simply ignore the prompt and instead copy asr.sif and asrpnp.sif from Repair to a network share on another server (one that has a floppy disk drive installed). Then, copy the files from the share on that server to a blank floppy you insert into its drive, and you now have a working ASR floppy for your backup. Then, go buy a USB external floppy drive, because you’ll need it if you ever have to rebuild your original server from the backup set you created. In other words, you can perform ASR backup without a floppy, but you cannot perform an ASR restore without one.