SystemState Restore Issue with Windows 8.x Client

3/7/2017 Update
I have had a number of people request the test flag and one response said it was kicking up errors when used with the CAD service/process. Please note this flag is only needed in the event of a system state restore and you would not (I hope) be using the CAD/Scheduler to restore your system state. So the testflag should only be activated in the dsm.opt in the event you are doing a manual restore of the system state and DO NOT leave it in the dsm.opt as it will affect daily use.


1/24/2018 Update
After waiting for IBM to post an update to this issue I decided I would let you know that IBM has an undocumented flag for this issue that allows the client to restore the System State online rather than work with the PE. Our Windows admins spoke with Microsoft and they state emphatically that they support online system state restores, so is appears IBM does not starting with the 8.1.x client. Here is the flag to allow the SP client to perform online system state restores.

ONLINE_SYSTEMSTATE_RESTORE_ALLOWED

12/4/2018
I wanted to make everyone aware that starting with the 8.1 Windows Client, IBM has deprecated the System State restore process so that any restore attempt will require the use of a WinPE environment. With the 8.1.x client you can no longer do a complete restore of a server within the normal windows environment and will have to make sure you have a compatible WinPE for every Windows Hardware type or environment. This, in my opinion, is a huge break of the software. Although IBM stated that Microsoft does not support online system state restores, Microsoft disagrees. I say this knowing that if you are on a 7.x or earlier version of the client IBM will support you with the system state restore, but as of 8.1 you will be directed to build a Windows PE environment and follow a series of stepto create the necessary disc. The support person I spoke with treated this process as if it should be second nature to any Windows Admin.

We recently were migrating a clients server and in the process the disks were corrupted. The client installed on the new machine was 8.1.2 and when the Windows Admins tried to restore the system state they experienced the following error.

 

After speaking with support we were directed to the following document by Andrew Raibeck that discussed creating the WinPE disk image with the TSM client code that would allow the offline restore of the System State. We attempted to build the ISO but when the Windows Admin tried to run the dsmc client we experienced the following error:

Who do we call when we experience an error like this in a WinPE environment? IBM or Microsoft? So you have two choices, have a Windows PE available for each hardware type or try using the testflag but understand IBM may support its use. If you were fully aware of this and took precautions what were they? My thinking is that many admins have no idea this is going to bite them and its better you know now than find out the hard way.
 

Windows Admins & VSS

I've been running into a number of Windows Admins lately who are not familiar with the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service. I guess you have to be an admin who works with backups to have any familiarity with it??? Is this common?  If you have admins who seem to lack knowledge of VSS I would recommend the following MS TechNet library reference. Lately I've been dealing with the object enumeration and missing system writer issues, if anyone has found a solution for the object enumeration issue I'm all ears!!!

Technical Flash

This was in the TSM Info e-mail sent out yesterday. The last one is worth looking into since a bad System State backup can ruin your whole day.

News & Technical Flashes

Title: TSM V61 Server may crash due to exhausted system resources

Title: Backupsets Generated with non-IBM LTO Generation 4 Drives Can Exhibit Overwritten Labels

Title: Tivoli Storage Manager 6.1 Installation Failure on AIX 5.3 due to AIX prerequisite APAR check

Title: Incorrect Windows system state backups and restores with TSM 5.5 and 6.1 Windows clients

Windows 2003 Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) Hotfixes

If you are need of VSS hotfixes checkout this page from IBM. I plan to add it to the link list...might start a list of links to patches and updates, but that could be difficult to keep current. I know this is an older reference but I needed the fixes recently and it seems the VSS issues don't go away, they just keep coming back with each patch of Windows.

System State & Services Backup Issue

I had a problem recently with McAfee and TSM not playing nice together. Jared Annes (co-worker) figured out the problem and this is his finding. What happened was that changes to the default scanning and file protection procedures were made to McAfee to “lock down” the servers from viruses. Unfortunately the SA’s inadvertently caused TSM to fail every system state and system services backup.  The culprit was one file, TFTP.EXE in the System32 folder due to McAfee locking the file from being read. What I didn’t expect was that a failure of one file would cause TSM to fail on the whole system state and system services backup. I forgot the system state and services are looked at as one object instead of multiple files. The fix was to disable McAfee, then delete TFTP.EXE from the hidden dllcache folder, also from the System32 folder, and then re-enable McAfee. Since then I have had no more troubles with the system state and services backups.

NOTE: If you don’t delete the file from the dllcache folder Windows will copy it back over to the System32 folder recreating the problem you were trying to fix.

All Hail The Java GUI!

Interesting resolution to a restore I just had thought I would pass it on... On one of our Win2K3 servers all admin accounts were crippled due to some corruption in the registry (my vote was on Gremlins!). So they wanted to restore the system state to a week ago.  I tried and the client core dumped due to our permissions being crippled.  So I tried one other thing and that is the Java GUI.  I figured since it runs under the System Account it might work.  Well it did and fixed their problems....I had not used the Java GUI in ages but here is one situation where it came in quite handy.

System State Backup Issue

We recently had to rebuild a box (thank goodness it was not production) and found that the system state and objects had not backed up.  Stranger still there was no error stating they failed. In fact the only error was that the LVSA directory was not set and it would not be used during the backup.  Why would a failure to completely setup the LVSA affect the system objects and state? TSM doesn't require the LVSA to back them up.  We checked multiple systems and found this happening on more than one.  The client level we are on is 5.2.4 and higher.  Has anyone else experienced this?  BTW - The backup schedules were showing in the event log as COMPLETED not Failed.