How to Recover Your PRO Server or Move to a New Host

This article describes how to recover your system if you lose the machine on which you installed PRO Server.

Note: You can also use these instructions as a guide for upgrading your VMware PRO Server Appliance and migrating to a future PRO Server release.

For PRO Server recovery, it is assumed you have the following:

• Nightly database dump
• Backup archives available to your new host
• If you're using any version prior to 2009.11.05, you'll also need a copy of the server's identity file

This article describes how to rebuild a server from a database dump

These directions are specific to local directory mounts; VMware NAS mounts function slightly differently.

The absolute path to a mount is the root path plus the volume; all of the fields are available on the Servers > Manage Mount screen. A sample absolute path to a mount:

/Volumes/USB1/backups/CrashPlanPROArchive_m424765x001

The CrashPlanPROArchive_m424765x001 folder was created by PRO Server as a container for the backup archives so they may be managed together. Any backup archives stored on this mount will be in the GUID-numbered folders stored at this location. e.g.

/Volumes/USB1/backups/CrashPlanPROArchive_m424765x001/344377426245724722

The volume label for a given mount never changes in order to facilitate moving the mount. Performing a move by relocating the entire volume label directory means not having to worry about to which mount a given computer is assigned; the backup archives will end up in the right place by default.

If you're moving a mount point or reconstructing a failed server, move the entire volume label directory from its old location to the new one and then update your server with the new path. For example:

1. The old absolute path: /Volumes/USB1/backups/CrashPlanArchive_m424765x001
2. Move the CrashPlanArchive_m424765x001 directory from its old location to /Volumes/NFS4.
3. Edit the root path of the mount to the new location: /Volumes/NFS4

If a mount is showing an error relating to the path or volume folder you'll need to review 3 things:

1. Is the root path valid?
   • In our example, does the /Volumes/USB1/backups path exist?
2. Is the volume directory in place?
   • Is the CrashPlanPROArchive_m424765x001 folder within the root path?
3. Are the backup archive folders within the volume directory?
   • After checking everything and seeing no errors on the Settings page, the easiest way to make sure everything is in the right place is to use the Web Restore functionality to access the backup archives.

It may be necessary to move archives from one machine to another. CrashPlan archives are normal files that you can copy/move; it's safest to do so when your PRO Server is offline.

To reduce PRO Server downtime, use rsync to copy the archives while the old PRO Server is still online. Then turn the server off, rsync again and then power the server on again.

We recommend these rsync options:

rsync -ah --progress --delete --compress-level=0 --inplace

• Back Up PRO Server Archives and Database
• Reference - Import Database
• How to Import an Archive into a PRO Server
• Reconnect an Existing Backup
• Wikipedia - Rsync