There are multiple similar questions over the years but the workaround doesn’t apply to Enterprise class server with Intel VROC M.2 SSD RAID 1 virtual disk (VD) array as the array for the RAID 1 VD must be created / present during restore.
IE, Can’t switch to SATA mode, restore and “Enable VROC” as the array is destroyed with storage changes and recreated new.
Summary:
I am working on a customer support issue where the customer lost their Intel VROC (VMD) RAID 1 array after having maintenance issues on their server and they are not able to restore their OS image back to their VROC RAID 1 virtual disk array.
Although customer is using the most recent versions of UrBackup Server, Client and Restore Stick (see below), from what I can tell, the UrBackup Restore Stick, is using a kernel and driver bundle which does Not include Intel VROC drivers for NVMe storage devices.
Unfortunately, it appears UrBackup also does not support loading on-deman drivers for restoration purposes so a custom Restore Stick with Linux Intel VROC NVMe drives are probably required.
I’m trying to get this customer up and running again.
Q: How can I add Intel (Linux) VROC NVMe drivers to the Restore Stick bootable media?
UrBackup Restore Stick appears to be Debian based(?) so latest Ubuntu server / Debian Intel VROC NVMe drivers should work with an updated kernel but I don’t know how to do this…
Hi, sorry you are experiencing this. Did you see this on github about building your own urbackup restore disk on Debian, maybe it will help? Build URBackup restore media
Do you know the version of the kernel and name(s) of the drivers that you need injected?
Another option that doesn’t have to do with URBackup but that I have used on some RAID 1 setups, depending on the RAID1 software/physical RAID card capabilities~
Do the individual drives appear in URBackup when you boot from the restore USB? If so, then make sure the RAID1 array is created on the server. Then shutdown and disconnect 1 of the RAID 1 drives, 1 drive is still available. Use URBackup to restore to the remaining RAID1 drive. Shutdown server after restore and connect the 2nd RAID1 drive. When server boots, syncing the data to the 2nd drive will either happen automatically or you’ll need to go into the array settings at bootup and have it sync up the drives there.
Let me know if any of the above is helpful, best wishes!
Also, I was wondering if you boot from a windows server boot USB if you see the drives as RAID1, or you can inject the driver there so that the RAID1 volume appears? If so, you could try to restore you URBackup image to a single, different disk not involved in your RAID. Use another tool like Macrium Reflect or Windows Server boot usb manually commands to make an image of this single disk. Then use windows server boot USB that sees the RAID1 volume and restore your image file to the raid1 volume. You could also try Macrium Reflect Recovery USB as I think it lets you inject drivers at boot or the most recent version might detect the raid volume automatically.
There is also some manual commands (of which I would need to search around the forums/documentation to find the commands) for URBackup to manually combine incremental images into a single current image. Urbackup is storing images in .vhd format, but it could be converted to .vhdx format and copied to another drive. Then the .vhdx could be mounted, converted to a WIM file, and restored using windows command line DISM commands. This is again assuming that in the Windows boot environment you can get your raid volume drivers injected and that is easier for you than trying to get the debian drivers injected into a urbackup boot USB.
Thanks for the response. I’ll reply to your second response separately. I will review the documentation on GitHub you reference.
Regarding Creating the RAID 1 array and then pulling one drive and use UrBackup to restore to the remaining drive in the Array. This won’t work be cause UrBackup does Not have any Intel VROC NVMe drivers native to recognize the virtual drive. Restoring to a single disk of the array destroys the SW RAID array.
Regarding the drivers. Yes, I can find and determine the Linux (Debian) / Ubuntu OS kernel and matching VROC NVMe driver version but I don’t have this at the moment.
Now, I’m hoping that UrBackup pulls additional drivers based upon the server/system the Restore Stick was created on (IE, don’t expect the Restore Stick to work on every system) so if UrBackup is anything like other backup SW (VEEAM, Macrium, Acronis, etc.) UrBackup Restore Stick will pull additional drivers during recovery media creation?
Good outside the box thinking on this. The long & short story is that Intel (for decades) always seems to miss the boat (cut-off date) when adding boot drivers into new Windows OS (vNext) and so drivers for VROC are not in-box. This means the WinPE / RE won’t natively have the drivers either. In fact WS2022 doesn’t have the drivers in-box and we need to inject during OS installation.
The bottom line here seems to be that UrBackup (as good as it is and I’ve been using it for about 4 years now internally) doesn’t have a current Linux kernel with Intel VROC (NVMe (or SATA) drivers. Also doesn’t have a Restore Media creation method to pull required drivers from the existing system and does not have method to inject drivers (easily).
I’ll check the create custom Restore Media (on GitHub) you pointed to and I hope it’s good but I’m expecting to be disappointed.
Regarding, 'Urbackup is storing images in .vhd format, but it could be converted to .vhdx format and copied to another drive. Then the .vhdx could be mounted, converted to a WIM file, and restored using windows command line DISM commands. '. I have actually done this in the past to create a bootable USB flash drive (not easy) but I’m hoping for a more clean solution as this is for an end customer.
I made the mistake of suggesting UrBackup to a customer having restore issues with Macrium and offering to backup/restore using UrBackup (as I’ve never had any issues with HW based RAID) and didn’t realize the latest UrBackupRestore Stick is not regularly updated with additional storage drivers (IE, Intel VROC NVME).
Given that adding drivers to rescue media is not easy, I filed a bug request to get VROC NVMe and SATA drivers added to the restore media image but I haven’t heard anything back. Probably a backlog of bugs.
Reviewed the Github material regarding, ‘Build URBackup restore media’, unfortunately there are no instructions about actually building the media. Only rudimentary notes.
Maybe I’m missing the steps but I’m quite disappointed. I was hoping at minimum to have steps in addition to prerequisites for us that know Windows platforms Vs Linux.
Quite sad really, the SW has potential but they won’t take the time to provide step-by-step process to grow the conumer base. The following is not helpful and I guess is expecting too much.
