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ProPlus Disaster Recovery

Our site has implemented a new disaster recovery plan in case of catastrophic failure of our DeltaV DCS servers.    We are currently have DeltaV version 12.3.1 running on Windows 2008 installed on real servers.   We have not yet taken the step to virtualize them.    To recover from a complete failure of a ProPlus server (water ingress, lighting, fire, etc...), we make daily backups using the embedded Windows Server Backup set for "Bare metal recovery".    We have a spare server that is as identical to the ones installed in the production area as we can get it.  Both were purchased at the same time from Emerson.   The plan is simply restore the image to the new hard-ware.   At least we would like to keep it that simple.

However in testing, I have found an issue with the network adapters.   The servers have four embedded network ports:  one is used for the DeltaV primary control network; one is used for the DeltaV secondary control network; the third is used for plant LAN connection; and the fourth one is not used.   When the image is restored, if you look under the Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections there are four network adapters visible but they are un-configured.   I am unable to reconfigure them to match the original settings for Windows tells me the name already exist.

Doing some research, I found a way to show the four original configured network adapters.  They are ghosted.   The only way to reconcile is to uninstall the ones imported from the image.   I can then reconfigure the four real network adapters.    DNS recovers and so does Active Directory.   However DeltaV services will no longer start due to missing "COMM registry" entries.   This makes sense for I uninstalled the four ghosted adapters.

So....How does a person go about restoring a Windows 2008 full metal backup to a new server hardware and then reconciling the restored network adapters with the physical network adapters?

6 Replies

  • Chris,

    This doesn't appear to be directly related to our Backup and Recovery solution, so we don't have an official KBA on this, but the question was posed to our Product Engineering team:

    Here is the procedure to get rid of the old NICs so that the new ones can be given the same IPs and names as the old.

    From a command prompt run …

    SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1

    START DEVMGMT.MSC

    Once the Device Manager window opens, select Show Hidden Devices from the View menu

    Expand the Network adapters node and Uninstall any Intel/Broadcom/QLogic adapters that are greyed out.  NOTE … there are other greyed out nodes here that should not be removed (e.g. the RAS Async Adapter below should not be removed).  Once these are uninstalled the IP addresses and friendly names that were linked to them will be removed as well.  This will allow you to give the new connections the old names and IP addresses.

    There are some DeltaV registry entries that use the network adapter's GUID (a hidden unique Windows identifier), therefore you would need to rerun Workstation Configuration after you finish configuring the adapters on the new machine, ProPlus or otherwise.

    Brian

  • Hello Brian,
    I did look in to Emerson backup/recovery solution which looks to be based on Acronis and was more geared for an enterprise backup/recovery solution. I did not see a procedure there on how to restore to a new machine and resolve the adapter issue. It just said that you could do it.

    The procedure you outlined is the procedure I followed that caused DeltaV services to no longer start. My node in question was the ProPlus. When I reran workstation config, it wiped out my database. Is there a procedure that I can follow to allow me to point my DeltaV network configuration on the ProPlus to the newly renamed network adapters without it wiping my configuration?
  • In reply to chris williams:

    If you go into Database Administrator, do you see your previous database as an option for making active?
  • In reply to Brian Atkinson:

    You can try opening a call with the Global Service Center for assistance with this issue; however, you are using an unsupported/untested method, so the help will be limited. In checking with the support organization, it was noted that Workstation Configuration is non-destructive and will leave the existing configuration intact. There is no scenario where it will wipe it and replace it with an empty database. What can happen is that the DeltaV Database Server does not register properly during Workstation Configuration at which point you cannot open DeltaV Explorer. A quick examination of Services on the machine will show whether the DeltaV Database Server service is present or not. If it is missing then you can either re-run Workstation Configuration or (preferably because it is faster) run regall /register from the command prompt.
  • Hello Brian,
     
    Just wanted to let you know that we believe we were able to restore the Pro+ to a new hardware platform.

    1.)    Delete ghosted adapters

    2.)    Redefine existing adapters

    3.)    Reboot

    4.)    Restart DNS

    5.)    AD recovers on its own.

    6.)    Reboot

    7.)    Re-run workstation configuration.   This forces a log-off log-on.
    However DeltaV services will not start.

    8.)    Reboot

    9.)    DeltaV services start normally on their own.

    10.)  Re-register Windows OS license.

     
    Thank you for your help.
    Per your suggestion, we will look more in to Emerson’s recommended solution for disaster recovery.   This seems to be one area that Emerson does not advertise very well.
     
    Mr. Chris Williams – Controls Technology
    DAK Americas LLC, CA site
     
  • In reply to chris williams:

    I am glad to hear that it all worked out for you! Thank you for coming back and letting us all know what the final solution ended up being.

    Brian