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Seed drive without replication

UndergroundIT
over 7 years ago

Currently using AA6/RR We're having some major issues getting a base image to apply from a couple of remote sites that are connected over a very low bandwidth pipe.

The base image takes several days just to finish, but hasn't due to server restarts or other network-related issues.  However, I'm being told by our vendor support team that we can use a USB drive to get a seed created from the target machine to copy onto the single core that we have.  All of my research shows that seeding can only take place via replication, and that replication must involve 2 or more cores, thus negating the possibility for our situation, as we only have one single core backup machine.

Am I reading the information wrong, as the only videos/info I've seen for seeding explicitly talks about replication, via source and target cores.  If I'm wrong, and it's possible, can somebody point me to the correct instructions on how to to so?  Remember, we only have one (1) Dell Rapid Recovery unit.

  • 0 over 7 years ago
    Hi UndergroundIT:
    Unfortunately, I have bad news for you.
    Rapid Recovery is not designed to do backups over the WAN. Discrete sites located at different geographical locations are normally connected via replication. Depending on your license you may be able to spin replication cores with little or even without supplemental licensing costs -- please consult your vendor. Many of the MSPs I work with and who in turn have many small customers are using Hyper-V hosts, with the 2 or 3 servers used by the customers as virtual machines and with the core installed on the host. These sites replicate to the central office. It is not an ideal setup but it is OK for small environments. Even under these circumstances, seeding may be needed, especially if the WAN connection is delivered via copper lines which are prone to heat, humidity and electromagnetic disturbances.
  • 0 over 7 years ago
    Thanks for the response! So just for clarification, there is currently no way to create a seed drive without having multiple Rapid Recovery cores? I'd like to get some bit of confirmation to bring back to my boss(es) to prove that I wasn't crazy, and that I knew it wasn't possible given with what we have.

    Our sites are using an e-wan, and while most have been able to get the primary backup done over the pipe in roughly 7 days or less, there's a couple of sites that just can't be pushed through their own respective pipes. I understand that Rapid Recovery was designed to have replication be set up in instances such as my own, but I unfortunately don't control the bank account, nor the approval to order the equipment. I have to deal with what I'm given, as some may attest.
  • +1 over 7 years ago
    Hi UndergroundIT:
    Seed Drives are created on the source core and contain the recovery points that are to be moved on the target core as a part of "jump starting" (or repairing) the replication process. A slightly different operation is archiving -- creating Recovery points archives acting (in Rapid Recovery) as read only repositories.
    In both cases you need to be able to transfer consistent data to the Core before attempting creating a seed drive or archive.
    If I understand correctly, in your case, the issue is that, due to WAN limitations, you cannot have successful transfers (i.e. recovery points) on the core, thus there is nothing to seed or archive.
    Hope that this helps :)
  • 0 over 7 years ago
    We had a similar issue with a client and set up a second core backup at separate location that can be used as extra security and as a DR plan. This would add expense but make it much easy.
    GavinR,Mrbackup.biz