Before you begin restoring the appliance, make sure that you do the following:
IMPORTANT:Make sure that your Windows license key is activated before you restore the appliance.
Connect your administrative computer to the appliance, as explained in Step 1.
Make sure that the administrative computer has the output folder that was generated and collected during the backup (see Step 3).
If you connected external USB storage to the administrative computer at backup time, you need to reconnect the same external storage to the administrative computer for restore.
Make sure you have access to the PlateSpin.ForgeUpgrade utility, part of the PlateSpin Forge 11 Upgrade Kit available from PlateSpin Support.
You must be able to run the net use command referenced in Section 2.1.2, Performing the Forge Backup. If the command fails, you might need to add some exceptions to the firewall for file sharing, or you might need to disable the firewall altogether during the upgrade process.
Reattach any external storage you might have previously used with the appliance.
Use the following steps to restore the appliance:
From the command prompt on the administrative computer, change the directory to the working directory. For information about the backup directory, see Section 1.5, Upgrade Precautions.
If you have not already done so, extract the contents of PlateSpin.ForgeUpgrade_11.0.0.xxxx.zip into to the same volume where the output directory resides (for example, D:\forge_backup), then change directory to the \PlateSpin.ForgeUpgrade_11.0 subdirectory.
Run the restore utility from the command line, entering data you obtain from the configuration worksheet. For example:
PlateSpin.ForgeUpgrade.exe /restore /psserver=10.10.10.226 / username=administrator /esx_address=10.10.10.225 /esx_username=forgeuser /outputfolder=D:\forge_backup\out
NOTE:You need to know the following as you run this utility:
If you are unfamiliar with the restore utility parameters, you can learn more by accessing its help: PlateSpin.ForgeUpgrade.exe /help.
You must specify a path pointing to the /outputfolder specified in the backup utility (see Step 4).
(Conditional) If you chose not to use the available parameters for supplying passwords via a file, enter those passwords when prompted:
Starting task "Validate user input".
Step 1 of 5: Setting Default Values
Step 2 of 5: Getting Required Passwords
Please enter the password for PlateSpin server user 'administrator': ********
Please enter the Forge Virtual Host password for user 'forgeuser': ********
Please enter the Forge Virtual Host superuser/root password: ********
Enter y (yes) at the following prompt:
Step 3 of 5: Validating Parameters
Step 4 of 5: Confirming restore
Do you wish to begin the restore process?
Please note that this process can take up to 4 days to complete, depending on the size of your protected workloads that were backed up to local USB storage. During this time, the protection contracts will not have been restored. Once the failover VMs have been restored, all existing contract data will be overwritten. Do not disrupt this process or use the appliance until the restore has completed. [y|n] y
(Optional) If you previously backed up the failover VMs to USB drives, enter y (yes) at the following prompt:
Step 5 of 5: Confirming that failover VMs should be restored
Proceed with restore Forge failover VMs from external USB storage? If so, please attach it now and answer "yes" to continue. If you answer "no" then USB restore will be skipped. [y|n] y
IMPORTANT:If you choose this option, you might have to wait up to four days for the restore process to complete. Otherwise, the wait time should be much less, maybe a few hours.
The restore utility runs. When its process is completed the console displays an information screen like this:
The task Restore Forge failover VMs completed successfully.
Restore Summary:
The task "Validate user input" completed successfully.
Step Setting Default Values completed successfully.
Step Getting Required Passwords completed successfully.
Step Validating Parameters completed successfully.
Step Confirming restore completed successfully.
Step Confirming that failover VMs should be restored completed successfully.
The task Restore previously backed up Forge failover VMs completed successfully.
Step Enable ssh for root user on ESX completed successfully.
Step Enable USB in ESX COS completed successfully.
Step Validate external USB disks completed successfully.
Step Gather list of Forge failover VMs to restore completed successfully.
Step Restore Forge failover VMs from external USB storage completed successfully.
Step Register VMs on shared storage completed successfully.
Step Disable ssh for root user on ESX completed successfully.
The task Restore Forge failover VMs completed successfully.
Step Update contracts completed successfully.
Step Importing Forge Server Contracts completed successfully.
Step Refreshing Forge ESX Server container completed successfully.
The first line of the output indicates that the utility ran successfully.