Restore to new RAID Volume

[mickeybyte]

Hi all,

We are in the process of expanding our storage for our backups & archives.
We created 3 seperate volume-level backups of our OS-volume (server 2019), Backup-Volume (REFS, windows dedup) and Archive-Volume (REFS, windows dedup), removed all disks from the server and replaced them by larger disks and created a new (HW)RAID-volume
Restored the OS-Volume using Veeam Recovery disk: OK
Restored Backup-Volume using the restored Veeam: we get an error stating: "Logical sector size differs between the backud up disk and the destination disk. Restored file system will be inconsistent and restored data will be unreadeable. We strongly suggest that you specify a disk with matching sector size instead. Are you sure you want to continue anyway? <yes><no>"
I almost got a heart attack... But I got over it and continued anyway...
Restore went fine, no errors.
Tried to restore some files from a backed up VM: OK, files restored without errors, files are readable, no corruption to be seen
Tried to restore a VM from the restored backups: OK, VM booted fine, all seemed to be working

So at first sight, everything seems ok, but why the warning message before? I'm still not 100% confident that my restore is not corrupt... the message "Restored file system will be inconsistent and restored data will be unreadeable." keeps hanging in my head...

Thanks for any tips (or comforting words that my data is in fact OK).
Michiel.

[Dima P.]

Hello Michiel,

Thank you for the detailed explanation of your issue, mind me asking if you were doing bare metal recovery or the message appeared while you were restoring volume via volume level recovery with the Operating System being booted? Thank you!

[mickeybyte]

We restored the OS-Volume using bare metal recovery
Then we booted the restored OS and restored the other volumes using the Veeam software installed on the server

[Dima P.]

Thanks for the update. If I remember correctly this warning should be displayed in Bare Metal Restore when you are restoring the bootloader backed up from a disk with one sector size to a disk with different sector size. I'll double check the behavior behind this prompt for non operating system volumes and update this thread with the results of my findings. Stay tuned!

[Dima P.]

Michiel,

Checked with QA folks: this error message indeed may result in restored file system being corrupted due to difference between the sector size of the disk in the backup and the target disk, however if you can access the disk normally after restore you can simply ignore it. Cheers!

[nitramd]

Hello Michiel.

Have you considered running a spot fix on your volumes?

This MS article may shed some light: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/b8/201 ... lth-model/

Hope this helps.

[mickeybyte]

Hi, sorry for the late reply, I didn't receive any notifications about replies apparently.
We've tested some backups on the restored volumes. Did file level restore, full restore, ... and they were all fine, so I hope it's OK.

@nitramd, we're using REFS, so ntfs spotfix ain't gonna work...

Thanks for the replies.

[Dima P.]

Michiel,

Thanks for sharing the update and glad to hear that you are up and running! Your file system should be ok - the notification in the question may reflect that entire volume will be restored as corrupted due to the sector size difference. If the volume is visible in the OS and you can access it - there is nothing to worry about. Cheers!

[jdjd]

Hello
Q1: We do all prep/config provided by server BIOS/SETUP for RAID,
then boot from OS-media, where soon,
the bare-metal restore approach WILL STILL need (e.g: Dell) RAID drivers,
to "see" the destination replacement pair/array ?

Q2: Maybe Veeam helps by gathering such drivers to be available at restore time?

[insert floppy joke here]

Not urgent. Just planning.
Thanks
jd

[jdjd]

Howdy
Q(a): Further to 1st post, above, (sector size mismatch) and Dima P & QA's advice "safe to ignore / if readable" cca.Oct.31
What if replacement target drive _IS_ substantially larger, and restore was NOT readable?
Stuck with that size drives as replacement?

Thanks
jd

[HannesK]

Hello,
and welcome to the forums

Q1 & 2: the agent automatically adds all drivers of the machine during recovery media creation. You can also add (raid)drivers manually or with floppy It's "just a Windows RE" (recovery environment) that we boot during bare metal restore

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/agent ... tml?ver=30

Q(a): I'm not sure I understand your question. It's no problem to restore to larger (also smaller drives if enough space) drives. If you run into the sector size issue, then the error message applies (data is not readable)

Best regards,
Hannes

[jdjd]

Thank you HannesK for prompt attention & reply.
Good news for Q1&&Q2.
Smart software!
Thanks,
jd

[jdjd]

Howdy HannesK

Regarding third question "Q(a)"
Let's say SectorSize mismatch error is shown, AND restored image FAILS (data not readable) ..

A1) Could we then manually format destination NTFS partition(s) to comply ?

A2) Are those required sector- & block -size params displayed (or readable) for us to learn & apply in (A1) ?