Systems Management Server Supported Recovery Scenarios and Configurations

Published: October 10, 2000

This article describes scenarios that require Microsoft® Systems Management Server site recovery as well as scenarios and configurations that are either not supported or as yet untested. When a site fails, the goal of recovery is to restore functionality completely with as little data loss as possible. For the supported scenarios described here, complete site recovery is possible—whether or not all the data that was in the site prior to failure is fully recovered.

Although you can mitigate data loss after a site failure, it is far better to invest effort in providing valid, recent backups. If your site's backup is missing or out of date, you can expect to have significant data loss after a site failure recovery operation. Even if the backup is only a few hours old, there will be some data loss after a recovery operation is complete.

After you have recovered a failed site, you can mitigate the data loss by updating the site configuration, regenerating inventory, and redistributing packages.

Supported Recovery Scenarios

If any of the following problems occur, your entire site must be recovered:

•	The computer on which the site server or the SMS site database is installed fails.
•	The drive containing Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0 operating system, Microsoft SQL Server™, or SMS fails.
•	Windows NT fails and must be restored.
•	The file system becomes corrupted.
•	SQL Server fails and must be restored.
•	The SQL Server database (or databases) becomes corrupted.

Why a Full Site Recovery Is Required

When you restore the operating system, you also restore an old copy of the registry. Because the SMS registry key might not be synchronized with the rest of the site data in the files and with the SMS site database, a full recovery is required. Also, some features or tasks will not function as expected, or they might not function at all. The same issue applies if only the site files are restored or if only the SMS site database is restored.

On SMS sites, if any data is restored from a backup, then all data must be restored from a backup. This backup must have been created as a single snapshot while the site services were stopped to ensure that all the site data is synchronized.

If a remote site system role, such as a client access point, logon point, or distribution point fails, or if the sole domain controller supporting the site accounts fails, a recovery of the whole site is not required as long as the site server and SMS site database are intact and successfully running. If the failed remote site system role is an SMS site database or software metering database, a recovery of the whole site is required.

Restoring From Backup

A backup must be restored to the same site. You can restore an SMS site from a backup only if:

•	The version and service pack of SMS are the same for both the backed up and restored site.
•	The version and service pack of SQL Server are the same for both the backed up site and restored site. (In some undocumented cases, there can be a difference in service pack version.)
•	The version and service pack of the operating system are the same for both the backed up and restored site. (In some undocumented cases, there can be a difference in service pack version.)
•	No site accounts were changed between the backup and restore operations. (There are exceptions to this, but they are not documented yet.)

Restoring Without a Backup

If a recovery is being run without restoring from a backup, SMS supports:

•	Recovering the site with the same SMS service pack as the failed site or with a later SMS service pack.
•	Recovering the site with the same version or service pack of SQL Server as the failed site or with a later version or service pack of SQL Server.
•	Recovering the site with the same Windows NT service pack as the failed site or with a later Windows NT service pack.
•	Some account changes between the failed site and recovered site.

Unsupported Actions

With or without a backup, SMS does NOT support the following:

•	Changing the drive letter on which SMS is installed is not supported.
•	Changing the site code is not supported.
•	Changing the site name is not supported.
•	Changing the computer name of the site server is not supported.
•	Changing the parent site of a secondary site is not supported.
•	Moving the SMS Provider from the site server to a remote server is not supported. (If the SMS Provider was installed on the same remote server that contained the SMS site database when the site was first set up, and later the SMS site database is moved to a different remote server, the SMS Provider must be moved to that same remote server.)
•	Moving the SMS site database from a remote server to the site server is not supported. (You can move the SMS site database from the site server to a remote server running SQL Server, or you can move the SMS site database from one remote server to another remote server. However, after you move the SMS site database off the site server, you cannot move it back.)

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Supported Configurations for Recovery

Documented Scenarios

SMS documents and supports the following using English–language documents and tools:

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Any combination of Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 and SQL Server 7.0 on a local or remote server.

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SMS Provider on a local or remote server.

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Windows NT 4.0 or Microsoft Windows® 2000.

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Site servers running on member servers or domain controllers.

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Recovery with no backup, an old backup, or a new backup.

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Recovering a secondary site.

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Recovering a primary site with or without a parent site.

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Recovering a primary site with:

•	No child sites.
•	A secondary site.
•	A child primary site.
•	A mix of primary and secondary child sites.

Undocumented Scenarios

According to current knowledge, the following configurations are recoverable, but procedures for them will not be included until a later version:

•	Complex security models, specifically including a recovery operation with account lockout enabled.
•	Domains with multiple site servers.
•	Domains with clients from multiple sites logging onto them and one or more sites with logon discovery or installation enabled (that is, shared logon points).
•	SQL Server shared by multiple SMS sites.
•	Shared SMS Provider servers.
•	Recovering site systems when there was no failure with the site server, the SMS site database, or SQL Server.
•	SMS Administrator consoles.

Untested Scenarios

The SMS product team has not yet investigated recovering from the following:

•	Sites that use Microsoft SQL Server 2000.
•	Sites that use Novell NetWare.
•	Recovering or transitioning a site on an Alpha-based computer to an Intel-based computer.
•	Restoring a backup created before SMS account changes were made.
•	SMS site system roles that run Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition (Terminal Server.
•	SMS site system roles that run Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition (Terminal Server Client).
•	SMS site system roles that run Windows 2000 (Terminal Services).
•	SMS site system roles that run Windows 2000 (Terminal Services Client).
•	Crystal Info for SMS.

Recommendations

In an untested scenario, we recommend the following:

•	Do not try to recover SMS clients, because they cannot be reliably stopped and started without risking data corruption, and their data cannot be backed up while the client is running without risking data corruption.
•	Do not restore a backup created before an SMS upgrade.