Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 : Disaster Recovery - Using the Recovery Expert

The Recovery Expert has been, and continues to be, available as a Web-based tool on the Microsoft SMS Web site (http://www.microsoft.com/smserver). However, it has been included on the SMS product CD as an option that you can install from the Autorun menu, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The SMS 2003 Autorun menu.

The Recovery Expert must be installed to a host computer running Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) version 5 or later. The installation itself is fairly straightforward and results in the generation of a URL, as shown in Figure 2, that you can use to run the Recovery Expert tool.

To start the Recovery Expert, open your Internet browser (Internet Explorer version 5.5 or later) and enter the URL that was generated during the installation of the Recovery Expert to display the Recovery Expert Entry Page shown in Figure 3. Then click Use The Recovery Expert.

Figure 3. The Recovery Expert Entry Page.

Through the next few pages of the Recovery Expert, shown in Figures 4 through 6, you’re presented with a series of questions designed to help generate a recovery checklist. As you’ll see, these questions are quite specific as to the configuration of your site, the site hierarchy, the currency of your backup, and so on. The result is a comprehensive checklist of steps that you should follow to recover your SMS site. Believe me, this works well, especially if you provide the tool with the correct information. So, my obvious advice to you is to be sure you document your site setup, configuration, and hierarchy well! The time to pull together comprehensive documentation of your site is not after the site crashes.

Figure 4. The Recovery Expert Site Information page.

Figure 5. The Recovery Expert Site Configuration page.

Figure 6. The Recovery Expert Site Configuration Changes page.

Notice the checklist entries in Figure 7. Each of the entries is itself a link to background information that will be helpful to you in successfully completing that task.

Figure 7. The Recovery Expert checklist.

For example, if I click the entry Gather Information And Materials, a rather detailed list is displayed, as shown in Figure 8, that lists exactly what you should have ready in the way of product CDs, backup files, and so on. You can print out just the checklist steps, or the entire checklist document, including all the background pages. The instructions for doing so are listed at the top of the checklist.

Figure 8. The Gather Information And Materials page.

If you selected the option The Repair Wizard Will Be Used on the Recovery Expert Site Configuration Changes page, you’ll notice that some of the checklist steps appear dimmed. The Repair Wizard is another recovery tool included with SMS 2003 that’s designed to automate many of the recovery tasks for you. As you carry out each Recovery Expert checklist task, skip those tasks that are run by the SMS Site Repair Wizard. When you get to the checklist step that directs you to run the SMS Site Repair Wizard, do so. When the SMS Site Repair Wizard finishes, you can pick up with the next task on the Recovery Expert checklist. Let’s see how the SMS Site Repair Wizard works.