How Does Bare Metal Recovery Protect and Restore Data?

Much of an organization’s success and key processes can be wrapped up in servers that team members use every day. So, what happens if hardware fails or is compromised? The downtime can be severely detrimental to a business, with per-outage costs ranging from $10,000 to well over $1 million. This is where bare metal recovery (BMR) can be vital, restoring system resources on a new server quickly and efficiently.

This article will cover how bare metal recovery can help your organization protect and restore data, outlining what you should consider when planning your BMR approach. 

What Is Bare Metal Recovery?

Bare metal recovery, also known as bare metal restore, is when a server is fully restored to a completely new or wiped machine. This includes restoring applications, data, files, and the operating system, such as Windows, rebuilding things from scratch while leaving the data and settings intact.

It’s called a “bare metal” recovery because the server is reverted to the basics before restoring it to a fully operational state. While BMR is often associated with Windows, it can be applied to various operating systems.

How Does Bare Metal Recovery Work?

• The Data Recovery Process: The data recovery process with BMR starts with a complete image that captures everything in the system. Next, bootable recovery media is prepared, which contains information on where the system image backup is located, as well as the BMR software. When booting the target system, the user will use the recovery media. The BMR software restores the system image and recreates the system, and often handles driver installation. Once the process is complete, the user will confirm whether the system is working as expected.
• Tools and Technologies Used: At the base, BMR software, such as Windows Server Backup, employs disk imaging technology to create copies of the system. These can be stored in the cloud, in network storage, or on physical storage such as external hard drives. The recovery process starts with bootable media on something like a USB drive. You may also use network booting if you’re working with a larger environment. Some businesses may be restoring to virtual machines, which require virtualization technology. You may also use the cloud to restore images if you’re working with a solution that has cloud integration.

When to Use Bare Metal Recovery

Generally, organizations will use bare metal recovery if the system is corrupted, or the hardware is damaged beyond repair. This could be due to outdated equipment, malware, viruses, or a catastrophic event. Businesses may also choose to do bare metal recovery when upgrading hardware and moving to a new server.

Advantages of Bare Metal Restoration

When done effectively, bare metal restoration can be an efficient, flexible, and cost-effective solution for users who are looking to restore their systems.

• Speed and Efficiency: Doing BMR is often faster than configuring and manually installing pieces, restoring a complete system in one go. BMR tools can also make the process simpler and more efficient, guiding you through each step of what needs to be done.
• Flexibility and Versatility: If you’re doing BMR as a response to hardware failures or upgrades, you can restore to a different hardware configuration. The process can be suitable for a variety of scenarios. 
• Cost-Effectiveness: Faster recovery means that users will experience less downtime, which directly results in cost savings. Because BMR can be a more simplified process, IT staff are freed up to work on other tasks, making resource allocation more cost-effective. BMR can also minimize risks associated with data loss, another problem that can be costly for businesses.

Potential Challenges with Bare Metal Restoring

Even with significant advantages, businesses can encounter potential challenges with BMR, including issues around compatibility, resource requirements, and security concerns.

• Compatibility Issues: While BMR can handle variations in hardware in cases of damage and desires to upgrade, this can pose a problem with compatibility. For example, if a server has a different motherboard or storage controller, the variation may be too significant and cause issues with driver conflicts. Other compatibility issues can come from software dependencies and BIOS or UEFI firmware differences between the original and the new machine.
• Resource Requirements: Restoring the bare metal backups requires a lot of storage space. BMR needs to be planned carefully to ensure that there is enough storage capacity to manage and archive backups. You’ll also need to be mindful of network bandwidth and the processing power and memory required to complete the restoration process.
• Security Concerns: Because you are saving a complete copy of your system with BMR, you need to ensure the backups are safe from unauthorized users. Encrypting the backups, storing them in a secure location, and implementing access controls are all important steps to mitigate any safety concerns. If you are restoring an original system to a new server after it was infected with malware, your system image backup is likely to contain it as well. You need to ensure your BMR backups are clean and uncorrupted so that they can be used when needed.

Implementing Bare Metal Recovery Measures

Implementation of bare metal recovery measures involves strong planning and preparation, proper hardware and software selection, and figuring out the process and procedure of how data will be restored.

Bare Metal Recovery Prerequisites

A successful bare metal recovery plan includes preparing for the backup, ensuring there is adequate storage, adding administrator permissions to recovery software, and testing the verification plan.

• Prepare for a full system backup. Start by choosing the right BMR software that will meet your needs for features, ease of use, and compatibility. How often do you want backups? Do you want to be able to schedule them? Are you looking for support for different types of storage media? These should all be part of your consideration when choosing a tool. From there, you can create the complete system image, which will include the user data, drivers, settings, applications, and operating system. Establish a backup schedule and choose a backup location, which could be an external drive, network attached storage (NAS), or cloud storage.
• Secure compatible hardware with enough storage. The new hardware you’re restoring to should be compatible with your current applications and operating system. Minimizing variations where you can is the best way to ensure the process is smooth. You’ll also want to confirm that the target hardware has enough storage space to accommodate the restored system image. Give yourself wiggle room for future growth, as well. Create bootable recovery media, such as a DVD or a USB drive, with the BMR software and a link to the backup image location and check it to make sure it boots the way you expect.
• Ensure recovery software with admin access. The BMR software should be readily accessible when you need it, but it should also come with access credentials, so it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. The user performing the BMR needs to have administrative privileges on the new machine to implement everything.
• Create a testing and verification plan. Don’t just test your BMR once and forget about it. Regularly test your process so that you know it will work as expected at a critical moment. This can help you iron out any issues with hardware, compatibility, or the quality of the backup. Verify that the process will meet your recovery time objective – the maximum amount of time it’s acceptable for your system to be down. Once your system is well-defined and tested, document the procedures, results, and lessons learned to continue to improve your BMR plan and recovery steps.

Best Practices for Restoring Your Data

When restoring your data, it’s important to abide by certain best practices, including scheduling your backups, documenting necessary information, testing common scenarios, and updating standards of practice (SOP) frequently.

• Schedule regular back-ups. How often your data changes and how critical it is to your business processes to be up to date will determine how often you schedule backups. Some businesses may require daily or hourly data, whereas for others, weekly or monthly backups may be sufficient. The important part is to align this with your recovery point and recovery time objectives (RPO/RTO) and schedule the backups.
• Document process and technology information. Each step of the BMR process, as well as results from tests, should be recorded. Document the processes for completing the software installation, working on the recovery steps, and configuring the target server to match the old system’s requirements. It’s also good to document technology information, including hardware and software inventory and network configuration. If there are any key contacts you need to reach during the recovery process, keep their information on hand as well.
• Simulate recovery scenarios. The best way to test whether a recovery will work when it’s needed is by simulating common, real-world recovery scenarios. By testing a variety of scenarios, such as software corruption, hardware failures, and data loss, you can prepare for different disasters more thoroughly. You may also want to test using different hardware configurations to anticipate and counter any possible compatibility issues.
• Continuously update and improve SOPs. Technology changes, and your BMR plan will have to change with it. Regularly review documentation and improve your processes from lessons learned. Find areas for improvement by gathering feedback from IT staff and other key stakeholders. This way, your SOP will keep improving.

Safeguard Your Data in Any Environment

As new threats continue to emerge, data protection becomes more and more challenging. Your business needs to be prepared to safeguard itself against hardware failures, natural disasters, cyberattacks, software corruption, and human error, among other things. Having strong backup solutions in place, including bare metal recovery, can ensure your business is protected and prepared for whatever comes next. Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) is a cloud-based solution that can streamline your backup process, which can be used as part of your BMR strategy. Learn more about TierPoint’s BaaS solutions and how we can help you meet your RTO and RPO objectives.