How to perform a Local Restore

Putting the server back on another machine on site, booting it from the Sefthy Recovery ISO and driving the restore from the Console.

A local restore puts the customer server back on another machine on their own network, without going through the cloud. You boot the new machine from the Sefthy Recovery ISO, type a code, and drive the rest from the Console.

It applies to DRs protected by the Sefthy Agent installed on the server.

From the Recovery ISO code to a finished restore

The procedure

  1. Open the DR page and click Initiate DR. Choose Local and then Confirm.
  2. The page now shows the Steps to restore locally stepper and the Boot the server from the Recovery ISO and type the code panel, carrying a code in the form SFT-XXXX-XXXX. The code is single use and valid for 24 hours. If you lose it, New code issues another one and voids the previous.
  3. Download the Recovery ISO from the link in the panel, or from the DR More actions menu under Download Recovery ISO, and write it to a USB stick with a tool such as Balena Etcher.
  4. Boot the new machine from the stick and type the code on screen. Nothing is written to the disks.
  5. In the Console the panel turns to Server connected, with hostname and the number of disks found. Pick the day and the snapshot, and the Console proposes the Proposed restore plan, disk by disk. Edit mapping lets you change the destination, Change server / new code starts over if the wrong hardware is connected.
  6. Confirm with Start the restore. From here the target disks are overwritten. You follow the state in the Console, first the disks being prepared, then the restore, then finalising and reboot.

After the reboot

The server boots from disk and checks in by itself. The new backup credentials reach the Sefthy Agent, the client logs in again and the stepper closes without you clicking anything. The first backup of the restored server starts straight away and you get a confirmation email.

If the server has not shown up after 15 minutes, the Console says so and tells you what to look at, that it is powered on and booted from disk rather than from the stick, the network cable, DHCP. On different hardware the NIC MAC address has changed, so a network configuration tied to the old MAC needs revisiting. The Continue manually button is there as a way out.

What happens on the hardware itself, from the ISO screen to disk mapping, is covered in Bare metal restore with the Recovery ISO.

In the press