Bare-metal recovery
This article describes the BMR process in Xopero ONE.
Bare Metal Recovery (BMR) restores your entire system from an image-level backup, including the OS, applications, and data.
Overview
BMR (bare-metal restore, aka bare-metal recovery) enables speedy system recovery with a system image created with disk-imagining software—the image file recovers the entire OS and reconfigures it in minutes, avoiding a lengthy OS & application installation and configuration process. As you can perform BMR to bring a physical machine or server to a clean state following a data-loss event or hardware failure, BMR makes for an excellent disaster recovery plan.
BMR removes all existing partitions on the system disk and recreates it, before restoring software onto the PC.
In Xopero ONE, the BMR process consists of three steps:
Create an .iso file with the Xopero ONE agent installed.
Boot the device you want to restore from the .iso file.
In XMS (Xopero ONE Management Service), select the device to restore the system image and start the recovery process.
Creating an .iso file
Before you start working with SVS Creator, make sure that you have Windows ADK installed—if not, install it.
Download the SVS Creator from Xopero website and extract all files from the ZIP archive to a separate folder.
Run SVSCreator.exe to start the ISO image creation process.
In SVSCreator wizard window, specify the temporary work directory path (which is also a location where the Xopero SVS ISO image will be created). By default, the temporary work directory path is set to C:\Windows\Temp, but you can change it if needed. Once the path is adjusted to your needs, hit Next.
Please note that SVS Creator will download three components: Windows PE, Java Runtime Environment, and the Xopero ONE agent.
Select the appropriate OS architecture (32-bit or 64-bit) then click Next.
If Windows ADK is not installed, the wizard will automatically open the ADK installation window when you click Next. After ADK is installed, you will return to the SVS Creator window.
The wizard will automatically download and install the required components.
After all required components are installed, you can add drivers for the operating system you plan to restore. Click Add to select the drivers and include them in the .iso image, then select Next to continue.
This step is not mandatory—you can add drives to Xopero recovery, for example, if your device has some dedicated RAID controllers or a network card. Otherwise, you can omit this step.
The wizard will start creating the ISO image for Smart Virtualization Stick.
Once the ISO image is successfully created, an "ISO image with Windows PE successfully built" message will appear, along with the location of the .iso file. You can then close SVS Creator.
Running the OS from the .iso file
Once the .iso file is created, use it to boot the device where you want to restore the image-level backup. It is recommended to create a bootable USB drive, but you can use any other bootable media depending on your needs.
To start the SVS app from a USB flash drive, configure the BIOS/UEFI to boot from USB-HDD in the boot sequence.
Open SVS in Windows PE. After launching SVS, the following menu options will be displayed:
Xopero — opens a window with additional recovery options.
Shell — opens the command line, useful for manually configuring network interfaces.
Reboot — restarts the machine.
Shutdown — turns off the machine.
To recover the image-level backup, select the Xopero button.
Another menu screen will appear, offering the following options:
Device app — launches the Xopero ONE agent application on the device.
Fix boot problems — resolves issues preventing the operating system from running; use it to fix SVS-related problems.
Drivers — allows you to load or add new drivers.
Select Device app button to proceed with the recovery process.
Enter the service address https://localhost:5001 and the device name you want to use in Xopero ONE. Then, click Connect and open your Xopero ONE Management Service panel on another device.
Starting the recovery process in XMS
If the device connects successfully to your Management Service, it will appear as active in your XMS device dashboard.
In Xopero ONE Management Service, click the laptop 💻 icon in the top-right corner of the screen.
Find your device, check the box next to it, and click Activate to assign a license to the device.
You do not need to select a license manually; Xopero ONE will assign it automatically.
Once the license is assigned, locate the device you want to restore and click the Restore button on the right.
Select the backup plan that protects the disk you want to restore.
Choose the timestamp from which you want to restore the data, click Restore, and select the BMR recovery option from the drop-down menu.
Next, select the disk you want to restore and click Restore selected in the bottom-right corner of the panel.
Double-check if the restoration data is correct:
The Data to restore field displays the disk you selected for restoration.
The Restore to field shows the device where the image-level backup will be restored. To change it, click Edit and select a different device.
In the Restore directory section, specify the destination disk for the backup.
In the Restore settings section, you can choose to reset the drivers or leave the checkbox unchecked.
Click the Start now button in the bottom-right corner of the Restore data panel to begin the recovery process.
Useful links and items
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