The Sefthy Recovery ISO

The Sefthy Recovery ISO is what you use when a physical server has to be put back the way it was. The hardware is healthy again but empty, and you drive the restore from the Console instead of from the keyboard in front of the machine.

The five steps

1. Boot the server from the USB stick

You download the ISO, write it to a USB stick and boot the server. It starts on BIOS and on UEFI. It reads the hardware and waits, writing nothing to the disks.

2. The ISO shows a code

A code in the form SFT-XXXX-XXXX appears on screen. You type it into the Console or read it out over the phone to whoever is using it. The code alphabet drops the characters that sound and look alike, zero against O and one against I.

3. The Console sees the server connected

Once the code is in, the Console shows the server with its hostname, the detected disks with model and serial, and the content found on each one. You can tell immediately whether you are looking at the right machine.

4. Pick the snapshot and confirm the disk mapping

You select the recovery point and decide which backup disk goes onto which physical disk. Up to this point not a single byte has been written.

5. The restore starts and you follow it from the Console

You confirm and the restore starts. Progress shows up in the Console, so you do not have to stay in front of the server.

What happens next

When the restore ends the server boots from disk. The Sefthy Agent reconnects to the Console and closes the remaining steps on its own, whether you are coming back on-premise after a cloud DR or running a local restore.

The first backup of the restored server starts right away, so you are not left uncovered in the hours that follow.

Operational notes

• The ISO writes nothing before your confirmation in the Console.
• The code has a limited lifetime. If it expires, you restart the ISO and get a new one.
• The server needs outbound internet connectivity, same as the Sefthy Agent.