Cisco Video Surveillance Manager Recovery Guide (Cisco MSP Platform), Release 7.0.0

Table of Contents

Cisco Video Surveillance Manager Recovery Guide (Cisco MSP Platform) , Release 7.0

Supported Servers

Creating a Recovery Flash Drive

Restoring the Operating System from a Recovery Flash Drive

Related Documentation

Cisco Video Surveillance Manager Recovery Guide (Cisco MSP Platform), Release 7.0

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Revised: October 30, 2014

 

This document describes how to create a recovery flash drive for Cisco Video Surveillance Manager (Cisco VSM) release 7.0. This bootable USB drive contains a recovery image that you can use to restore the operating system on a server, or restore the server to the factory state, if needed.

This document includes these topics:

• Supported Servers
• Creating a Recovery Flash Drive
• Restoring the Operating System from a Recovery Flash Drive
• Related Documentation

Supported Servers

The Cisco VSM 7.0 recovery image is supported by the Cisco Multi-Services Platform (Cisco MSP) servers CPS-MSP-1RU-K9 and CPS-MSP-2RU-K9 that included pre-installed Cisco VSM 7.0 server software.

Other server models and servers shipped with earlier versions of the Cisco VSM software are not compatible with the recovery process described in this document.

Creating a Recovery Flash Drive

This section describes how to create a recovery flash drive by obtaining the recovery image and placing it on a USB flash drive.

Requirements

The USB flash drive that you use must:

• Be identified as a “basic type” (not a “removable type”). See Figure 1. Note: A “basic type” can be used to create a bootable disk partition.
• Have a capacity of at least 8 GB
• Support the creation of two partitions
• Contain no files other than the recovery image files
• We recommend using USB memory sticks made by Unigen or Kingston.

Procedure

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Step 1 Review the USB disk requirements (Requirements).

Step 2 Take these actions to create two partitions on the USB flash drive as required to create the recovery drive:

a. Put the USB flash drive into a USB slot on a PC that is running Windows 7.

b. In the Windows Start menu, right-click Computer and choose Manage .

c. In the Left panel of the Computer Management window, click Disk Management under Storage.

d. Locate the USB flash drive in the bottom panel of the right of the Computer Management window.

e. Verify that the USB flash drive is a “basic type” (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Identifying a Supported “Basic” USB Disk

 

f. If the drive contains any volumes, take these actions for each volume:

1. Right-click the volume.

2. Choose Delete Volume... .

3. Click Yes .

g. Right-click the unallocated space on the USB flash drive and choose New Simple Volume .

h. In the New Simple Volume Wizard, click Next .

i. In the Specify Volume Size window, enter 150 in the Simple volume size in MB field, and then click Next .

j. In the Assign Drive Letter of Path window, click the Assign the following drive letter radio button, enter an unused drive letter for the drive, and then click Next .

k. In the Format Partition window, make the following settings, and then click Next :

– Click the Format this volume with the following settings radio button.

– Choose FAT32 from the File system drop-down list.

– Choose Default from the Allocation unit size drop-down list

– Check the Perform a quick format check box.

l. Click Finish .

m. Right-click the remaining unallocated space on the USB flash drive and choose New Simple Volume .

n. In the New Simple Volume Wizard, click Next .

o. In the Specify Volume Size window, accept the default value in the Simple volume size in MB field, and then click Next .

p. In the Assign Drive Letter of Path window, click the Assign the following drive letter radio button, enter an unused drive letter for the drive, and then click Next .

q. In the Format Partition window, make the following settings, and then click Next :

– Click the Format this volume with the following settings radio button.

– Choose FAT32 from the File system drop-down list.

– Choose Default from the Allocation unit size drop-down list

– Check the Perform a quick format check box.

r. Click Finish .

Step 3 On a Windows PC on which WinZip or a similar archiving and compression application is installed, take these actions to download the recovery image:

a. Go to http://www.cisco.com/go/physicalsecurity .

b. Click View All Products .

c. Click Cisco Video Surveillance Manager .

d. Click Download Software for this Product and follow the on-screen instructions to download the .tar file. For example: Cisco_VSM-7.0.0-recovery-2.1.tar.

Step 4 On the Windows PC, take these actions to extract the file that you downloaded:

a. Start an archiving and compression application, such as WinZip.

b. Extract the recovery image to any folder on your local PC.

The recovery image consists of these files:

– rhel58-VSM7.0.0-Drop07-flash-boot-recovery.tar

– custom-rhel58.iso

Step 5 If you are using the WinZip application, choose Options > Configuration > Miscellaneous and make sure that the TAR file smart CR/LF conversion option is unchecked.

Step 6 Use the archiving and compression application to extract the contents of the following file from your local PC to the root directory of the first partition (the 150 MB partition) on the flash drive:

Cisco_VSM-7.0.0-recovery-2.1.tar

Step 7 Copy the following file from your local PC to the root directory of the second partition of the flash drive:

custom-rhel58.iso

Step 8 Take these actions:

a. Hold down the Windows key and press R to open the Windows Run dialog box.

b. In the Run dialog box, enter cmd and press ENTER . This will open a command window.

c. At the command prompt use the CD command to make drive:\scripts\windows the current directory, where drive is the drive letter of the first partition of the recovery flash drive.

For example, if the drive letter of the first partition of the recovery flash drive is G, enter cd G:\scripts\windows . This will change the current directory to G:\scripts\windows.

d. Enter the following command:

makeFlashBootable.vbs

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Note Another window will pop-open briefly and the flash drive will be made bootable. There will be no output from the successful operation.

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Restoring the Operating System from a Recovery Flash Drive

This section describes how to use a recovery flash drive to restore the operating system on a server.

Requirements

• Prepare a flash drive as described in the ‘“Creating a Recovery Flash Drive” section.
• Disconnect any USB or external storage devices (including SAN storage) from the server.
• Installation is supported only if the RAID disks are in a non-bad, non-failed state.

Procedure

To restore the operating system from a recovery flash drive, follow these steps:

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Step 1 Power off the server on which you need to restore the operating system.

Step 2 Disconnect (unplug) any USB storage devices and any external storage (such as SAN storage connected through a fibre channel) that are connected to the server.

This ensures that only the recovery flash drive is attached to the server and prevents other storage devices from accidently being cleared by the recovery process.

Step 3 Put the recovery flash drive in a USB port on the server and power on the server.

Step 4 When the Supermicro logo appears, press the F11 key.

Step 5 In the menu that allows you to select the boot device, choose the recovery flash drive.

Step 6 Take either of these actions:

• Type factory and then press Enter —Restores the server to its factory default settings, reinstalls the operating system, and clears and reconfigures the RAID.

Caution: This action deletes all video files.

• Type recovery and then press Enter —Reinstalls the operating system.

This action preserves the RAID configuration and video files.

Step 7 Restart the server.

Step 8 When the server comes back up, remove the recovery flash drive.

Step 9 On the server, configure system, network, and related settings as appropriate for your deployment.

For instructions, see the “System Setup” chapter in Cisco Video Surveillance Management Console Administration Guide, Release 7.0 .

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Related Documentation

Installation and Administration

Cisco Physical Security Multiservices Platform Series User Guide

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/security/physical_security/video_surveillance/multiservices_platforms/user_guide/msp_series/msp_userguide.html

Cisco Video Surveillance 7 Documentation Roadmap

Descriptions and links to Cisco Video Surveillance documentation, server and storage platform documentation, and other related documentation.

http://www.cisco.com/go/physicalsecurity/vsm/roadmap

Cisco Physical Security Product Information:

www.cisco.com/go/physicalsecurity/

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