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collected into a text file and backed up by the Tivoli Storage Manager
backup-archive client.
The msinfo32 command
The msinfo32 command is a feature of Windows that enables you to collect
detailed system hardware and configuration data that can be used for problem
determination. This same information can be useful for disaster recovery
purposes since it documents the original system's configuration. Just storing
msinfo32 information does not prepare you for disaster recovery; you still need a
predetermined and rehearsed strategy. However, having this information can be
one more weapon in your disaster recovery arsenal.
The msinfo32 command has both a GUI and a command-line interface. In this
section we focus on the command-line interface, since it can be scheduled for
periodic execution using mechanisms like the Tivoli Storage Manager
Backup-Archive Client scheduler, scripts, or batch files. Generally, msinfo32 will
provide most of the required information listed above and is installed by default
with Windows. It can be run by entering this at the command-line:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSInfo\msinfo32.exe
You can use msinfo32 to display configuration information interactively via the
GUI interface, or generate a text file report via GUI or command-line batch
categories
subcategories
invocation. The text file is organized in
and
stanzas,
which are delimited with [category] and [subcategory] headings. There are many
categories and subcategories of information in the report including Hardware
Resources, IRQs, Memory, Drivers, and Environment Variables.
To run msinfo32 and collect it in a report, execute the commands shown in
Example 20-1.
Example 20-1 How to run msinfo32
cd \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSInfo
<prompt>msinfo32 /report msinfo32.txt /categories +all
A portion of the output for our BMR client machine is shown in Example 20-2.
Notice the first [System Information] stanza.
Example 20-2 Example of msinfo32 report output
System Information report written at: 02/24/06 10:49:27
System Name: TRIPLEEIGHT
[System Summary]
ItemValue
631
Chapter 20. Bare Machine Recovery
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