How do I run a disaster recovery backup of a NT 4.0 server using Arcserve 11.5?

I don't think you will be able to use Arcserve for this, at least not a newer version like you are using. As far as I know in order to get a "System-State" backup, the system must be Volume Shadow Copy capable, and that wasn't yet known with NT.

NT had some way of saving system info on Disaster Recovery Diskettes, I don't remember the name of that option though, or how you started it and whether it really saves all necessary info.

I'd use a software that you boot off CD or Floppy to create an image of the system, a tool like bootit-ng should do fine:

http://terabyteunlimited.com/

Setup a job to backup the whole system via the client agent.
The client agent will collect and send the dr info to the ARCserve server.
Under the ARCserve home directory will be a DR directory for each system backed up.
Refer to the DR Option manual for instruction on creating a dr disk for the system.

That said with NT 4 it is often easier to just do a parallel install of Windows.

The big question in my mind is why would you want a DR for such an old system.

The DR option is not intended to be used as a migration tool. So if you are looking to move the OS and all to a new server don't.

I am trying to run a DR for this system because it has old financial data that still needs to be accessed by our Finance group. The hardware is continuously failing and since the server is obsolete it is nearly impossible to find replacement hardware to keep this server running. Another issue is that this server is at another location so we want to be able to house the server here at our main office.

We were going to run a DR and convert this server into a Virtual Server. I was able to do this successfully with a Win2K server but of course I had the system state option with that server so it was very simple to do.

I tried to apply the backup agent to the NT server and it failed. I'll attempt a full backup anyway and see if it's available as a DR option.

I'll also take a look at the bootit-ng software or if you have any other suggestions on how we can convert this server into a NT server it would be appreciated.

I'll keep you posted.

Sorry! That last line should have read, if you have any suggestions on how we can convert this NT server into a Virtual server it would be appreciated.

I'm going to try the full system backup one last time but didn't think about the driver problem until you mentioned it in your post. I've already started to look into migration utilities since that seems to be the best solution.

Thank you for your assistance.