About backup of Active Directory

[Arcto]

Hi,

We have a single domain controller in our environment and I am using
NTBackup to backup the System state of it. I am seen some postings in this
group about backup of active directory, as well as on the web. However it
seems that there are quite a few suggestions of what should be included in
the backup. All along I thought backing up System State is enough. But I
also come across suggestions of backing up the system partition as well.

Would someone please help to clarify what is required to backup the active
directory?

Thanks.

 

[Jerold Schulman]

Hi,

We have a single domain controller in our environment and I am using
NTBackup to backup the System state of it. I am seen some postings in this
group about backup of active directory, as well as on the web. However it
seems that there are quite a few suggestions of what should be included in
the backup. All along I thought backing up System State is enough. But I
also come across suggestions of backing up the system partition as well.

Would someone please help to clarify what is required to backup the active
directory?

Thanks.

Backing up the system state will not protect you from disk failure.
For that, you need to backup the entire boot / system partition.


Jerold Schulman
Windows Server MVP
JSI, Inc.
http://www.jsiinc.com

 

[Herb Martin]

Hi,

We have a single domain controller in our environment and I am using
NTBackup to backup the System state of it. I am seen some postings in this
group about backup of active directory, as well as on the web. However it
seems that there are quite a few suggestions of what should be included in
the backup. All along I thought backing up System State is enough. But I
also come across suggestions of backing up the system partition as well.

Would someone please help to clarify what is required to backup the active
directory?

System state should get a DC minimumally running
again, but it will NOT include any add-on services,
applications, nor the data for such.

You also won't be able to directly apply the System
State if you "lose" the entire machine or drive (as
a direct restore) you will have to go through a new
"server" installed follow by restoring the System
State to get it running (on Win2003 ASR helps automate
all this and is a superset of System State backup.)

A good backup of your machine is still necessary for
most people.

 

[Arcto]

So here is what I should have for a good DC backup?
1. system state of the DC
2. System partition backup of the DC

Would any 3rd party tool that can do the job as well?
Thx again

 

[Herb Martin]

So here is what I should have for a good DC backup?
1. system state of the DC
2. System partition backup of the DC

And anything else you care about on the DC that is not
backed up someplace else.

Would any 3rd party tool that can do the job as well?

Some (most probably) will -- or they aren't worth loading.