authoritative restore ?

[myrt webb]

according to my manual the last thing to do after an
authoritative restore is to copy the SYSVOL directory from
an "alternate location" to the "existing directory" after
the SYSVOL share had been published.

This is quite confusing since the manual does not describe
what it means by "alternate" location.

Is there a better explaination somewhere?

 

[David Swales]

My understanding is that it refers to your backup restore
(eg: from tape), which you would might incorrectly restore
to original location.

If you don't specify an alternate location, NTBackup will
erase the existing data and replace it with that restored.

This kills the chance to mark AD objects' USNs for
increase (by 100,000-ish) via ndtsutil.exe, which you do
after the data restore but before reboot.

Otherwise what happens is that the restord objects' USNs
are lower than they should be _to be authorative_, and
therefore seen as older, efectively tombstoned, and
therefore not replicated to the other DCs.

If it's a single DC, USNs are irrelevant, and you can do
non-authoratitive restores.

I _think_ its the same if the GC server is trashed.
The same trashed data is by now on the other DCs, so
you'll then be doing a restore (to original location) on
these, thus reset their USNs to replicate from your now
(non-authoratitive)restored GC.



HTH