DC Restore to lost machine

[Tim Guy]

When I loose a DC for what ever reason and I have to reinstall a basic
machine back to the same config as the lost setup do I have to do a dcpromo
on it? If I do how do I get around there already being an entry in the AD on
the other DC's?

Do I configure a basic machine with the same name, services etc but don't do
a dcpromo on it and then do the restore. OR do I have to delete the object
in the AD, then dcpromo the basic machine to then do a restore on it. At
which time I'm then assuming that the SIDs will be wrong and it wont work
anyway???

Ive tried looking in http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/docs/recovery.doc
but it only says to get the machine back to a similar config as the lost
machine.

Any pointers would be appreciated!

Tim

 

[Peter Kaufman]

Tim,

If you have a current system state backup and want to restore to the
same or an identical machine and give it the same name, install the
same version of Windows server, service packs, updates (don't forget
those done by auto update) and hardware drivers. Actuallly, I am not
100% sure you need the service packs as those files should be in the
system state backup, but it won't hurt. Then do the restore.

The name of the target server does not have to be the same. Do not
dcpromo it. The services (like DNS for example) will be restored -
that it is part of system state so you should not install those. You
might have to recreate the consoles, though.

BTW, Virtual machine software like from Connectix (just purchased by
Microsoft) is wonderful for learning/testing this stuff. With enough
RAM, you can set up a whole network with several servers and
workstations, and work through these kinds of scenarios on just one
computer.

Peter