How to restore Win2k3 AD

[Clayton Sutton]

Hey everyone,

We have a windows 2003 domain. We are also running Exchange 2003 in a
cluster. We are having a DR drill and one of the things we are going to do
is restore AD to another box. That box will just be running Windows 2003.

Can someone give me some pointers on the best way to restore AD from tape?
Anyone know of any white papers?

TIA,

Clayton

 

[Herb Martin]

Hey everyone,

We have a windows 2003 domain. We are also running Exchange 2003 in a
cluster. We are having a DR drill and one of the things we are going to
do is restore AD to another box. That box will just be running Windows
2003.

Can someone give me some pointers on the best way to restore AD from tape?
Anyone know of any white papers?

Plan ahead by making Automated System Recover (ASR) backups.

Use NTBackup or a third party tool which can do this (unless your
tools offer something better.)

Search Microsoft (using Google) for ASR (or full name) and there
are plenty of guides to making and using this method.

It was designed both for doing a straight restore and even for
moving to new hardware (within reason.)

 

[Clayton Sutton]

Thanks Herb,

I will look into it. F.Y.I., we are using Veritas NetBackup 5.1 in the
enterprise.


Clayton

Hey everyone,

We have a windows 2003 domain. We are also running Exchange 2003 in a
cluster. We are having a DR drill and one of the things we are going to
do is restore AD to another box. That box will just be running Windows
2003.

Can someone give me some pointers on the best way to restore AD from
tape? Anyone know of any white papers?

Plan ahead by making Automated System Recover (ASR) backups.

Use NTBackup or a third party tool which can do this (unless your
tools offer something better.)

Search Microsoft (using Google) for ASR (or full name) and there
are plenty of guides to making and using this method.

It was designed both for doing a straight restore and even for
moving to new hardware (within reason.)

--
Herb Martin, MCSE, MVP
Accelerated MCSE
http://www.LearnQuick.Com
[phone number on web site]

 

[Herb Martin]

Thanks Herb,

I will look into it. F.Y.I., we are using Veritas NetBackup 5.1 in the
enterprise.

Key points for ASR (that are NOT always explicitly stated in
its documentation):

1) It includes a floppy with the "disk partition and format info"
(so drives can be partitioned and formatted during recovery)

2) It essentially does a "repair install" when restoring
(so many hardware differences can be overcome)

3) It includes SYSTEM STATE so the key components can be restored
(to allow for basic function computer or in the case of a DC
basic functioning of the Domain itself)

An IMAGE backup and restore by a third party might be as good
or better for all but #2 since they would just restore expecting the
same hardware.

BTW, if you do such 'image' restores and they fail to operate a
REPAIR INSTALL can frequently get you past such problems of
incompatible hardware.

--
Herb Martin, MCSE, MVP
Accelerated MCSE
http://www.LearnQuick.Com
[phone number on web site]

Clayton

Hey everyone,

We have a windows 2003 domain. We are also running Exchange 2003 in a
cluster. We are having a DR drill and one of the things we are going to
do is restore AD to another box. That box will just be running Windows
2003.

Can someone give me some pointers on the best way to restore AD from
tape? Anyone know of any white papers?

Plan ahead by making Automated System Recover (ASR) backups.

Use NTBackup or a third party tool which can do this (unless your
tools offer something better.)

Search Microsoft (using Google) for ASR (or full name) and there
are plenty of guides to making and using this method.

It was designed both for doing a straight restore and even for
moving to new hardware (within reason.)

--
Herb Martin, MCSE, MVP
Accelerated MCSE
http://www.LearnQuick.Com
[phone number on web site]