AD domain controller restore

[pronto]

Hi community,

 

i discuss in a newsgroup, the right strategie for a restore of a domain controller (windows based active directory service) and it seems that the correct way to do this is not so trivial. Does retrospect multi server (v7.x) work in this case in a way that is supported from microsoft and are they using the available api's?

 

e.g. is there a possibility to restore a single organisation unit (OU) which was deleted by a mistake? How does it work?

 

And which way is the right one to restore a comlete domaincontroller in a multi domain controller environment (more than one DC)?

 

Bye Tom

[natew]

Hi,

 

Retrospect will restore the server and its Active directory databases to the state they were in at the time of backup. It restores the entire database so a partial restore of only one OU won't work (if that is what you mean?)

 

If you have multiple servers using active directory replication you should first restore the downed server and then have other servers replicate updates back to it.

 

Does that help?

 

Thanks

nate

[pronto]

Hi nate,

 

in our test environment we learned about the 'ntdsutil' utility, the option 'authoritative restore' allowes us to restore a single object (OU, user or something else) or the hole database (ntds.dit). The binding restore procedure from microsoft, demand that the way to restore the AD is:

 

a) bring the DC in the recovery mode

roll back your backup from the *system state* (no reboot)

c) use ntdsutil with an option you need (authoritative or normal restore)

d) reboot your DC

 

This works fine on a W2K3 DC but failed on a W2K DC, for further information please note the other posting in this forum section.

 

But this question in this topic is allready answerd enough ;-)

 

Thanks for your attention

 

Bye Tom