backup / restore GPOs in AD domain controllers

[Sammy1233]

hi,

when I tried to restore all DCs, I have noticed that the GPO policies never been restored in SYSVOL\ directory, and the DC backup images dont have SYSVOL folder contents. The active directory Domain Controllers 2003 SP2 32bits have been performed with full backup in "all local drives and shadow copy components" on the daily basis.

here is the question that I am having.

As I know, "Group policy objects NetBackup does not support granular restores of Group Policy Objects.". However, does Netbackup support REGULAR GPOs backup and restore? If it does, please advise on how this can be achieved. Thanks

Backup environment:

master server version: 7.1.0.1

netbackup client version in DCs: 6.0 MP5

Best regards

Sammy

[Mark_Solutions]

Firstly I would strongly reccomend upgrading the clients to the same version as the Master / Media Servers - or better still upgrade everything to 7.1.0.3 - there has been a lot fixed since V6 MP5 so you cannot fully reply on the ability of that client to do the backups.

Next - you policy should be just ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES and nothing else - if you have Shadow Copy Components then it will get backed up twice as it is also included in the ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES directive.

(thinking about it I am not sure of V6MP5 will fully understand about Shadow Copy Components?)

Next - for a DC make sure the NetBackup client service on it runs as a full domain admin account to ensure that it can access the full AD information during the backup.

Next - once you have upgraded to 7.1.0.1 (or 7.1.0.3) you will be able to set up GRT backups of AD which will allow you restore individual items in AD without having to restore the sntire System State (as long as you back up to disk)

Hope this all helps

[Sammy1233]

Mark,

Thanks for your post! So what about the GPO backup? It is not included in the backup image in "ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES directive ".

best regards

Sammy

[Mark_Solutions]

As long as you have the NetBackup Client Service using a suitable account it will all be part of the backup.

If you want to be able to dig deeper for a single item restore then you need to use GRT in whihc case you need to check the "enable granular recovery" box on the policy attributes tab as well as making sure you have followed all steps needed to back up AD GRT information, including backing up to disk, installing NFS etc. - start here : http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO32986 and then work through the associated links

Hope this helps