please explain AD capability with Solaris X86 master/media

[GlenG]

Can someone please explain to a non-Windows System Admin just what Active Directory backup and restore capability I get with NetBackup 7.0 and Solaris X86 master/media server.

The NetBackup (tm) 7 Operating System Compatibility List (Updated December 10, 2010) has the following statement:

"Active Directory is supported via the standard Windows file system agent when specifying System State:\ or Shadow Copy Components:\. Since it is a part of the standard system components, backup and recovery of Active Directory is supported on all Windows server platforms which NetBackup supports as a client."

Thanks,

GlenG

[Andy_Welburn · Accepted solution]

Or are you looking for more?

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH127081

"...
Administrators can now use NetBackup can restore individual objects and attributes in the Active Directory instead of restoring the entire Active Directory. It has also become easier for administrators to restore deleted objects (tombstone objects) from the Active Directory.
The following topics describes how to configure a policy to perform recovery of an Active Directory object:
■ System requirements necessary to perform Active Directory granular backups
and restores.
■ How to configure a policy for an Active Directory backup that allows granular
restores.
■ How to restore individual objects and attributes in the Active Directory.
..."

[Kiran_Bandi]

As usual backups and restores of Ad can be done from solaris x86 master also. 

Granual Recovery can be done. Restoring the individual objects that reside within a database backup image.

From Admin guide Active Directory granular restores are supported on the following operating systems:

■ Windows 2003 R2 SP2

■ Windows 2008

■ Windows 2008 R2

Regards...

[GlenG]

Kiran,

According to "Symantec NetBackup ™ Enterprise Server and Server 7.x OS
Software Compatibility List Created on December 10, 2010" page 35 the foot note for Solaris 10 x86-64:

"Jobs that use Granular Recovery Technology for Active Directory, Exchange, and SharePoint are not supported on this Media Server platform."

It's my understanding that I can not use GRT.

What should I expect without GRT?

Will the client skip over the AD files - if the files are backed up, where do I find them to restore?

Thanks fot the quick reply,

GlenG

[GlenG]

Andy,

Your quote is from the GRT section.  It's my understanding GRT is not supported on Solaris X86 (or X64) and that Symantec has no plans to do so.

I did find AD mentioned in the "How to restore System State" section (pg 829).  I guess AD is a part of System State for backup and restore.

Thanks,

GlenG

[Marianne]

Your understanding is correct - GRT is not supported with your master/media server. You can use another (supported) media server to do GRT backups.

You can still backup AD as part of Shadow Copy Components. You will just not be able to do granular restore (individual items ).

See this TN for info on SCC restore (with full system recovery):
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH56473

[Merv]

Just a suggestion as GRT is quite a pain but is quite a good feature..if you want to stay on Solaris why don't you migrate to sparc.

Else I would speak to your sales rep to put a request to offer GRT feature on Solaris x86-64. It's a shame actually and not something I expected

I've had mixed success with that procedure Marianne quoted- it worked for a server but i had issues with another (which had multiple HBA connected to SAN storage) ,  logged a case with Symantec (notice the procedure mentions pretty clearly what logs you require) and was instead told to log a case with Microsoft saying there's some driver conflict issues. This server was a Application server with VCS with SF running on it. Normally AD server's don't have much storage requirements and are not that complex so Marianne's advice may work.

Other alternative is a manual approache, if you have another AD server in production (which is best practice), simply rebuilding the server with base OS and doing a install if the AD Role and a DCPromo should do a trick.Ofcourse you gotta to do things like seize FSMO roles and clean up the remnants of the dead DC before doing the DCPromo else they'll be a conflict -http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216498/.Probably crucial to have your AD experts on hand for the task.

I would also suggest using BMR or BESR for fast recovery of OS rather than a restore using NBU. BESR has a guide with regards to AD restores

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH78152

If you on a Windows 2008R2 domain, it has an AD recycled bin feature if you want to do a "granular" restore of certain AD components which have been deleted.

[hxy]

Looks like that restriction on GRT for Solaris x64 has been removed (see Compatibility List dated 23 Feb 2011)