BESR 2010 and Active Directory

[robclarke41]

Hi Guys,

This is a quick question that I'm surely can be answered very easily.

BESR2010 is working fine and I am successfully able to backup and restore all my servers to dissimilar hardware.  My question is that every time I carry out a restore the server is restored as an exact image except that it is no longer a member of the domain in Active Directory.  Is this normal?  If it is what should I do in the case of an Exchange 2003 server?  Would it be best to reset the existing domain account and then join?

Thanks

Rob

[EdT]

As far as desktop machines are concerned, the workstation account in the domain automatically changes its password every 7 days. Back in the days of NT4 we found that ghost images of workstatations would no longer be members of the domain if we restored a ghost image that was taken more than 7 days ago, as the password on the image would no longer match the changed password on the domain.
I am hypothesising that the same is happening for your server backups. Assuming each server has an account in Active Directory, it would not be unreasonable to expect that the same password change process occurs on server operating systems as happens on workstation operating systems.
Consequently, removing the existing account and rejoining the machine to the domain would be the normal way forward for existing image restores.

However, there is a workaround for workstation images which you can try for a server image in case it also works.
Locate the registry key "DisablePasswordChange" which is located at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\Netlogon\Parameters
and change the default setting of 0 to 1
This disables the regular change of the machine account's password and if it works for servers as well as workstations, may stop your images' passwords expiring.

[LL_CooL_Gee]

Hi,

The link below might be able to help you.

The document covers best practices for Backup Exec System Recovery 2010 and Windows 2003/2008/2008 R2 Server and Active Directory Domain Controllers.

http://seer.support.veritas.com/lookup.asp?doc=/docs/339076

[robclarke41]

Thanks guys, both useful tips - the problem I have is that when my restored imaged machine comes backup up it goes through the Windows mini-setup process.  I understand that this is necessary to discover new hardware on the new server etc but part of the process also takes you to the Computer name properties asking whether you want to join a workgroup or domain (i.e. it is currently joined to neither).

I understand that the computer account can expire so I ca get around this by using up to date images but how to I circumvent the issue of the freshly imaged machine coming up removed from the domain?

[EdT]

If your restored image is running mini-setup then that suggests your image was sysprepped before it was created. Sysprep removes all ID and network information in the build so when mini setup runs, it creates a new machine identity and the machine has to be joined to the domain for the first time.
You would have to create an image of an already joined workstation in order to have any chance of your reimaged machine coming up as part of the domain.