Restoring a Windows Server 2003 Domain Controller

[ioniancat21]

Hello all, I'm sorry for such a question but I could only find the step-by-step instructions for all the older versions of BESR or LiveState Recovery and not of the current version and nothing concerning Windows Server 2003 or 2008. I am currently using BESR 8.5.2 and have a DC running Windows Server 2003 R2 with a single drive that is failing so my setup is pretty simple. Judging by the instruction manual, it looks as if I can simply image this machine checking the appropriate check boxes and parameters, switch the drive, and restore the image and reboot with all the Active Directory records not skipping a beat as BESR and VSS will take care of all automatically allowing me to skip the non-authoritative restore step as described here.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc784922.aspx 


Am I incorrect in assuming as such? Do I still need to do a non-authoritative restore after the process. I would appreciate if someone can point me to the step-by-step guides that cover:

• Backing up and Restoring a Windows Server 2003 Domain Controller
• Backing up and Restoring a Windows Server 2008 Domain Controller

Thanks, Chris

[marcogsp · Accepted solution]

Chris -- The BESR restoration process essentially recovers a DC to the state it existed in at the time the image was captured.  There shouldn't be any need to go through the non-authoritative restore process.

Since you are replacing a drive in an existing computer, the process should be straightforward.  The instructions for the older versions of BESR and LiveState Recovery are still valid.  Since you do not have a Win2000 DC, you can skip the ntbackup routine, but it won't harm anything to run it anyway.  Version 8.52 can handle imaging of Win2003 DC's just fine.  Since you are recovering to the same hardware, but with a new disk (bare metal)  you don't need to use Restore Anyware.

If you have another domain controller in your domain, you may want to transfer any FSMO roles to it temporarily before imaging and replacing the drive in failing DC.  My comments here would probably apply:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/recovery-domain-controller

If this is the only domain controller you have,  then you'll at least have the failing drive on hand in case the restoration goes sour.  You may also want to select the advanced option to ignore bad sectors while copying when imaging the failing drive.  It would also be a good idea to run CHKDSK /r on the recovered drive afterward.  This will take some time because the /r option also checks the data an free space portions of the drive in addtion to the structures that the /f option checks.  The /r option implies /f.

There really isn't much available for step by step guides for restoring DC's since each domain is different.  There are general guidelines, but the best thing you can do is replicate your DC's in a lab (which BESR makes easy to do) and develop your own step by step procedures.  I've commented frequently on DC recovery, so you can track my posts for some links and guidelines that will help with the process.

Besy of luck

Marco

[ioniancat21]

Thanks for the reply!! Since the drive hadn't failed yet I took a chance and made and image and restored it back so the DC was only offline for around 30 minutes. I rebooted, logged in and saw nothing in the event logs so it all worked simply put and now about a week has passed so all is normal. I have to say this is a definite selling point as imaging DC's doesn't get any easier whereas older products had more hoops for the user to jump through.

I have also been playing around with the other features in BESR 8.5 like Physical to Virtual conversions, restores to different hardware and the Lights Out feature in our test lab and this product makes some of the more time consuming deployment tasks simple. I was thinking of using BESR to make master deployment images for common user setups so I could simply roll out preset PC's within our environment without the worry of having to keep hardware similar. I also appreciate their inclusion of the backup functionality added to the SRD disk as I always hated how most companies, including Symantec's own Ghost product failed to add the backup functionality to the bootable CD media. I've been using imaging products for almost a decade now since the Ghost 6.0/2001 days. I've done the sysprep thing, mass deployments and beat my head against a wall doing tedious configurations and to see imaging products mature to the level this product does shows Symantec has done their homework.

I suggest to others on the fence on this product download the BESR 8.5 Server trial and check out the SRD media and see for yourself. My organization purchased this product about a month ago and I have found ways to free up myself and other staff from having to waste time deploying and recovering computers when you can increase your uptime and use the time that would have been wasted on other projects. In my situation at work with 7 DC's and about 30 servers that require 99% uptime, having the ability to backup failing DC's and servers quickly with little fuss knowing these images can be restored to different hardware saves me roughly 10 hours a month doing things the traditional way.