Recovery Manager for AD 10.3.1 - User Guide

Fault tolerance

Recovery Manager for Active Directory provides the following features that allow the product to continue operating without interruption in case of any failure:

• Switch from the initial Recovery Manager Console to an alternate instance of the console in case of any system failure. For more information, see Full replication.

• Consolidate backup information from multiple backup registration databases on a single Recovery Manager for Active Directory computer. For details, refer Consolidating backup registration data.

Management Shell

The Recovery Manager for Active Directory Management Shell, built on Microsoft Windows® PowerShell® technology, provides a command-line interface that enables automation of backup/recovery related administrative tasks. With this Management Shell, administrators can manage Computer Collections, backup/recovery sessions, compare, and start backup/recovery jobs.

The Recovery Manager for Active Directory Management Shell command-line tools (cmdlets), like all the Windows® PowerShell® cmdlets, are designed to deal with objects-structured information that is more than just a string of characters appearing on the screen. The cmdlets do not use text as the basis for interaction with the system, but use an object model that is based on the Microsoft .NET platform. In contrast to traditional, textbased commands, the cmdlets do not require the use of text-processing tools to extract specific information. Rather, you can access portions of the data directly by using standard Windows® PowerShell® object manipulation commands.

Scheduling and automation

Creation of Backups

Recovery Manager for Active Directory (RMAD) enables administrators to schedule the creation of backups. This functionality helps reduce the network workload and can save many hours of the administrators’ valuable time. When scheduling the creation of backups, RMAD relies on Task Scheduler - the Windows scheduler service. A unified graphical interface and wizard assistance provide easy access to the backup scheduling features of RMAD.

RMAD makes the creation of backups a straightforward task. Once the backup creation options and scheduling are set up, the backup creation process becomes an automatic, unattended operation.

See the Best practice for schedule and retention in the Frequently asked questions section for some suggestions on scheduling of backups.

Scalability and performance

Recovery Manager for Active Directory offers scalability and support for large, multi-domain environments. It provides excellent performance, creates backups for multiple computers in parallel, and is easily scalable to service additional domain controllers. Depending on their roles, locations, or other criteria established by an administrator, serviced domain controllers can be logically grouped into easy-to-manage Computer Collections.

Recovery Manager for Active Directory employs agents when creating or applying backups. In this way, scalability is improved and overhead network traffic is decreased because agents compress the data before sending it over network links, and create backups for multiple domain controllers in parallel.