Verifying a Recovery Plan
To minimize downtime during Active Directory forest recovery, it is recommended to regularly verify your Recovery Plan configurations. The following is performed during a Recovery Plan verification:
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NOTE: If the target machine is not provided, the following steps will be completed against the source domain controller. |
- Check connectivity to the hybrid agent and domain controller agents.
- Install or upgrade the domain controller agent on a target machine when the Target Server IP has been provided.
- Check that a backup is available that meets the backup selection criteria for each domain controller with a specified recovery method.
- Ensure that the target server has correct OS, drive letters and enough disk space.
- Verify access to the backup from the domain controller agents.
If you do not verify a Recovery Plan, the above steps will take place during recovery (with the exception that the Target Server IP is required for a successful recovery).
To verify a Recovery Plan
- From the Recovery page, open the desired Recovery Plan.
- Select Verify Plan. All domain controllers (other than those set to Remove DC) in the Recovery Plan will be verified. The current status of the verification of each domain controller is displayed in the Status column and the domain controller Operations page. For more information, see Domain Controller Operations.
Performing Recovery
Once verification of a Recovery Plan is completed successfully, you can proceed with the recovery of your Active Directory forest or selected domains. For more information about verification, see Verifying a Recovery Plan.
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NOTES:
- It is highly recommended that you visit the Recovery Considerations and Best Practices section in the Before You Start chapter before you recover the forest or selected domains.
- Ensure that the Recovery Plan you intend to use for recovery was created based on the latest forest topology.
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To begin recovery
- On the Recovery tab, open on the Recovery Plan you want to use for recovery.
- Select Start Recovery. Select the corresponding checkboxes to confirm that the hybrid machine is configured with a DNS server, and that you want to begin recovery immediately. Then select Start Recovery.
All domain controllers in the Recovery Plan (other than those set to Remove DC) will be recovered. The current status of the recovery of each domain controller is displayed in the Status column and on the domain controller Operations page. For more information, see Domain Controller Operations.
Domain Controller Operations
By clicking on the status of a domain controller, you can open the domain controller Operations page. This can only be accessed during or after verification or recovery.
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NOTE: If the Recovery Plan has been edited, the Recovery Plan summary and domain controller operations will be cleared. You can view the operations that took place during the recovery on the Events page. |
This page details the operations performed on a domain controller when verifying a Recovery Plan or performing recovery.
Above the toolbar, you can see the progress of both the domain controller and the Recovery Plan.
- On the left side of the status bar, you can view the status of the domain controller, including the:
- Progress of the verification or recovery
- Number of errors and warnings
- Number of canceled, completed, and pending operations
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NOTE: Icons are displayed only for statuses that include one or more operations in that category. |
- On the right side of the status bar, you can view the status of the Recovery Plan, including the:
- Overall summary of the Recovery Plan
- Overall time taken for the verification or recovery
You can view the following information for the domain controller on the Domain Controller Operations screen:
- Operations – Click on each operation to reveal the domain controller operation details, including details on any actions with warnings or errors.
- Elapsed Time – The duration of time taken for the running of the operation.
- Completion Date – The date and time for when the operation finished running.
On the domain controller Operations page, you can perform the following actions:
- Skip and Continue – Allows you to skip the current failed recovery step for the domain controller you selected and continue the domain controller’s recovery. This action is recommended only if you have manually completed the failed recovery step on the domain controller.
- Retry Last – Allows you to rerun the failed recovery step on the domain controller you selected. This action is recommended when you manually fixed the issue that had caused the recovery step to fail.
- Cancel – Cancels the recovery or verification operation for the selected domain controller.
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Caution: Canceling a recovery operation may result in a corrupt forest. |
- View Events – Opens the list of events for the domain controller for the latest or currently running task of the Recovery Plan.
Recovery Plan Tiles
The Recovery tab displays a tile for each Recovery Plan that has been created in the forest. You can see information about the status of the Recovery plan, a summary of its scope, and take quick actions using the links on the card.
Status
This section displays recent activity and the current state of your Recovery Plan. Clicking a status item on the card opens the Tasks page filtered by the specific Task ID. The status can include the following:
- New – The Recovery Plan has been created but not yet run.
- Verify
- Verify Recovery Plan in Progress – The verification of the Recovery Plan is in progress.
- Last Successful Verify Recovery Plan – The time of the last successful verification of the Recovery Plan.
- Verify Recovery Plan Canceling – The verification of the Recovery Plan is in the process of being canceled.
- Verify Recovery Plan Canceled – The verification of the Recovery Plan has been canceled.
- Verify Recovery Plan Failed – The time of the last failed verification of the Recovery Plan.
- Verification Paused – The verification has been paused.
- Recovery
- Recovery in Progress – The Recovery Plan is in the process of recovery.
- Last Successful Recovery – The time of the last successful recovery.
- Recovery Canceling – The recovery process is being canceled.
- Recovery Canceled – The recovery process has been successfully canceled.
- Recovery Failed – The time of the last failed recovery.
- Recovery Paused – The recovery has been paused.
Summary
This section displays an overview of the scope of your Recovery Plan.
- Domains to recover – The number of domains set to be recovered out of the total number of domains in the forest.
- Domain controllers to recover – The number of domain controllers in the domain set to be recovered out of the total number of domain controllers.
Action Links
You can use the links on the bottom of the card to perform the following actions:
- Open – View the details of the Recovery Plan and perform verification and recovery tasks. For more information, see Recovery Plan Details.
- Configure – Edit the Recovery Plan configuration, including the specified time frame for backup selection and the recovery method for each domain. For more information, see Creating and Editing a Recovery Plan.
- Remove – Delete the Recovery Plan.
