Backup Plans
Disaster Recovery for Identity for Active Directory enables you to create backups of Active Directory components, including the database, on domain controllers. You can back up any domain controller on your network, and the backup process can be scheduled to run regularly without disrupting normal operations.
On the Backup tab, the Backup Plans table allows you to create and configure a Backup Plan to back up one or more domain controllers within the Active Directory forest.
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Backup Plans shows a list of all Backup Plans within a forest. For each Backup Plan, you can view:
- The unique name for each Backup Plan.
- If a schedule for the Backup Plan is enabled or disabled.
- The date and time of the next scheduled backup of the Backup Plan (if enabled).
- The date and time the backup was last run.
- The most recent status of a backup session run for a Backup Plan:
- Completed - all domain controllers within the Backup Plan are successfully backed up.
- In Progress - the backup is currently running.
- Failed - one or more domain controllers failed to backup. Go to the Tasks tab for more details.
- An empty status indicates that a backup has not been run yet.
You can perform the following actions on Backup Plans:
- View, create, and edit Backup Plans.
- Use the Back Up Now button to initiate an immediate backup of a selected Backup Plan.
- Remove a Backup Plan.
Creating and Editing a Backup Plan
Disaster Recovery for Identity for Active Directory allows users to automate backup creation, reducing network load and saving time. Once Backup Plans are created and scheduled, the product automates the backup process, requiring no further manual intervention.
To create or edit a Backup Plan
- On the Backup tab, select Backup Plans.
- To create a Backup Plan, select Create. To edit a Backup Plan, select the row of the backup plan you want to edit, then select Edit. Alternatively, select the link for the Backup Plan to view the plan, then select Edit.
- Enter a unique name for the Backup Plan, or use the default name.
- If you want to schedule to run backups at regular intervals, turn on the Enable Schedule toggle, then set the recurrence by choosing the frequency (daily, weekly, or monthly) and the day and time.
- For daily scheduling, select Day from the Every dropdown menu. Set the time in the 12-hour format using the dropdown menus.
- For weekly scheduling, select Week from the Every dropdown menu. Select one or more days of the week from the On Days dropdown menu, then set the time in the 12-hour format using the dropdown menus.
- For monthly scheduling, select Month from the Every dropdown menu. Select one or more days of the month from the On Days dropdown menu, then set the time in the 12-hour format using the dropdown menus.
- Click Select Domain Controllers.
- In the Select Domain Controllers full-page flyout, select the domain controllers you want to back up. To apply your changes, click Save.
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TIP: Use the Filters button to filter the list of domain controllers by one or more domains, sites, DC agent statuses, or Backup Plans. |
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NOTES:
- The domain controller agent must be installed on the domain controller in order to run backups. If you wish to backup a domain controller that has an Offline or Not Supported status, install or upgrade the agent on that machine before running a backup.
- Consider recovery strategies before selecting which domain controllers to backup.
- If you see missing or additional domain controllers, or an incorrect domain controller type, run a discovery on the Topologypage.
- A maximum of ten domain controllers per domain can be backed up within the forest. If a domain controller is added to multiple Backup Plans, each instance counts towards the maximum.
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- Save the Backup Plan.
Backups
On the Backup tab, the Backups table allows you to view the backups generated from your Backup Plans.
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NOTE: Backups are stored for 180 days. After this period, the backups are automatically deleted. |
For each backup, you can view:
- The name of the Backup Plan from which the backup was created.
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NOTE: If you delete a Backup Plan, the backups are still visible in the Backups table and display Backup plan has been deleted in the Backup Plan name. |
- The domain from which the backup was created.
- The domain controller from which the backup was created.
- The time and date when the backup was created.
- The schedule type:
- Manual – The Backup Plan was run by selecting Back Up Now on the Backup Plans page.
- Scheduled – The Backup Plan was run according to a configured schedule.
- The size of the backup.
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TIP: Use the Filters button to filter the list of backups by Backup Plans, domains, domain controllers, the schedule type, or the date created. |
Once backups have been created, you can then create a Recovery Plan for your forest.
Recovery
The Recovery tab allows you to create, manage, and run a Recovery Plan for the restore of an Active Directory forest on-premises, including all domains and domain controllers. Disaster Recovery for Identity for Active Directory provides centralized remote management for domain controller recovery within your Active Directory forest. This product also allows you to centrally restore multiple domain controllers within a forest simultaneously, streamlining the recovery process and saving time compared to manual restoration of individual domain controllers. It is recommended to create and verify Recovery Plans prior to a disaster to ensure they are configured correctly. You can create multiple Recovery Plans to support multiple configurations. We recommend that you review the Recovery Strategies Overview section in Recovery Considerations and Best Practices.
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A Recovery Plan allows you to manage the process for recovering either the entire Active Directory forest or specific domains. Each Recovery Plan includes a list of domain controllers to be restored, along with their associated configurations. By creating and reviewing the plan, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of the recovery configurations for each domain controller, enabling you to fine-tune the process as needed.
Disaster Recovery for Identity for Active Directory allows you to restore a domain in the forest to its state at the time of the last trusted backup. Consequently, the restore operation will result in the loss of at least the following Active Directory data:
- All objects (such as users and computers) that were added after the last trusted backup.
- All updates made to existing objects since the last trusted backup.
- All changes made to either the configuration partition or the schema partition in Active Directory (such as schema changes).
- Additionally, any software applications that were running on the domain controllers will need to be reinstalled on the domain controllers after recovery.
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NOTE: It is highly recommended you make sure that the dangerous or unwanted data is not replicated to other domains in the forest. |
