Active Administrator 8.6.2 - User Guide

Setting recovery options

Setting recovery options

Administrators can select a domain that contains Windows Server® domain controllers and back up Active Directory® user and group objects in that domain. When a situation occurs that require a user or group object to be restored, administrators can select the object from a list and restore either the object with all the attributes it possessed when it was backed up, or only attributes the administrator selects. In the case of an organizational unit object, administrators have the option of either restoring all objects it contains or all objects it contains of a particular type.

By default, an Active Directory backup creates temporary files during processing and stores the backup files when the backup is complete under the folder C:\ActiveAdministrator\ADBackups\DOMAIN_domainname (where domainname is the fully qualified name of the domain being backed up). You can specify the folder where the temporary files are processed and where the backup files are stored.

IMPORTANT: Active Administrator® restores only selected user and group objects, and their attributes from the backup file. If you require a backup file that restores Active Directory® in its entirety, we recommend that you use an Active Directory disaster recovery product.

Topics 

•	Adding a domain

•	Enabling or disabling password recovery

To set up Active Directory recovery

1	Select Configuration | Recovery Settings.

The Active Administrator AD Object Backup Service backs up the listed domains based on the settings in the Run backup boxes.

▪	To add a domain, click Add. See Adding a domain.

▪	To edit a selected domain, click Edit.

▪	To remove a selected domain, click Remove.

▪	To disable or enable Password Recovery on a selected domain, click Password Recovery. See Enabling or disabling password recovery.

2	By default, backups occur twice a day at 6:00 A.M. and 6:00 P.M. To change the frequency, select to run the backup Every Day, Twice a Day, or Weekly in the Run backup box. To change the day of the week or time(s), select from the list.

3	Change the folder where temporary backup files are processed, if desired.

To change the folder where temporary backup files are processed

a	Select the Override the default temporary folder check box.

b	Browse to locate or create a folder.

c

Click OK.

4	Change the folder where backup files are stored, if desired.

NOTE: If there are existing backup files in the existing share, you must move them manually. Only newly created backup files are stored to the new share path.

To change the folder where backup files are stored

a	Select the Override AD Backup share path check box.

b	Browse to locate or create a folder.

c

Click OK.

5	Click Save.

Adding a domain

Adding a domain

To add a domain

1	Select Configuration | Recovery Settings.

2	Click Add Domain.

3	In the Domain box, type a domain name, or browse to locate a domain.

4	Specify the domain controller to perform the backup.

 

Table 114. Options for domain controller backup

Option	Description
Use automatically selected domain controller	By default, Active Administrator® uses a domain controller automatically selected by Active Directory®.
Use the domain controller specified here	Select to use a different domain controller, and then browse to locate a domain controller.

5

Click OK.

Enabling or disabling password recovery

Enabling or disabling password recovery

Active Administrator can restore passwords when you restore accounts that were deleted.

IMPORTANT: If you choose to disable password recovery, passwords are not backed up. If you restore a backup that does not contain passwords, you must dis-join and then rejoin computer accounts. NOTE: Enabling password recovery changes the searchFlags attribute of the Unicode-PWD object in the Active Directory® schema, but does not alter the schema structure.

To enable or disable password recovery

1	Select Configuration | Recovery Settings.

The Password Recovery column indicates if password recovery is enabled or disabled.

2	Select the domain, and click Password Recovery.

3	Click Yes in response to the displayed message.

Setting GPO history options

Setting GPO history options

The Group Policy History service should be installed on only one computer. The service needs to be configured to run as a domain account that has enough privileges to read all of the Group Policy object (GPO) settings on the domain, as well as to write permissions to the Group Policy History Path.

To set GPO history options

1	Select Configuration | GPO History Settings.

2	Select how often you want the Group Policy History service to poll the domain controllers for Group Policy object (GPO) changes at a specified polling interval.

NOTE: The GPO service polls the domain controllers for GPO changes at a specified polling interval. The polling interval is set to 60 seconds by default. We recommend a polling interval of 60 seconds as this gives the administrators enough time to make a few changes to the GPO without creating new versions for every change.

3	The GPO History Service checks for GPO Policy changes on the listed domains.

▪	To add a domain to the list, click Add Domain, and select a domain.

▪	To remove a selected domain from the list, click Remove.

4	Click Save.