Recovery Manager for AD 10.3.1 - User Guide

Group Policy Restore Wizard

The Group Policy Restore Wizard helps you restore selected Group Policy objects, security settings on Group Policy objects, and links to Group Policy objects. With this wizard you can compare the state of Group Policy objects in backup with their state in Active Directory® and restore Group Policy information from an Active Directory® backup to the backup source domain. The wizard has the following steps:

• Domain Selection

• Backup Selection

• Backup Data Preparation

• Select Domain Controller

• Group Policy Object Selection

• GPO Restore Options

• Link Restore Options

• Restore Process Start

• Completing the Group Policy Restore Wizard

Domain Selection

Use this page to view a list of domains for which Active Directory® backups are available in RMAD and select the domain where you want the wizard to restore Active Directory® objects.

• Domains. Displays a list of domains for which Active Directory® backups are available in RMAD. From the list, select the domain where you want the wizard to restore Active Directory® objects, and then click Next. In the next step, the wizard lists available backups of domain controllers for that domain.

• Register. The Domains list only includes the domains for which Active Directory® backups are registered in the backups registration database.

To perform a restore to another domain

• Click Register, and then click one from the following items:

  • Register Backup File. Registers a Microsoft Tape Format (MTF)-compliant backup file (.bkf).

  • Register Backups in Folder. Registers all backup files that are in the selected folder.

  • Register Offline Active Directory Database. Registers Active Directory® database (ntds.dit file) unpacked from a backup created with third-party backup tools.

Backup Selection

Use this window to view a list of Active Directory® backups that are registered in the Recovery Manager for Active Directory configuration database for the selected domain, if any, and select a backup.

• Registered backups. Provides a list of registered Active Directory® backups for the selected domain. In the list, select the backup from which you want to select Group Policy objects, and then click Next. In the list, each entry includes the following fields:

  • Backup Age. Indicates how old the backup is. Active Directory® does not allow using a backup whose age exceeds the Active Directory® tombstone lifetime (default is 180 days).

  • Created. Displays the date when the backup was created.

  • DC. Displays the computer name of the domain controller; the backup contains directory object data retrieved from that domain controller.

  • Media. Displays the path and name of the backup file.

• Register. To register additional backups, click Register, and then click one from the following items:

  • Register Backup File. Registers a Microsoft Tape Format (MTF)-compliant backup file (.bkf).

  • Register Backups in Folder. Registers all backup files that are in the selected folder.

  • Register Offline Active Directory Database. Registers Active Directory® database (ntds.dit file) unpacked from a backup created with third-party backup tools.

In the Group Policy Restore Wizard, you can use backups created by applications that store backups in Microsoft Tape Format (MTF), such as Windows Backup or Veritas™ Backup Exec™.

Backup Data Preparation

This page enables you to view the progress of the backup extraction. To stop the unpack process, click Cancel. You can also have the wizard keep the extracted data for future use.

• Keep extracted data after completing the wizard. When this check box is selected, the wizard saves the extracted DIT database in a temporary folder, so you can reuse this information for subsequent starts of the Online Restore Wizard, Online Restore Wizard for AD LDS (ADAM), or Group Policy Restore Wizard. The temporary folder is specified using the Unpacked Backups tab in the Recovery Manager for Active Directory Settings dialog box. When this check box is cleared, the extracted data is erased when you close the wizard. Because the unpacking process is a lengthy operation, you should not close the wizard unless you are sure that no additional objects need to be compared or restored within the current session.