Recovery Manager for AD 10.2.2 - User Guide

Recovering Group Policy

Recovery Manager for Active Directory (RMAD) enables the recovery of Group Policy data from corruption or inadvertent modification, which can be caused by either hardware failure or human error.

If specific Group Policy objects or links are inadvertently deleted or modified, they can be restored from a backup of a domain controller’s Active Directory® components, without restoring the entire Active Directory®, restarting the domain controller, or affecting other objects.

Recovery Manager for Active Directory includes the following options for Group Policy recovery:

• Policy settings restore. If the Group Policy object was modified since the backup was created, this option restores all policy settings to the state they were in at the time of the backup. If the Group Policy object was deleted, this option creates a new object with the same name and policy settings as the backed-up object.

• Security settings restore. Restores all security information contained in the Group Policy object. As a result, all users and security groups receive the access permissions that were specified in the Group Policy object at the time it was backed up.

• GPO links restore. Restores all links associated with the Group Policy object to the state they were in at the time the backup was created. As a result, the object is once again used by the same sites, domains, and organizational units that were linked to it at the time the backup was created.

• Comparison reports. Shows whether Group Policy object was deleted or modified since the backup time.

You can use any combination of these options. For example, suppose some links to a Group Policy object are accidentally deleted. If your backup contains an outdated version of the Group Policy object, you can restore only the links, without restoring the policy settings or security settings.

Group Policy restore

To eliminate downtime when recovering Group Policy, RMAD provides the Group Policy Restore method. This method allows individual Group Policy objects to be restored to a selected domain controller. The operation can be performed on any domain controller that can be accessed remotely. Using this method, domain controllers do not need to be restarted, and only those objects selected for recovery are affected.

For this type of restore, it is not necessary to create any special backups; you may use any regular backup of domain controller’s Active Directory® components.

A Group Policy Restore is particularly helpful when critical Group Policy objects or links have been inadvertently deleted or changed. To recover from such situations, you may carry out a Group Policy Restore to a domain controller using a Active Directory® backup that was created before the objects in question were deleted or modified.

Group Policy Restore allows you to roll back changes made to Group Policy information, and return individual Group Policy objects to the state they were in when the backup was created. It is important to note that a Group Policy Restore only affects the object selected for recovery, and optionally, the links to that object. Any objects that are not involved in the operation remain unchanged in the domain.

Comparison reports

Recovery Manager for Active Directory (RMAD) provides comparison reports to assist with isolating deletion or changes to Active Directory® or AD LDS (ADAM), and troubleshooting the resulting problems. These reports are based on per-attribute comparisons of Active Directory®, AD LDS (ADAM), or Group Policy objects selected from a backup, with their counterparts in Active Directory®, AD LDS (ADAM), or another backup.

By comparing the state of the directory objects or Group Policy objects in Active Directory® with those in a backup, comparison reports improve the efficiency of recovering objects, by allowing you to specify precisely which objects should be restored.

By showing the changes that would be made to Active Directory® or AD LDS (ADAM) during a restore operation, comparison reports help to highlight possible side effects that could result from restoring data. If such side effects are indicated in the report, you may then reconsider whether to apply the changes to the “live” directory data.

Comparison reports may also be used to monitor changes that occurred in Active Directory or AD LDS (ADAM) since the backup was created, or within the period between two backups. Comparison reports assist with troubleshooting Active Directory®, and resolving problems that may result from the deletion of critical objects in Active Directory®. The reports also help you monitor changes made to Active Directory® or AD LDS (ADAM) by third party applications.

The ability to compare the current state of objects in Active Directory® or AD LDS (ADAM) with their state in a backup helps when troubleshooting problems that may result from the deletion or modification of a user account or an Organizational Unit, or modification of more critical objects. Comparison reports show whether critical objects were deleted or modified since a backup was made.

The deletion of critical objects such as a domain controller’s computer account or the "NTDS Settings" object is one of the most common causes of Active Directory® problems.

Other critical, equally sensitive objects include all objects in the System container, such as FRS subscription objects, trusted domain objects (TDO), and DNS objects. By comparing the current state of objects in the System container with the state of the objects in a backup, it is possible to isolate problems that result from the absence or incorrect modification of critical objects.

RMAD serves as a valuable tool when implementing a change management process. The importance of testing changes to Active Directory® is paramount, whether you are changing configurations, installing new software, or implementing service packs and patches. The product has the ability to report changes, and if necessary, roll back changes made to Active Directory®. This improves the effectiveness of testing application deployment scenarios in a laboratory environment, and monitoring changes made to Active Directory® by third-party applications.

Getting started

• Permissions required to use Recovery Manager for Active Directory

• Recovery Manager Console

• Getting and using help

• Configuring Windows Firewall

• Using Computer Collections

• Managing Recovery Manager for Active Directory configuration

• Licensing

Permissions required to use Recovery Manager for Active Directory

The following user account permissions are required to perform some common tasks with RMAD.

Table 1. Backup Permissions

Table 2. Restore Permissions

Table 3. Backup and Restore AD LDS (ADAM) Permissions

Table 4. RMAD cmdlets Permissions

Install Recovery Manager for Active Directory

The account must be a member of the local Administrators group on the computer where you want to install RMAD. If during the installation you specify an existing SQL Server instance, the account with which RMAD connects to that instance must have the following permissions on the instance:

• Create Database

• Create Table

• Create Procedure

• Create Function

Open and use the Recovery Manager Console

The account must be a member of the local Administrators group on the computer where the Recovery Manager Console is installed. The account must also have the following permissions on the SQL Server® instance used by RMAD:

• Insert

• Delete

• Update

• Select

• Execute

Preinstall Backup Agent manually

The account you use to access the target computer must be a member of the local Administrators group on that computer.

Upgrade Backup Agent

The account you use to access the target computer must be a member of the local Administrators group on that computer.

Discover preinstalled Backup Agent instances

The account used to access the target domain controllers must:

• Have the Write permission on the %AllUsersProfile%\Quest\Recovery Manager for Active Directory folder that is located on the RMAD computer.

• Be a member of the Backup Operators group on each target domain controller.

Uninstall Backup Agent

The account used to access the target domain controllers must:

• Have the Write permission on the %AllUsersProfile%\Quest\Recovery Manager for Active Directory folder that is located on the RMAD computer.

• Be a member of the Backup Operators group on each target domain controller.

Update information displayed about Backup Agent in the Recovery Manager Console

The account used to access the target domain controllers must:

• Have the Write permission on the %AllUsersProfile%\Quest\Recovery Manager for Active Directory folder that is located on the RMAD computer.

• Be a member of the Backup Operators group on each target domain controller.

Automatically install Backup Agent and back up Active Directory data

To automatically install Backup Agent, the account must:

• Have the Write permission on the %AllUsersProfile%\Quest\Recovery Manager for Active Directory folder located on the Recovery RMAD computer.

• Local Administrator permissions on the target domain controller.

To back up data, the account must be a member of the Backup Operators group on the target domain controller.

Back up Active Directory using preinstalled Backup Agent

The account used to access the target domain controllers must:

• Have the Write permission on the %AllUsersProfile%\Quest\Recovery Manager for Active Directory folder that is located on the RMAD computer.

• Be a member of the Backup Operators group on each domain controller to be backed up.

Perform a complete offline restore of Active Directory by using the Repair Wizard

If you restore data to a domain controller where User Account Control (UAC) is not installed or disabled:

• The account you use to access the domain controller must be a member of the Domain Admins group.

If you restore data to a domain controller where User Account Control (UAC) is enabled:

• The account you use to access the domain controller must be the built-in Administrator on that computer.

In both these cases, the account you use to access the domain controller must have the Write permission on the %AllUsersProfile%\Quest\Recovery Manager for Active Directory folder located on the RMAD computer.

Perform a selective online restore of Active Directory objects

Agentless restore (used by default in Online Restore Wizard)

The account used to access target domain controllers must:

• Have the Write permission on the %AllUsersProfile%\Quest\Recovery Manager for Active Directory folder that is located on the RMAD computer.

• Reanimate Tombstones extended right in the domain where objects are to be restored.

• Write permission on each object attribute to be updated during the restore.

• Create All Child Objects permission on the destination container.

• List Contents permission on the Deleted Objects container in the domain where objects are to be restored.

• Replicating Directory Changes permission.

For more details, see Agentless method.

Agent-based restore

• The account used to access target domain controllers must have domain administrator rights.

For more details, see Agent-based method.

Restore a Group Policy object

The account used to access the target domain controller must:

• Be a member of the Group Policy Creator Owners group.

• Have Full Control privilege on the Group Policy object.

• Be a member of the Backup Operators group.

• Have sufficient permissions to read/write Active Directory objects linked to the Group Policy object.

Automatically install Backup Agent and back up an AD LDS (ADAM) instance

The account used to access the computer hosting the instance must:

• Have the Write permission on the %AllUsersProfile%\Quest\Recovery Manager for Active Directory folder that is located on the RMAD computer.

• Be a member of the local Administrators group on the computer hosting the AD LDS (ADAM) instance

Back up an AD LDS (ADAM) instance using preinstalled Backup Agent

The account used to access the computer hosting the instance must:

• Have the Write permission on the %AllUsersProfile%\Quest\Recovery Manager for Active Directory folder located on the RMAD computer.

• Be a member of the local Administrators group on the computer hosting the AD LDS (ADAM) instance.

Restore an AD LDS (ADAM) instance

The account used to access the computer hosting the instance must:

• Have the Write permission on the %AllUsersProfile%\Quest\Recovery Manager for Active Directory folder located on the RMAD computer.

• Be a member of the local Administrators group on the computer hosting the AD LDS (ADAM) instance.

Access the SQL reporting database

To access the SQL reporting database (%ProgramData%\Quest\Recovery Manager for Active Directory\DBReporting\RecoveryManager-Reporting-<host name>), the account must be assigned to db_datareader, db_datawriter roles and have rights to run all the usp_* procedures, as follows:

• usp_GetSummaryReportBody

• usp_GetSessionErrors

• usp_GetReportsList

• usp_GetReportsHeader

• usp_GetReportBody

• usp_GetReplicationHistory

• usp_GetOptionalObjects

• usp_GetOptionalAttributes

• usp_GetObjectChildren

• usp_GetObjectAttributes

• usp_GetAllObjects

• usp_GetAllChildObjects

• usp_GetAllAttributes

Run Recovery Manager for Active Directory cmdlets

Verify that the user account under which you run RMAD Management Shell console has the Write permission to the %ProgramData%\Quest\Recovery Manager for Active Directory folder. Otherwise, you will get warning messages when you run the snap-in cmdlets.