Recovery Manager for AD Disaster Recovery Edition 10.2.2 - User Guide

Using data compression

For each computer collection you can specify the data compression method to be used in backup creation operations. To ensure both a reasonable backup time and a reasonable compressed backup size, it is recommended that you use either Fast or Normal compression method. For more information on how to specify a data compression method for a computer collection, see Performance tab.

Using unpacked backups

Recovery Manager for Active Directory can keep unpacked Active Directory® backups in the location you specify in order to reuse them for subsequent online restore operations. The use of unpacked backups helps to significantly accelerate the backup data preparation stage of an online restore operation.

Although the use of unpacked backups is helpful for online restores of individual Active Directory® objects, this approach is not recommended for forest recovery because in this case the entire Active Directory® database is unpacked on each domain controller you restore from backup, which can be a lengthy process.

It is recommended that you configure Recovery Manager to not unpack the Active Directory® backups you plan to use for forest recovery. For more information on how to do it, see Unpacked Backups tab.

Best practices for recovering a forest

• How many Instances of the Forest Recovery Console to deploy?

• Where to Install the Forest Recovery Console?

• Backing up the Recovery Manager for Active Directory configuration

How many Instances of the Forest Recovery Console to deploy?

The Forest Recovery Console must have access to the Recovery Manager for Active Directory backup registration database containing information about all backups of the domain controllers in the forest. To meet this requirement, you must deploy the Forest Recovery Console on the same computer that hosts the Recovery Manager Console used to create backups of the domain controllers.

You can easily meet this requirement in simple and relatively small environments where you have a single instance of the Recovery Manager Console deployed. However, in complex and large environments the requirement to have a single instance of the Recovery Manager Console (and thus maintain a single forest-wide backup registration catalog) might not be feasible.

For more information on how to consolidate backups created by different instances of Recovery Manager for Active Directory deployed in your environment, see Consolidating backups from different backup registration databases.