Recovery Manager for AD Disaster Recovery Edition 10.3 - User Guide

Online Restore Wizard

The Online Restore Wizard helps you recover Active Directory® objects deleted or modified since the backup. With this wizard you can selectively restore individual directory objects and object attributes from an Active Directory® backup, compare a backup with Active Directory®, compare two backups taken from the same domain controller.

The following table shows the steps and associated dialogs which will appear during the restore. On the left, are the steps and dialogs that will be taken/displayed for the Compare, analyze, and optionally restore selection, when made on the Action Selection dialog of the restore. Some of the dialogs will appear more than once, because you are given a chance to make changes based on the report that is generated. Also a restore report can be generated near the end of the restore.

On the right, are the steps and dialogs that are taken/displayed for the Restore (skip compare analysis) selection, when made on the Action Selection dialog of the restore. Since you are not going to generate a report and just want to restore there are a lot less steps/dialogs and only a restore report can be generated near the end of the restore.

The following table shows the steps and associated dialogs which will appear during the Database Compare. With this option, you can perform per-attribute comparison of objects between two Active Directory backups.

Wizard Operation Mode

Use this page to choose whether to perform a restore along with reporting changes or only compare two Active Directory® backups taken from the same domain controller.

• Compare, restore, and report changes in Active Directory. With this option, the wizard performs per-attribute comparison of selected objects between a backup and Active Directory®, and allows you to proceed to the object restore.

• Compare two backups and report the differences. With this option, the wizard performs per-attribute comparison of selected objects between two Active Directory® backups taken from the same domain controller.

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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 of the following items:

  • Register Backup File. Registers a Microsoft Tape Format (MTF)-compliant backup file (.bkf) or BMR backup file (.vhd, .vhdx).

  • 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.

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Backup Selection

Use this page to view a list of Active Directory® backups that are registered in the RMAD backup registration database for the selected domain, if any, and select a backup.

• Registered backups. Lists registered Active Directory® backups for the selected domain, if any. From this list, select the backup you want the wizard to use, 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.

    The list only includes the backups that are registered in the RMAD backup registration database. RMAD allows you to use backups created by applications that store backups in Microsoft Tape Format (MTF), such as Windows Backup or Veritas™ Backup Exec™. To use a backup of this kind, click Register.

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

  • Register Backup File. Registers a Microsoft Tape Format (MTF)-compliant backup file (.bkf) or BMR backup file (.vhd, .vhdx).

  • 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.

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