Recovery Manager for AD Forest Edition 10.2.1 - User Guide

Fault tolerance

Recovery Manager for Active Directory provides the following features that allow the product to continue operating without interruption in case of any failure:

• Switch from the initial Recovery Manager Console to an alternate instance of the console in case of any system failure. For more information, see Full replication.

• Consolidate backup information from multiple backup registration databases on a single Recovery Manager for Active Directory computer. For details, refer Consolidating backup registration data.

• Resume the last forest recovery operation in case it was unexpectedly interrupted. For details, see Resuming an interrupted forest recovery.

Simultaneous system recovery

All domain controllers in your forest or domain can be restored simultaneously from one centralized location, using backups created with Recovery Manager for Active Directory, eliminating the need to manually interface with each domain controller separately saving a significant amount of time and effort.

Support for Windows tools for restoring domain controllers

Recovery Manager for Active Directory can restore selected DCs from backups and then recover the remaining DCs by demoting them and reinstalling Active Directory. Depending on the Windows version installed on the target DC, Recovery Manager for Active Directory uses either the Active Directory Installation Wizard (DCPromo.exe) or the Windows PowerShell cmdlets Install-ADDSDomainController and Uninstall-ADDSDomainController.

Support for the Windows tools allows for a recovery methodology that mirrors the prescriptive guidance laid out the forest recovery method recommended by Microsoft in the Planning for Active Directory Forest Recovery whitepaper.

Recovery pauses

A recovery pause allows you to automatically suspend the recovery of one or more domain controllers immediately before a certain recovery stage begins for those domain controllers. You can then manually resume the recovery of these domain controllers from the point where it was suspended (paused).

For example, you can temporarily suspend the recovery of particular domain controllers to take a manual action outside of Recovery Manager for Active Directory.

For a recovery project, you can create multiple pauses, each having different settings. For each recovery pause, you can define the domain controllers to which the pause will apply and specify a recovery stage before which you want to activate the pause.