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Recovery Manager for AD Disaster Recovery Edition 10.0.1 - User Guide

Overview Backing up data
Permissions required for the Backup operation Managing Backup Agent Using a least-privileged user account to back up data Creating backups Retrying backup creation Enabling backup encryption Backing up AD LDS (ADAM) Backing up cross-domain group membership Backing up distributed file system (DFS) data Backup scheduling Setting performance options Setting advanced backup options Using Forest Recovery Agent Unpacking backups Using e-mail notification Viewing backup creation results Getting started
Permissions required to use Recovery Manager for Active Directory Recovery Manager Console Icons in the user interface Getting and using help Configuring Windows Firewall Using Computer Collections Managing Recovery Manager for Active Directory configuration Licensing
Restoring data
Getting started with Active Directory recovery Managing deleted or recycled objects Restoring backed up System State components Using granular online restore Restoring AD LDS (ADAM) Selectively restoring Active Directory object attributes Restoring objects in an application directory partition Restoring object quotas Restoring cross-domain group membership Performing a restore without having administrator privileges Reports about objects and operations Using complete offline restore Offline restore implications Restoring SYSVOL authoritatively Performing a granular restore of SYSVOL Recovering Group Policy Restoring data from third-party backups Using the Extract Wizard Restoring passwords and SID history
Fault tolerance Consolidating backup registration data Monitoring Recovery Manager for Active Directory Recovering an Active Directory forest
Permissions required to use Forest Recovery Console Forest Recovery Console Managing a recovery project Install Active Directory from Media recovery method Install Active Directory recovery method Managing Forest Recovery Agent Rebooting domain controllers manually Specifying fallback IP addresses to access a domain controller Resetting DSRM Administrator Password Purging Kerberos Tickets Managing the Global Catalog servers Managing FSMO roles Manage DNS Client Settings Configuring Windows Firewall Forest recovery overview Selectively recovering domains in a forest Recovering SYSVOL Deleting domains during recovery Resuming an interrupted forest recovery Recovering read-only domain controllers (RODCs) Checking forest health Collecting diagnostic data for technical support
Bare metal forest recovery Using Management Shell Creating virtual test environments Using Recovery Manager for Active Directory web interface Appendices
Frequently asked questions Best practices for creating backups for forest recovery Best practices for recovering a forest Descriptions of recovery or verification steps Backup Wizard Online Restore Wizard Online Restore Wizard for AD LDS (ADAM) Group Policy Restore Wizard Repair Wizard Extract Wizard Events generated by Recovery Manager for Active Directory

How many domain controllers to back up?

This depends on the forest recovery method you choose for your environment. For more information about these methods, see Forest recovery methods.

The decision on how many domain controllers to back up (and, therefore, which method to use for forest recovery) depends on the factors like

  • The overall number of domain controllers in Active Directory
  • The size of Active Directory database

With a large number (50+) of domain controllers in the domain and significant size (over 1 GB) of the Active Directory database, it may not be feasible to fully back up system state of all domain controllers in the domain due to storage limitations or time constraints. In this case, you can back up only some of the domain controllers.

A good practice is to back up at least two domain controllers in each domain in the forest. It is recommended to back up the domain controllers that are DNS servers and FSMO role holders.

How many domain controllers to back up at once?

The Recovery Manager Console allows you to group the computers you want to back up into computer collections, each collection having its own backup creation parameters and schedule.

All computers in a computer collection are backed up simultaneously. The backup creation process may be a resource-consuming task if the number of computers in a collection is more than 10. Therefore, it is recommended that you back up only one computer collection at a time. Also, it is not recommended to have more than 10 domain controllers in a single computer collection.

What data to back up?

All of the domain controller backups that you plan to use for forest recovery must include the following System State components:

  • Active Directory (SYSVOL and DIT database)
  • System registry

To make sure you back up the above components, go to the Components tab in the Properties dialog box for the computer collection you want to back up to check that these System State components will be backed up.

On the same tab, make sure you specify to collect forest recovery metadata and group membership information from all domains within the Active Directory forest. However, if the backup creation operation takes a significant time to complete, you may disable collecting group membership information from all domains within the forest. For more information about the Properties dialog box for a computer collection, see the User Guide supplied with this release of Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition.

To streamline the creation of Active Directory backups, you can follow these best practices:

  • Avoid using groups with cross-domain membership in Active Directory as much as possible. To reveal such groups, you can use an Active Directory reporting tool such as Quest Reporter.
  • If you cannot avoid using groups with cross-domain membership, make sure you have a procedure in place to back up and restore these groups manually. For example, you can do so by using such command line tools as Ldifde or Csvde provided by Microsoft.

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 the User Guide supplied with this release of Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition.

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