Recovery Manager for AD Forest Edition 10.3.2 - User Guide

Specifying recovery settings for a DC

You can set individual recovery settings for each domain controller in your recovery project. For more information about these settings, see Domain controller recovery settings and progress.

To specify recovery settings for a domain controller

1. Create or open a recovery project.

2. In the list of domain controllers, select the domain controller for which you want to specify recovery settings.

3. Use the General tab to specify recovery settings.

Selecting backups for recovery

You can only restore domain controllers from backups created with Recovery Manager for Active Directory. The Forest Recovery Console provides the following methods for you to select backups for recovery:

• Method 1: Automatically select backups based on your criteria. Allows you to automatically select specific backups for multiple domain controllers according to the backup selection criteria you specify.

• Method 2: Manually select backups. Allows you to manually select any backup for a given domain controller in the recovery project. You can only select from backups created with Recovery Manager for Active Directory.

The next sections describe each of these methods.

Method 1: Automatically select backups based on your criteria

You can use the Forest Recovery Console to automatically select backups for multiple domain controllers in your recovery project. This method allows you to specify a time period, and then automatically select the latest backup created in that period for particular domain controllers in the project.

To automatically select backups

Specify your backup selection criteria:

1. Create or open a recovery project.

2. On the Forest Recovery Console toolbar, click Backup Criteria.

3. Automatic backup selection criteria can be defined based on backup type:

   Select All Backups to apply the same search criteria to both BMR and AD Backups,

   Select BMR Backups to apply specified search criteria to BMR backups only.

   Select AD Backups to apply specified search criteria to AD backups only.

   

   Automatic backup selection options

   Option	Description
   Use the latest backup, but not older than 60 days	Allows you to use the most recent backup registered with Recovery Manager for Active Directory (RMAD) for a given domain controller.
   Use latest backup created before <Date> and after <Date>	Allows you to specify a date range and use the most recent backup from that range for a particular domain controller.
   Use backups on DCs whenever possible (enabled by Default)	Not supported for BMR backups. When this check box is selected, RMAD first searches for DCs to be restored from the backups that meet the criteria you have specified. If no suitable backups are found for the DCs, RMAD will then search the Remote Storage (UNC path) for Backups. If no suitable backup are found on Remote Storage, RMAD then looks for backups on the local storage located on the Forest Recovery Console computer. With this check box selected by default, you can avoid any unnecessary backup files being copied from the Forest Recovery Console to the DCs, to be restored, and thus speed up the recovery process.

When you are finished, click OK.

Specify the domain controllers for which you want to automatically select backups:

• Hold down CTRL, and then click to select such domain controllers in the list of domain controllers.

• On the General tab, and then select the Use backup criteria to automatically select a backup check box (selected by default).

To view which backup was automatically selected for a domain controller, select that domain controller in the list, view the info bar and look to the right and view the backup file name in Selected Backup. You can also see the backup file selected by mousing over the Use backup criteria to automatically select a backup data in the General tab.

To view which backup that was automatically selected for a domain controller, select the domain controller in the list and view the info bar. You can then view the backup file name found in the Selected Backup column. You can also see the backup file that is selected for recovery by mousing over the Backup: field from the General tab.

If the automatically selected backup file is not to be used, you can manually select a different backup. To do so, clear the Use backup criteria to automatically select a backup check box and click the Select button located to the right of the backup field. A list of registered backups will be displayed within the Select Backup dialog, select the backup you want to use for Recovery for the domain controller.

Method 2: Manually select backups

This method allows you to manually select any backup for a given domain controller in the recovery project. You can only select from backups registered with Recovery Manager for Active Directory.

To manually select a backup

1. Create or open a recovery project.

2. In the list of domain controllers, select the domain controller for which you want to backup.

3. On the General tab, clear the Use backup criteria to automatically select a backup check box (selected by default).

4. Click the Select button located to the right of the Backup field. A list of backups that are registered will be displayed with the Select backup dialog, select the backup you want to use for Recovery for the domain controller.

Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition provides secondary storage options for critical backups with Secure Storage Server (a standalone server) and Cloud Storage features. Using a Secondary Storage in your disaster recovery plans helps prevent unauthorized modifications or malware attacks on backup data.

Backups on Secure Storage Server (a standalone server) and Cloud Storage must be copied from these services to the Forest Recovery Console system into a folder or the can be copied to a share on another system. Selecting Register Backups in Folder you can access the folder when the backups were copied.

If the backups from the Secondary Storage were copied to a share on another machine you can enter the share name into the Register Backups in Folder which will automatically return and list the backups.