Recovery Manager for AD 10.1.1 - User Guide

Centralized remote administration

Recovery Manager for Active Directory makes it possible to create, update, and apply Active Directory backups remotely across an entire network. It can be installed on an administrator’s workstation, allowing all operations to be performed from a single, central location. These operations include the creation, update, and storage of backups, as well as the restoration of Active Directory and Group Policy data from a backup.

Backups created with Recovery Manager for Active Directory can be stored in a central location, at several locations on a distributed network, or on selected computers with physically restricted access. Access to Active Directory backups can be restricted using backup encryption along with security mechanisms provided by the operating system.

Audit of objects and operations

To assist with troubleshooting lost or changed Active Directory objects, AD LDS (ADAM) objects, or Group Policy objects, Recovery Manager for Active Directory provides the ability to compare the current state of individual objects in Active Directory or AD LDS (ADAM) with that in an Active Directory or AD LDS (ADAM) backup. This functionality is particularly useful for locating the source of and resolving problems resulting from the deletion or modification of critical objects.

During a restore operation, Recovery Manager for Active Directory allows for the creation of comparison reports, which present the changes that have occurred in Active Directory or AD LDS (ADAM) since the last backup, without actually applying changes to Active Directory or AD LDS (ADAM). Such reports show the objects that were deleted or modified since the backup was made. In addition, they show the properties of directory objects and settings of Group Policy objects that would change during the operation. An administrator can then review these changes and decide whether to apply them.

Integration with Change Auditor for Active Directory

To provide information on who modified particular Active Directory objects, Recovery Manager for Active Directory integrates with Change Auditor and includes the Change Auditor data into the reports.

From version 10.0.1, Recovery Manager for Active Directory restores the deleted object(s) and restores the last change (if any) that was made to the object attributes after creating the backup, using the data from the Сhange Auditor database. This functionality is based on the auditing capability provided by Change Auditor for Active Directory, an award-winning product that helps to proactively track, audit, report, and alert on vital Active Directory changes in real-time and without the overhead of native auditing.
You can find out more about Change Auditor for Active Directory at http://quest.com/products/changeauditor-for-active-directory.

For details about this feature, see Integration with Change Auditor for Active Directory.

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.