Active directory D-R nightmares.....

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Guest

I have two domain controllers, Dual Processors, RAID1 and RIAD 5 arrays.

I am *trying* to restore AD onto another domain controller - a basic pc.

It failed. Well I half expected that because of the hardware differences.

So as a test I put an identical machine that I am using for D-R onto the
domain, did a backup and tried to restore it to my D-R box.

No hardware problems but the machine won't start - it hangs at 'Preparing
network connecitons'...

My method of restore was:

Install Win2k with SP4 as a member server
reboot into DS restore mode
Restore system state
Do a authoritative restore
reboot normally

First observation is that DNS is not restored - so I guess I have to build a
member server with DNS? Or should I build the server as a DC with DNS - same
domain etc and then try a restore?

I am totally stuck - firstly how to restore onto different hardware - tried
everything inclucding the MS articles and secondly why my restore onto an
exact piece of hardware is failing....

I am close to tears on this one!
 
Windows 2000 AD restores are the pits.

A few thoughts:

[1] What are you using for your backups? Assuming you're using something
other than NTBackup, (Veritas or something) I recommend that you start using
NTBackup to create the System State backup as a .BKF file, then use your
regular backup software to back up the BKF file to tape. I've tried 4
different backup software vendors, and NONE of their System State restores
have worked terribly well for me. AD is =so= darn twitchy that a BKF file
is the way to go.

[2] I would set up DNS on a separate server from the one you're trying to
restore, and point your DR server to it so that you can separate "DNS
restore issues" from "AD restore issues".

[3] Here's the checklist I use when restoring to different hardware:

* Install production-level Service Pack
* Reboot into DSRM
* Uninstall any unused NICs in Device Manager
* Restore the BKF file to the local hard drive
* Use NTBackup to perform the restore
* Uninstall the remaining NIC, and the display adapter
* Reboot
* Perform a repair installation if necessary
 
Laura E. Hunter (MVP) said:
Windows 2000 AD restores are the pits.

A few thoughts:

[1] What are you using for your backups? Assuming you're using something
other than NTBackup, (Veritas or something) I recommend that you start using
NTBackup to create the System State backup as a .BKF file, then use your
regular backup software to back up the BKF file to tape. I've tried 4
different backup software vendors, and NONE of their System State restores
have worked terribly well for me. AD is =so= darn twitchy that a BKF file
is the way to go.
Click to expand...

I am using NTBackup :-)
[2] I would set up DNS on a separate server from the one you're trying to
restore, and point your DR server to it so that you can separate "DNS
restore issues" from "AD restore issues".
Click to expand...

I ran DCpromo on the server and then did a restore and it worked - but only
when restoring onto identical hardware - the proper DC (with two CPUs) still
doesnt like this
[3] Here's the checklist I use when restoring to different hardware:

* Install production-level Service Pack
* Reboot into DSRM
* Uninstall any unused NICs in Device Manager
* Restore the BKF file to the local hard drive
* Use NTBackup to perform the restore
* Uninstall the remaining NIC, and the display adapter
* Reboot
* Perform a repair installation if necessary
Click to expand...

I shall give this a try tomorrow - to be honest though I dont hold much hope
- it seems that restoring to anything other than identical hardware is a
complete nightmare. I never understood why MS integrated AD data and the
things like hardware drivers - you should be able to restore them
separatly....
 
This is STILL causing me headaches.

I am using NTBackup now but CANNOT get NTDSUTIL to do an authoritative
restore.

I get the error:

Opening DIT database...
Failed to recover database from external backup. Error 0x2(The system cannot
find the file specified.).

Authoritative Restore failed.

Error 8000ffff parsing input - illegal syntax?

My C:\Winnt\NTDS direcotry has these files present:

edb00004
edb00005
ntds.dit
ntds.pat

The restore job reports a 100% sucess as did the backup job.

The servers are running Win2k with SP4 and no post SP4 patches (we will do
these after getting a restore to work!!)

Any ideas?

What is worrying (I think!) is why the restore is not recovering these files:

edb.chk
res1.log
res2.log

Surely these should be restored????
 
This is STILL causing me headaches.

I am using NTBackup now but CANNOT get NTDSUTIL to do an authoritative
restore.

I get the error:

Opening DIT database...
Failed to recover database from external backup. Error 0x2(The system cannot
find the file specified.).

Authoritative Restore failed.

Error 8000ffff parsing input - illegal syntax?

My C:\Winnt\NTDS direcotry has these files present:

edb00004
edb00005
ntds.dit
ntds.pat

The restore job reports a 100% sucess as did the backup job.

The servers are running Win2k with SP4 and no post SP4 patches (we will do
these after getting a restore to work!!)

Any ideas?

What is worrying (I think!) is why the restore is not recovering these files:

edb.chk
res1.log
res2.log

Surely these should be restored????
 
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