Backup and Restore the Schema...?

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Guest

I am setting up a trial run of restoring our entire Active Directory.
Is there a way to backup the Schema and restore it to a Lab Server?

We are working with Windows 2000 Server SP4 Domain Controllers.
We where able to successfully complete a Non-Authoritative and an
Authoritative Restore of Active Directory.
 
Do you mean that you want to restore the Schema and just the Schema?

Regards,
/Jimmy
 
Well - we are preparing to extend the schema. Before moving forward we want
to be certain we can restore the previous schema in the event something
should fail.

Jimmy Andersson said:
Do you mean that you want to restore the Schema and just the Schema?

Regards,
/Jimmy
Click to expand...
 
Jimmy,

I think what we have discovered is that if you lose all domain controllers,
your system state backup becomes usless.
At least one domain controller has to survive a disaster in order to recover.

We have tried to recover our domain into a lab environment from only a
System State Restore. It will not work.

Jimmy Andersson said:
Do you mean that you want to restore the Schema and just the Schema?

Regards,
/Jimmy
Click to expand...
 
We have tried to recover our domain into a lab environment from only a
System State Restore. It will not work.
Click to expand...

What won't work? Can you be more specific? If you're doing an authorative
restore you don't *need* any other DCs -although the KCC will throw a fit
;-)

Just remember that you must have DNS and a GC.

System State is all you need to restore into a lab. However, remember that
things like BackupExec, ArcServe, etc. often depend on domain accounts.

--

Paul Williams

http://www.msresource.net
http://forums.msresource.net


Jimmy,

I think what we have discovered is that if you lose all domain controllers,
your system state backup becomes usless.
At least one domain controller has to survive a disaster in order to
recover.

We have tried to recover our domain into a lab environment from only a
System State Restore. It will not work.

Jimmy Andersson said:
Do you mean that you want to restore the Schema and just the Schema?

Regards,
/Jimmy
Click to expand...
 
We did a system state backup of DC01 which is the holder of the Schema Master
role and the Domain naming role.
We then restarted DC01 and captured (seized) all FSMO roles to it.
We then attempted to dcpromo a second server DC02 into the lab domain and it
failed. We found that Group Policy was not available on DC01.

We restored AD to an alternate dir and to the original dir.

ptwilliams said:
We have tried to recover our domain into a lab environment from only a
System State Restore. It will not work.
Click to expand...

What won't work? Can you be more specific? If you're doing an authorative
restore you don't *need* any other DCs -although the KCC will throw a fit
;-)

Just remember that you must have DNS and a GC.

System State is all you need to restore into a lab. However, remember that
things like BackupExec, ArcServe, etc. often depend on domain accounts.

--

Paul Williams

http://www.msresource.net
http://forums.msresource.net


Jimmy,

I think what we have discovered is that if you lose all domain controllers,
your system state backup becomes usless.
At least one domain controller has to survive a disaster in order to
recover.

We have tried to recover our domain into a lab environment from only a
System State Restore. It will not work.
Click to expand...
 
ptwilliams,

Does this mean we need to have a DNS server and a GC server in the LAB
before attempting an Auth. Restore of AD? Because we did not have either...
could be why it failed?

We have quite a bit of documentation on Recovering your Active Directory
from disaster, but it seems that more of the documents we have found conflict
each other in some way.

Do you have any docs that you think are clear on this subject?

Kind Regards,

MDH

ptwilliams said:
We have tried to recover our domain into a lab environment from only a
System State Restore. It will not work.
Click to expand...

What won't work? Can you be more specific? If you're doing an authorative
restore you don't *need* any other DCs -although the KCC will throw a fit
;-)

Just remember that you must have DNS and a GC.

System State is all you need to restore into a lab. However, remember that
things like BackupExec, ArcServe, etc. often depend on domain accounts.

--

Paul Williams

http://www.msresource.net
http://forums.msresource.net


Jimmy,

I think what we have discovered is that if you lose all domain controllers,
your system state backup becomes usless.
At least one domain controller has to survive a disaster in order to
recover.

We have tried to recover our domain into a lab environment from only a
System State Restore. It will not work.
Click to expand...
 
That depends. If the box you do the full restore of fulfils these roles
then no. If not, then yes.

I believe there's also some issues with the RID master when you restore a
domain (and there's no other DCs available). You'll have to search SM for
this though, as the link's escaped me...

Go with what you think is right is my advice. ...and don't give up if it
doesn't work first time ;-)

Most of the problems are h/w related...


--

Paul Williams

http://www.msresource.net
http://forums.msresource.net


ptwilliams,

Does this mean we need to have a DNS server and a GC server in the LAB
before attempting an Auth. Restore of AD? Because we did not have either...
could be why it failed?

We have quite a bit of documentation on Recovering your Active Directory
from disaster, but it seems that more of the documents we have found
conflict
each other in some way.

Do you have any docs that you think are clear on this subject?

Kind Regards,

MDH

ptwilliams said:
We have tried to recover our domain into a lab environment from only a
System State Restore. It will not work.
Click to expand...

What won't work? Can you be more specific? If you're doing an
authorative
restore you don't *need* any other DCs -although the KCC will throw a fit
;-)

Just remember that you must have DNS and a GC.

System State is all you need to restore into a lab. However, remember
that
things like BackupExec, ArcServe, etc. often depend on domain accounts.

--

Paul Williams

http://www.msresource.net
http://forums.msresource.net


Jimmy,

I think what we have discovered is that if you lose all domain
controllers,
your system state backup becomes usless.
At least one domain controller has to survive a disaster in order to
recover.

We have tried to recover our domain into a lab environment from only a
System State Restore. It will not work.
Click to expand...
 
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