now I understand. a FSMO role owner is also a DC and a GC is also a DC. It
just has an additional role being one or more of the five FSMO roles and/or
being a GC
so if you want to backup the machine that is a DC and additionaly may have
or not the GC and/or FSMO roles you at least need to backup system state
according to the documentation. That is the minimum to restore AD.
However, I prefer to backup the system state AND the system disk (the
partition that contains the Windows or Winnt directory).
If you have other partitions with data you may need to consider to backup
that as well to be able to restore in the future.
When using AD the minimum requires should always be:
Always have at least 2 domain controllers for each domain
Backup always at least 2 domain controllers for each domain
If you have a multiple domain forest make sure you protect the forest root
domain because that is the most important domain in the forest
--
Cheers,
(HOPEFULLY THIS INFORMATION HELPS YOU!)
# Jorge de Almeida Pinto #
MVP Windows Server - Directory Services
BLOG -->
http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/jorge/default.aspx