You can pull the disaster docs at Microsoft (should be off of http://www.microsoft.com/ad ) and re-use a lot of that. There are KB articles as well.
As for the original poster's question, "The plan is this at the moment: when our server cathes fire, is flooded or stolen, we take a recent tape from off site with all our data and another tape with our 'system' and restore. Well that was easy!!" That is great for things such as physical site issues but doesn't cover any issues with logical corruption. You may want to include that in your scenario. Another thought is one that has been kicked around a lot. Since you need system state to get your DC back up and running, and since system state restores almost require you to use duplicate hardware, have you considered what a virtual instance can do for you? You could introduce a second DC running in a virtual instance and then your hardware issues are abstracted. So when you do the restore, you would have two choices: put back the entire virtual machine (binary blob that you backed up (shut down the VM instance, backup the blob, restart sort of thing) and restore the blob in your DR site. Perform metadata cleanup, seize the roles, and move ahead. Or you could restore the data via tape to a VM instance. Either way, your duplicate hardware requirement goes away because virtual server technology abstracts the hardware from the physical hardware you use. Can be much faster, more reliable, and easier under pressure. Just wanted to throw that out there. Al -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Carerros, Charles Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 8:46 AM To: '[email protected]' Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Continuity planning and AD My organization just moved to a W2K3 AD and we have one of our offsite DR tests coming up. I was wondering if someone wouldn't mind sharing any step by step documentation that you have generated to perform this restore (basically so I don't have to go and draft one from scratch)? If not, is there any other interesting tid-bits that we need to know. (I will probably end up restoring two Domain Controllers, one for the Forest and one for my domain during this test plan) so any and all help will be nice. Thanks. -----Original Message----- From: Hunter, Laura E. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 6:23 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Continuity planning and AD I run into this a lot; we go to Sungard twice a year to do DR testing and we never -ever- get identical hardware. It becomes a voodoo dance of running a repair, occasionally doing an in-place upgrade, and getting rid of now-extinct metadata and replication entries with ntdsutil and repadmin. FWIW, it works better on 2003 than 2000, since sometimes the TCP/IP stack gets hosed and it's easier to delete/recreate in 2003 than 2000 - it's a 3-step KB article instead of a 3 -page- one. Laura > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 5:37 AM > To: [email protected] > Cc: [email protected]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [ActiveDir] Continuity planning and AD > > Hi Johnny > > In theory, you should be able to do your restore to the different > hardware, and then boot to the CD, choose setup, and choose repair > existing version of Windows to redetect all hardware. I am not sure > this is supported but we were able to do it in our forest recovery > test with no real problems besides time time time and more time. > > Make sure you test the solution well before deciding that an identical > box is not the answer. > > Regards; > > James R. Day > Active Directory Core Team > Office of the Chief Information Officer National Park Service > (202) 354-1464 (direct) > (202) 371-1549 (fax) > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > "jonny" > > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: > <[email protected]> > > Sent by: cc: > (bcc: James Day/Contractor/NPS) > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: > [ActiveDir] Continuity planning and AD > > tivedir.org > > > > > > > > > 03/18/2005 10:03 AM GMT > > > Please respond to > > > ActiveDir > > > > > > > > > > Dear All > > I am a bit of AD newbie so I am not even sure if this is an AD issue; > so apologies in advance. > > Anyway, we have a disaster recovery server which we plan to store off > site. > This will be switched off while in storage. Our live server is a > Windows 2000 server running AD. The backup software is Veritas Backup > Exec. We do not use one button recovery. > > The plan is this at the moment: when our server cathes fire, is > flooded or stolen, we take a recent tape from off site with all our > data and another tape with our 'system' and restore. Well that was > easy!! > > Well aside from many likely problems this I the one I want to ask > about > here: > > The system tape is derived from a Veritas backup called System backup. > I believe this backs up all the registry settings and I assume the > user databse, the DNS, DHCP setting and other services settings also. > The recovery server is not a hardware duplicate of the live server, > but it does run Windows 2000 server and Veritas. > > Question: I have been told a systemn restore will result in the > recovery server crashing as it is not a hardware duplicate. How do I > backup (and > restore) all the software and operating system settings and the AD > settings without requiring a hardware duplicate? Can anyone point to > resources that state how to do this and what to be aware of? > > Many thanks for any help on this > > Jonny > > > _________________________ > Jonathan Feldman > ICT Manager > NACVS > 177 Arundel Street > Sheffield, S1 2NU > > Tel: 0114 278 6636 > Fax: 0114 278 7004 > Textphone: 0114 278 7025 > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Web: http://www.nacvs.org.uk > ______________________________ > > Registered charity no. 1001635 > Registered company no. 2575306 > Registered office as above > ------------------------------- > > Dates for your diary > =================== > > Chief Officers' Residential Event 2005 Royal Court Hotel, Coventry > 6-7 April > > http://www.nacvs.org.uk/nacvs/events/core/index.shtm > > If you take my advice...getting HR support right Age Concern, > Birmingham 21st March > > http://www.nacvs.org.uk/nacvs/events/hr/index.shtm > > Local Public Service Agreements: engaging communities Novotel > Birmingham Centre > 19 May 2005 > http://www.nacvs.org.uk/nacvs/events/lpsa > > > List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx > List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx > List archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ > > > List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx > List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx > List archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ > List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/
