1. Active Directory Disaster Recovery

2. Domain Controllers  No PDC, BDC  All DCs are equal Some are more equal than others (operations masters)  Can demote DC to member server Can change its name this way  Can promote member server to DC

3. Active Directory Files  Default location %systemroot%\NTDS Ntds.dit — Active Directory database Edb*.log — Transaction log files Edb.chk — Checkpoint file to check data not yet written to database Res*.log — Reserved transaction log files (10MB each to reserve space in case disk fills up)

4. Garbage Collection  Runs periodically  Deletes tombstoned objects  Defragments database

5. System State  Includes everything that AD depends on, not just database files Database and log files SYSVOL shared folder Registry System startup files Class registration database Certificate Services database

6. Backing up Active Directory  Accessories/System Tools/Backup Allows backup of system state  TSM (to HFS) Backs up system object  Includes Active Directory  Third party  For complete backup, AD on all domain controllers must be backed up

7. Non-Authoritative Restore  Restores Active Directory to state before backup was made  Updates from other DCs are made via replication as usual

8. Authoritative Restore  Possible to mark part of Active Directory as authoritative on server where you are restoring it  Authoritative parts replicated to other DCs E.g. to restore deleted objects  Only part of database can be restored authoritatively  Can select subset to be restored authoritatively E.g. to restore deleted OU

9. References  How to remove orphaned domains from Active Directory http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q2 30/3/06.ASP http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q2 30/3/06.ASP  Domain controller server object not removed after demotion http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q2 16/3/64.ASP http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q2 16/3/64.ASP  How to perform an authoritative restore to a domain controller http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q2 41/5/94.ASP http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q2 41/5/94.ASP

10. References  Backup of the active directory has 60- day useful life http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/arti cles/Q216/9/93.ASP http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/arti cles/Q216/9/93.ASP  Removing active directory data after an unsuccessful demotion http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/arti cles/Q216/4/98.ASP http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/arti cles/Q216/4/98.ASP