Active Directory Developing

NT1330 Week 5 Essay Assignment Active Directory Developing a backup strategy for Active Directory requires planning and preparation. There are two options to choose from within Windows Server 2008. The first option is the Graphical User Interface (GUI) requires you to install the Windows Server Backup feature from the Server Manager console. The second option is the Command Line Interface (CLI) which requires you to install Windows PowerShell. I prefer using the GUI Server Manager console. This allows one to backup critical volumes such as the system volume, boot volume; volumes that host the SYSVOL share, Active Directory (AD) database Ntds.dit and log files. The backup schedule would run each night starting at midnight. By scheduling a backup plan to run after business hours, you reduce the risk of interfering with day to day business. I would schedule a full backup to run on Sundays with incremental backups Monday thru Saturday. I would also backup System State data after major configuration changes. This would allow restoring changes if needed. Windows Server Backup does not allow for a single file to be backed up. The volume hosting the file must be backed up. Restoring Active Directory (AD) using normal replication provides fault tolerance. If one domain controller fails and requires a fresh OS installation, AD can be reinstalled using the dcpromo tool. Next you would allow replication from other domain controllers to repopulate the AD database. When a single domain controller needs to be restored, I would use the wbadmin utility to perform a nonauthoritive restore of AD. This would restore the domain controller to a state before the backup. In the event of an administrative error such as deleting multiple users from a OU, an authoritative restore would be performed using the Ntdsutil utility. This would correct administrative errors that have been replicated to all domain controllers in the domain.

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NT1330 Week 5 Essay Assignment Once the OU is restored,