Guidelines For Active Directory Restore

By Author: Arno Therburg
Total Articles: 1
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Active directory, created by Microsoft, is a directory service. It stores information and settings for use in a central database. An administrator may use active directory to store secure settings, assign policies, update software, assign user access, and many other functions. In other words, active directory is an essential component to businesses and companies because it stores secure information for their network. The data in the directory is very important and thus is one of the top priorities of enterprises.

Since the information is vital to an organization, an active directory goes through a system restore and back up procedure on a regular basis. This restore process for an active directory follows a standard set of guidelines.

Two types of restore performances exist. One is authoritative and the other is non-authoritative. Prior to selecting the appropriate active directory restore method, one must consider the circumstances and characteristics of the failure. Two main types of failures seen in active directories are data corruption or hardware failure.

The non-authoritative restore of active directory ...
... is the default method whenever data loss or corruption has occurred. To implement this method the domain controller must be started in Directory Services Restore Mode. This method returns the domain controller back to the time before data loss or corruption. Then the domain is allowed to replicate itself and overwrite any of the changes that have occurred after the backup.

Authoritative restore method of active directory is an extension of non-authoritative. This method is primarily used when the error was a human error, for example if an administrator inadvertently deleted several objects. This deletion is then replicated to other domain controllers and cannot be easily recreated.

Authoritative restore of active directory requires a separate tool, unlike non-authoritative. Another main difference between authoritative and non-authoritative is in the restore process. Authoritative restore method allows the smallest object to be restored in an active directory rather than having to restore an entire subtree.

These two restore methods also exist for restoring system volume because the SYSVOL contains a default location for an active directory. A non-authoritative restore method for SYSVOL occurs automatically after the restore of an active directory. At least one domain controller must be functional in the domain. Authoritative restore of SYSVOL signifies that the backup directory in the system volume is accurate. This is then used for replication.

These are the general guidelines for restore of an active directory. The information contained in active directory is very sensitive to the functions of a business.

About Author:
The Blackbird Group provides Active Directory (AD) management solutions for auditing, compliance, backup and security. For any product related query please visit us at http://www.blackbird-group.com/.