Restore DC from tape 1

[nogarap]

Hi,
Hope some one can help. I've got a dead DC, Dell swapped out the backplane today, coming back tomorrow with some spare scsi controllers and disks. Probably we'll be looking at restoring from tape. Of course, the server's in a remote location, is the only DC on site, is connected through WAN links, and also has Exchange 2000 sitting on it. Potentially, it could be a nightmare. One of my colleagues, who is based near there will be onsite following my instructions.
The good news is that we have a backup from friday night, which according to the logs is a good one, so that's something.
Please can somebody look at our projected steps, and see any flaws.
1. Build a server - should have same name as the dead one.
2. Restore C: and D: drives from tape
3. Restore system state
4. Restore Exchange databases from backup
5. Mount databases

Many thanks

 

[kmcferrin]

This is what we did on our DR drill:

1. Install the OS on the server.
2. Install remote agents for backup software.
3. Make sure that the OS is on the same SP level as the copy being restored.
4. Reboot the DC into Active Directory Restore Mode.
5. Restore only the C: drive and the system state to the original location. Make sure that the backup software is set to overwrite any existing files.
6. Reboot.
7. Work out any kinks that you may have here, which may include doing a repair install from the CD if the server hardware has changed any.
8. Restore the D: drive (presumably this is where Exchange is installed in your case).
9. Go into Exchange System Manager and on the Properties --> Database tab for each storage group check the box to allow database to be overwritten.
10. Resotre all Exchange stores and databases via yuor Exchange backup agent. Select to replay restored logs files only (this may be specific to Veritas).
11. Go back into ESM and uncheck the box to alow databases to be overwritten.
12. Mount databases and test.

If the hardware has changed significantly then there are additional steps. You can find them in KB263532 and KB321290 on Technet. All of the above assumes that this will be a non-authoritative restore onto the DC (i.e., you are restoring old AD data and other servers will replicate over the more current data once the server is restored). If you need to do an authoritative restore (i.e., you have no other AD data other than what's on the backup tape and this DC will overwrite other DCs) then you will need to follow the steps in KB241594 on Technet.

If you run into further problems (especially with different hardware) then post here and I've got a list of a bunch of registry keys that you can delete that will help.

 

[nogarap]

kmcferrin,

thank you so much for this. I won't actually be oding the restore myself, one of our regional people will be doing all of this for the first time ever, so the more info we can give her beforehand the better. I'll let you know how we get on.

Cheers

gaz

 

[monsterjta]

Are you sure you need to do a restore? Are you disks bad? If not, wouldn't you just need to udpate firmward/bios on new hardware?

Hope This Helps,

Good Luck!

 

[nogarap]

Dell didn't fix it yet. The spare parts were DOA, so they're trying again today. Open manage was saying 2 of the disks are bad. I think by the time Dell finish mucking about, the disks will definitely be gone. I've sent a spare server to the site just in case, so one way or another we'll be doing it today, I hope.

 

[nogarap]

All done, back up and running. Basically, I followed kmcferrin's suggestions, which pretty much worked as advertised. Did all the recommended steps, bit of fiddling with eseutil and isinteg, and we were back up. As always, this website is a great resource. Thanks all for helping, even if it was just reading the problem. kmcferrin, gold star going in the post for you.

 

[amanua]

kmcferrin,
Thanks for your suggestions but will need ideas regarding the following and how to treat it.
1.Name of the domain controller:
If the dc in question is say server2 which is dead how do you deal with the name when you install the os on the new dc.Do you have to name it same server2
2.From your suggestion-4 (Reboot the dc into active directory), it means you will not run dcpromo on the said dc?
3.Joining the domain-At what point do you join the replaced dc to the domain?
4. Hardware. If Iam replacing only the motherboard, the cpu and the memory to a higher end but maintain raid1 as the old do you need to do other tweaks.There is no exchange server on the network