Tape Drive Failure, how to back up Domain

[Dalavich]

Hi,

We've suffered a tape drive failure. Although we're backing up the data okay to a remote computer.

How do I backup the user profiles and domain information, so that if the worst happens, we can restore the data and user profiles/permissions, without this tape drive?

Thanks

[tarquel]

This all depends on how you are backing up the system to a remote computer.

If you can explain what methods you are using to do this, it will help us help you better.

I think that should the worse happen, you'll have to rebuild it from scratch - its easier than reconfiguring from a backup really.

Using methods like RAID 1 (mirrored drives) at least should provide good leverage in the event of a HD failure.

Other than a fire, server giving up its own life (lol), etc. or NT server messing itself up - it should be fine with the above precautions in place.

But tell us more about the setup really - so that we can advise better.

Regards

N.

[Dalavich]

Yes, sorry was a bit vague, but was stressed up to the eyeballs!

The Raid array is a Raid 5, so the data is safe. For now!

I'm using Syncback to back up to a remote computer on a mapped network drive - this just backs up all the data on the drive. Hence I know all the users data is safe.

But if another drive fails and we do lose the data, can we recover the Domain Controller, users profiles & the directory permissions from this back up - or should we be doing something else until we can get the tape drive fixed/replaced?

Many thanks

[tarquel]

No probs

Umm... you'll have to check the documentation or perhaps the online support [if they have some] on disaster recovery, etc.

Also, if its just copying the files in the backup process and nothing else i.e. systemstate, registry, etc., then all your work and profiles should be safe [possibly the directory permissions also] but you'd have to start from scratch as it isn't like making a image of a machine with ghost for example [tho u might wanna do a one of if you are that concerned].

Although I periodically backup as much of the DC as I can ie. systemstate - full backup [although thats a little hard now as the data is now way larger than the tape drive can hold - even with compression], i have the important areas [user work folders, applications & profiles] on a regular backup schedule.

I'd find it easier to start from scratch if things turned nasty - and just restore the work folders. may take a day but it'd probably be easier than splicing together a backup containing system settings etc and a fresh OS install.

There is a thing called ASR that you might want to look into but I'm not sure how that works - i've made a backup at the begining with that but not done one since. Just havent had the time to look into it really.

Hope this rambling helps

Regards

N.