Chapter 18: Windows Server 2008 R2 and Active Directory Backup and Maintenance

1. Chapter 18:Windows Server 2008 R2 and ActiveDirectory Backup and Maintenance BAI617

2. Chapter Topics • Windows Server Backup • Defragment AD DS offline

3. Why? • Backup and recovery are familiar tasks to most server administrators. • Protecting data and applications is important enough, but recovering your Active Directory can be even more vital to continued operations

4. Backing Up and Restoring Windows Server • Windows Server Backup may not provide every feature you might want in an enterprise environment, it does a good job of backing up and restoring a Windows Server 2008 R2 server. • Windows Server Backup can be used to back up remote computers • It most suited to backing up the local server.

5. 2008 Improvements • System state backups and recoveries can now be performed using the Windows Server Backup snap-in in Server Manager. • A system state backup contains all the data necessary to restore the operating system to the state it was in when the backup was made

6. 2008 Improvements • The Windows Server Backup tool includes full functionality from both the command line and Windows PowerShell utilities. You can do everything from the command line or through scripting that you can do from the Windows Server Backup snap-in

7. 2008 Improvements • Remote storage options for backups include remote shared folders and volumes (such as iSCSIor Fibre Channel volumes) and virtual disks • You can perform automatic management of stored backups. Windows Server Backup will automatically delete old backups to make room for current backups

8. 2008 Limitations • Unlike earlier versions of Windows Server, Windows Server 2008 R2 only supports backing up to internal or external disks or to optical media such as CD or DVD. • Tape backups are no longer supported, and tape drivers are no longer supplied

9. 2008 Limitations • There is a data size limit of 2TB (2048GB) per volume that can be backed up using Windows Server Backup • Windows Server Backup only works with volumes that are formatted with NTFS • Windows Server Backup cannot read backups made with NTbackup.exe

10. Getting Your System Ready • Windows Server Backup is installed as a feature within the File Services role in Windows Server 2008 R2 and comprises three distinct parts: • Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in • Command-line tools (Wbadmin.exe) • Windows PowerShellcmdlets

11. Getting Your System Ready

12. Getting Your System Ready

13. Remote v. Local • The biggest difference between storing backups in a network shared folder vs. using a local disk is that Windows Server Backup will store multiple versions of backups on a local disk but will store only the most recent version of a backup in a remote location. • Having multiple backups for a specific server computer means that you can recover from changes made on those dates as well as recover from a complete data loss.

14. Using Removable Media • When backing up to disks, consider using some type of removable disk, such as an external USB or eSATA hard disk. • A better implementation would include multiple removable disks that could then be rotated to off-site storage to provide a higher level of disaster recovery protection.

15. Backing Up and Restoring a Full Server • Performing a full server backup is one of the easiest types of backup to perform and is also one of the best types in terms of recovery. A full server backup includes the following parts: • All local volumes (virtual disks hosted on local volumes will not be backed up if they are online) • Critical volumes • System state

16. Full Server Backup – Pros & Cons • With a full server backup you can: • recover individual files and folders and entire volumes in case of disk failure. • Perform a “bare-metal” recovery in which you have replaced the entire server computer (or at least the hard disks containing the operating system and system state) and there is no operating system installed. • The drawbacks to a full server backup: • The size of the backup • The time required to perform the backup.

17. Backing Up and Restoring Files and Folders • In addition to full server and system state backups, Windows Server Backup lets you back up and restore individual files, folders, and volumes • This is the method to use when you are more concerned about recovering data than the operating system itself

18. Performing a Manual Backup of Files and Folders • Data backups (of files and folders) either can be scheduled or can be manual operations in Windows Server Backup. • One common backup configuration for a server that houses important data would be for a full server backup each night with an additional file and folder backup of data during the day (more frequently depending on the nature of the data)

19. Performing a Manual Backup of Files and Folders

20. Performing a Manual Backup of Files and Folders

21. Performing a Manual Backup of Files and Folders

22. Performing a Manual Backup of Files and Folders

23. Performing a Manual Backup of Files and Folders

24. Performing a Manual Backup of Files and Folders

25. Performing a Manual Backup of Files and Folders

26. Performing a Manual Backup of Files and Folders

27. Stopping and Restarting Active Directory • Restartable Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), introduced in Windows Server 2008 • lets you stop AD DS to perform maintenance on the server without requiring you to restart the server in Active Directory Recovery Mode • This allows for offline AD DS defragmentation • Once you stop AD DS on the server, users can continue to log on to the domain if other domain controllers are available

28. Stopping and Starting AD DS • Stopping AD DS is done exactly like stopping any service in Windows, by using the Services snap-in in Server Manager or Computer Management. • You must be a member of the Domain Administrators group

29. Stopping and Starting AD DS • Open Server Manager. Select Start > Administrative Tools > Server Manager, or click the Server Manager button on the taskbar. • Expand Services and Applications, and then click Services. In Server Manager, expand Configuration, and then click Services. • Right-click Active Directory Domain Services in the details pane. Click Stop on the context menu. • You will be prompted to approve a list of other services upon which AD DS depends. Accept the list, and those services will also be stopped. They will be restarted when you start AD DS again. • To start AD DS, right-click Active Directory Domain Services, and then click Start.

30. Stopping and Starting AD DS

31. Defragmenting Active Directory Offline • Before performing an offline defragmentation • Back up the system state and critical drives of the domain controller to be sure you can recover from any serious errors that might occur. • Verify that there is ample free space on the volume that contains the AD DS database (Ntds.dit) for temporary space. • Microsoft recommends free space equal to at least 15 percent of the Ntds.dit file size for temporary space needs.

32. Defragmenting Active Directory Offline

33. Performing Offline Defragmentation of Ntds.dit • See the 9 step process for defragmentation on page 805 of your text.

34. Review • Windows Server Backup • Defragment AD DS offline

35. Questions?

36. Lab Environment