Backup and recovery Win2003 AD database

Assume that a large enterprise's AD (Active Directory, Directory Service) database has thousands of user data, one day AD database was intentionally or unintentionally destroyed, resulting in the loss of user data, this If you recover the data one by one, then the workload will undoubtedly be amazingly huge.

Therefore, experienced network administrators usually back up the AD database on a regular basis. When the AD database has various problems, it is easy to complete the data recovery of the AD database. Of course, there are many network administrators who don't understand or ignore such important backup operations.

Backing up the AD database

Backing up the AD database is not complicated, because the backup operation is done through the backup wizard, so even the rookie level network management can easily get started.

Click "Start → Programs → Accessories → System Tools → Backup", click the "Next" button in the "Backup or Restore Wizard" dialog box that opens, and enter the "Backup or Restore" selection dialog box.

After selecting the "Backup Files and Settings" item, click the "Next" button to enter the "Contents to Back Up" dialog box, select the "Let me choose the content to be backed up" item and click "Next" Button. In the Projects to Back Up dialog box, expand Desktop→My Computer and select the System State item (Figure 1).


Figure 1

In the next step of "Backup Type, Destination, and Name" dialog box prompts to select the backup file storage path based on good, good name and set the backup file, click "Next" button. Then click the "Finish" button in the dialog that opens.

At this point, please interrupt other operations in the computer system, because the backup operation of the AD database will start after a while.

Restoring the AD database

Compared to the backup operation of the AD database, the restore operation of the AD database is slightly more complicated. Because in addition to following the prompts of the Backup Wizard, some additional operations are required to successfully complete the restore. The main reason is that the AD database cannot be restored when the AD service is running normally.

So the restore operation of the AD database should be done as follows:

1. Enter the directory service restore mode

Restart the computer before entering the initial screen of Windows Server 2003, Press F8 to enter the Windows Advanced Options menu interface. At this time, you can select the "Directory Service Restore Mode (Windows Domain Controller Only)" item by using the up and down direction keys on the keyboard.

After confirming the carriage return, log in to the system using an account with administrator privileges. At this point, you can see that the system is in safe mode.

2.Using the Restore Wizard

After entering the directory service restore mode, click "Start → Programs → Accessories → System Tools → Backup" in the "Backup or Restore Wizard" dialog that opens. Click the "Next" button in the box to enter the "Backup or Restore" selection dialog box, select "Restore Files and Settings". Select the backup file in the Restore Project dialog (Figure 2).


Figure 2

later in the pop-up interface, click "Finish" button. Wait a moment, the system will pop up a warning prompt box, click the "OK" button to confirm the database overlay operation to start the AD database restore.

After completing the restore operation, click the "Close" button in the dialog box to finish. Finally, a “Backup Tool” prompt box will pop up, click the “Yes” button to restart the computer.

The last thing to remind everyone is that some friends will forget the original reset password (set when adding AD service) when restoring the AD database. At this time, you cannot enter the directory restore mode.

Don't panic when you encounter this situation, because we can enter the directory in the pop-up window by clicking "Start → Run" and then entering the "Ntdsutil" command in the pop-up run field. Restore mode password reset operation.

After setting the restore password successfully, you need to restart the computer. After rebooting, you can use the new restore password to enter the directory service restore mode.