AD server question

[aldi]

Let's say you've got a single 2K AD server, and for various reasons involving a smouldering motherboard it won't boot in any mode and needs to be reinstalled, allthough the hard drive is intact. Repair runs sucesfully but doesnt fix the problem. Whats the best way of not loosing the accounts and having to rejoin the PC's etc.?

[small]Had this situation today, didnt have time to mess about so ended up just recreating the accounts etc. (there were only about a dozen).[/small]

[agent006]

I believe it's possible to retrieve the AD databases and make a new domain server using them. Quite how, i'm not entirely sure but i'm sure someone will be along shortly who does.

[BliarOut]

Boot into the recovery console and perform an active directory restore..... I'm assuming your tape backup failed for some reason

Look into HP OBDR (One Button Disaster Recovery) drives. Server goes bang, so what. Replace the hardware, hold in the tape button and boot your server. It boots from tape and restores the server and it's configuration. Restart, restore your user data from tape, job done. You don't even need to import the media, as the tape database is restored in the initial OBDR restore.

Don't tell anyone how easy my job is

[aldi]

BliarOut said:

Boot into the recovery console and perform an active directory restore..... I'm assuming your tape backup failed for some reason

It was a blue screen/missing boot device thing due to the replacement mobo having a different RAID controller and hanging on for another replacement would have taken a day. So no point restoring as it wouldn't have fixed the problem. I wanted to just drop the files and shares on another machine straight off but was overruled

I ran through some instructions for manually adding the storage driver for the new controller via the console but that didnt work. Took one of the mirrors and tried to boot in in safe mode on a few very bog standard intel boards thinking I could install the driver if it booted - still no joy. An hour had passed at this point so I just took the 'safe' option and went for the reinstall... which went well except for not knowing how to get the old AD database back. Luckily there are only a dozen or so users so it wasnt a bigge this time.

Will swot up on AD restore mode, can that run in an inaccessible boot device type situation?

[JamieBeeston]

Dont use onboard RAID / SCSI cards, for exactly this reason.

Use a PCI one, at least then you can swap it out if needed.

J