Backup Domain Controllers

[joj100]

My question is if backing up a Domain controller (2003 SP2 in our case) via Veeam is enough in order to do a restore (authoritative or not)

Now we are doing also a classic backup using backup exec which in my mind is overkill, but some of my colleagues have the concern that snapshot is not the way to backup AD and Microsoft suggests you should do a classic backup of the system state.

Thanks

[Gostev]

Your colleagues are right, "naked" VMware snapshot is extremely bad idea when it comes to backing up running DC.

Yes, Veeam is enough, just make sure you have "Application-aware image processing enabled". This will create proper, restorable DC backup. For more info on this feature, please refer to sticky FAQ topic. For additional information on domain controllers backup and restore with Veeam, including real-life usage examples as shared by our existing customers, please search this forum for existing discussions.

Thanks.

[randy16randy]

[merged]

I use B&R v6 for my VMWare ESXi-v5 environment. I recently moved almost everything to VM's, including my active directory domain controllers (Windows Server 2008-R2 Enterprise x64).

In the Microsoft article:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr ... 10%29.aspx

It talks about Best Practices for when a DC is virtualized. One operational recommendation says "Do not take or use a snapshot of a virtual domain controller".

Does this apply to B&R operation? My backups are successful but I wanted to find out if this caution really does apply to me, and if others have experience with it.

Thanks
-Randy-

[zoltank]

"Do not take or use a snapshot of a virtual domain controller" does not apply to Veeam PROVIDED you have application-aware image processing turned on.

Additionally, if you have the means, I would recommend keeping one of your domain controllers physical, so not all of your eggs are in one basket.