AD granular restore

[matteu]

Hello,

I always see AAIP must be enable for granular restore for ad or other (sql, exchange, ...) must be enabled and it's writtent on documentation.
One customer say me today it's working without it and I reproduce it on my lab too.

I just backup DC with AAIP disabled and if I go then do home -> backup -> I select the VM and on the ribbon I choose application item -< Microsoft AD I can restore an AD user.
This is the only way I find for it to work because If I do right click on the VM I don't have restore application item for the same VM.

Is it expected ? I don't understand why it's working without AAIP enabled.

Some picture here to maybe better understand :

I don't see restore application (for me, it's expected without AAIP enabled)


I can use this menu and then the explorer is loaded and I restored sucessfully an user

[Mildur]

Is it expected ? I don't understand why it's working without AAIP enabled.

Doing AAP should be used anytime if possible.
Backup can be consistent without AAP. The files of the AD or SQL databases are in the backup files.
If you use this procedure from your screenshots, veeam tries to load the database files from the mounted restore point (C:\VeeamFLR) without knowing if a application backup is available or not. If the db files are consistent in the restore point, they can be loaded by the veeam explorer.
If you backup Nutanix AHV VMs, this procedure is necessary todo Application Restores. Starting a File Level Backup and then open the Application Item Explorer todo the restore.

You can even use the veeam explorer to open DB Files outside of the VBR Console this way.
If you have a EDB File, you can use Veeam Explorer for Exchange to open the edb file and do Exchange item Restores.

[matteu]

OK !

I believe AAIP was mandatory to be able to restore AD user but it's not correct. It's a best practice and should be use to be sure it work .

I didn't understand why he could restore a user without AAIP enabled, now I know and I advice him to enable it because it's written in the documentation as a requirement.

Thank you for your help

[Mildur]

Yes, it should be used.
There are other benefits when using AAP like Log Truncation for SQL or exchange databases or making sure that an entire active directory controller can be restored without any interaction by the administrator.

Restoring Domain Controller from an Application-Aware backup

[matteu]

Yes, I read these article several times they are good to keep in mind


Thanks you again for your help