Backup physical l and virtual DCs

[adam900331]

Hy!

I have 1 physical and 3 virtual DC. The physical own the FSMO roles. How can I backup the DCs correctly? Create two backup job, one for physical DC and one for virtual DCs?

Thanks.

[RomanK]

Hello adam900331,

Have you seen Backing up Domain Controller: Best practices document?
This article describes both physical and virtual DC backups plus "When performing a full domain recovery, you might want to start from the DC with most FSMO roles, usually one with PDC emulator role."

I hope this helps.

Thanks

[adam900331]

Thanks, I will check it, if contains the required information.

[adam900331]

I read the article, so do I understand to backup only one DC? The article contain the virtual and physical DC backup, but what can I do if I have physical and virtual DC too? Its not clear for me.

[adam900331]

Anyone know to, how can I configure the backup job correctly to backup the whole AD?

Thanks.

[jorgedlcruz]

Hello,
Yes Adam, you will need two jobs as we can not mix virtual, and physical.

That or go all Veeam Agents for Windows, even on the virtual ones, so you can have one only job with the three DCs.

But as you said the FSMO roles are on the physical, so I would focus on that one.

Because in case of massive disaster, you would probably end up doing a physical to virtual restore of that DC, and sync the other ones with this master DC, or I have even seen to delete those virtual dcs, and deploy new ones pointing to the new restored VM.

You can at any time try to Instant Restore from the physical to virtual (on a separate network), or no network, so you see how it behaves, etc.

Hope this helps