Restore/replicate Domain Controller doesn't work

[sbernard]

Upgraded to Veeam v3.0. Performed both a backup and a restore and a replication of a Windows 2003 Domain controller with VSS enabled. Brought up VM.. Started in safe mode and rebooted. Was able to log in fine. But no AD functions work.. errors abound about domain not being available. no sysvol or netlogon shares.. can't add users, etc....

what are we doing wrong?

[Gostev]

I am not sure what happened - but there were no code changes around Windows 2003 DC support in version 3.0... May be something has happened to the DC that was unrelated to backup/restore (for instance, before the actual backup was made?). From your description it looks like AD services are not running there at all. Is there any events in the System Event Log giving idea about what is happening? I think it would be best if you open the case with our support to investigate what happened in your case since this one would be hard to troubleshoot over forum messages...

[afokkema]

Hello,

I got the same issues as described above.

These are the event id's:

Applictionlog:
Event ID 1054: Windows cannot obtain the domain controller name for your computer network. (The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted. ). Group Policy processing aborted.

directory Services log:
Event ID 1308: The Knowledge Consistency Checker (KCC) has detected that successive attempts to replicate with the following domain controller has consistently failed.

DNS log:
Event ID 4010: The DNS server was unable to create a resource record for

FRS Log:
Event ID 13508: The File Replication Service is having trouble enabling replication from DC2 to DC1 for c:\winnt\sysvol\domain using the DNS name c2.domain.com. FRS will keep retrying. Following are some of the reasons you would see this warning.

Event ID 13565: File Replication Service is initializing the system volume with data from another domain controller. Computer DC1 cannot become a domain controller until this process is complete. The system volume will then be shared as SYSVOL.

[Gostev]

afokkema, sounds like you have some issues with you DNS?
Active Directory is very dependant on functional DNS service.

Code: Select all

Event ID 4010: The DNS server was unable to create a resource record for
Event ID 1054: Windows cannot obtain the domain controller name for your computer network.

Also by any chance did you restore this VM while having the original DC (that you've made backup of) running?

[afokkema]

I did a restore on a separate network (internal only) on a different ESX host.

I fixed the problem this way:

Step One: Follow scenario 2 http://kbalertz.com/958804/cannot-compu ... erver.aspx

Step Two: Copy the folders and files from the Ntfrs_Preexisting folder to the root.

Step Three: Share the Scripts map as Netlogon and reboot the DC's.

Everything looks good now.


One question from my side, what are the best settings for a backup job with DC's in it?

[Gostev]

Best settings are to enable Veeam VSS, and clear the "Backup even if VSS fails" checkbox. This is because DC backups made without VSS are completely useless. Restoring such backup would kill the DC and the only way to fix it will be completely demoting it.

[afokkema]

Thanks for your reply. You're really fast!!

I will disable the check box and test it again.

[alexr]

This suggestion brings another enhancement request - can we have backup even if VSS failed option in advanced settings as well so we can do per VM configuration. As it stands now, we would need to backup DCs separately from the rest of the servers just so we can have this option different

[afokkema]

Yesterday I installed Veeam Backup 3.0.1. Totday i did a restore of the DC's. There are no problems anymore. I guess you guys fixed it in the new version!

Thanks!

Ps. do you have an I Love Veeambackup banner too?

[Gostev]

Hmm... this is strange... we did have some VSS-related fixes but not around application processing logic (things like support for multiple NICs on VM, unneeded VSS warning removed, VSS user selection fix). Anyway, glad it works now!

I'll ask our designer to create Veeam Backup banner as well