Domain Controller kept starting in DS Restore mode

[massimiliano.rizzi]

Hello guys,
a couple of days ago, after automatically installing the latest batch of Microsoft updates overnight, one virtualized production domain controller (running Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1) being backed up with AAIP enabled restarted automatically to apply all the updates as usual.

Nothing interesting here so far, but the Domain Controller kept starting in Directory Service Restore mode, so I had to log in with the Directory services restore mode account, reverted back the safeboot parameter and manually restarted the virtual machine to have it start normally.

I have seen this issue happen from time to time (very rarely actually), especially with Windows Server 2008 R2-based domain controllers and I don’t know why the safeboot parameter is also being changed on the production domain controller.

Based on KB 1277, this is expected to happen when the virtual machine is booting after doing a full Virtual Machine restore, Instant Recovery, or testing of a Replica (not on the production domain controller being backed up).

Am I missing something ? Is there something I can or should do about this so that I can prevent it from happening again on a production domain controller ?

Thanks and Regards,

Massimiliano

[foggy]

Massimiliano, production VM is never touched in this way during backup/replication/any other Veeam B&R activity, so the behavior you're seeing is most likely caused by the applied updates. I would look more closely at what updates were installed and whether they could affect the changed parameters.

[alanbolte]

There is a period of generally less than one second where the VM is prepped for restore, just prior to VMware snapshot creation. I have very rarely (perhaps twice in three years) seen domain controllers encounter some kind of problem during shadow copy creation, resulting in bluescreen/reboot, at which point the VM powers on in DS restore mode. The issue has not be reproducible that I recall. I don't know if that applies to what Massimiliano is talking about.