xtrial
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AD or User profile backup
Hi,
I have a 2003 domain with DNS also,there is almost 20 users which are logging to this domain.But the server is very slow,so i want to format the server once and do a fresh installation ,is there any way that i can take a back up of the active directory or something else .or is there a way that i can connect the users after installation to the domain itself without reconfiguring the users to the domain or i have to copy all the profile .
thanks in advance
I have a 2003 domain with DNS also,there is almost 20 users which are logging to this domain.But the server is very slow,so i want to format the server once and do a fresh installation ,is there any way that i can take a back up of the active directory or something else .or is there a way that i can connect the users after installation to the domain itself without reconfiguring the users to the domain or i have to copy all the profile .
thanks in advance
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ASKER
Great ,thanks both for the info
Imagine that i have did the same way
Like Ex: my main DC was server.domain.local and i added another domain as server1.domain.local,i added all the FSMO roles and removed server.domain.local .
How the users will login,bcos all was logged to server.domain.local,will the next time any computer tries to access the server will it say server.domain.local is not available or server1.domain.local will take the role also what abt the login screen of the user will appear , as Domain = ? ( server or server1 ) .
Can anybody send a good link how i can move the FSMO roles and a structure of FSMO rules.
thanks in advance,
Imagine that i have did the same way
Like Ex: my main DC was server.domain.local and i added another domain as server1.domain.local,i added all the FSMO roles and removed server.domain.local .
How the users will login,bcos all was logged to server.domain.local,will the next time any computer tries to access the server will it say server.domain.local is not available or server1.domain.local will take the role also what abt the login screen of the user will appear , as Domain = ? ( server or server1 ) .
Can anybody send a good link how i can move the FSMO roles and a structure of FSMO rules.
thanks in advance,
A couple questions, since it looks like you've mixed up a couple key concepts.
Are your servers named like this:
server.domain.local
server1.domain.local?
If so, these are the names of your domain controllers, and your domain is called domain.local. Both of these DCs operate the same domain and share responsibilites. The login screen will always just state domain.local, and as long as one of the DCs is available, users should be able to login normally. When dcpromoing your new server, did you specify domain.local as the AD DNS name or server1.domain.local?
Are your servers named like this:
server.domain.local
server1.domain.local?
If so, these are the names of your domain controllers, and your domain is called domain.local. Both of these DCs operate the same domain and share responsibilites. The login screen will always just state domain.local, and as long as one of the DCs is available, users should be able to login normally. When dcpromoing your new server, did you specify domain.local as the AD DNS name or server1.domain.local?
ASKER
Just ex only server.domain.local
Yes i gave server.domain.local as the AD DNS name ,is it correct or i should have created server1.domain.local as an additional DNS.Next time atleast i can make it correct.but i have given server.domain.local as the DNS in all the clents as dns,in case server.domain.local goes down ,the clients will try to login with the DNS root IP which willn't be available,wht will happen here..?or i think i should have given server1.domain.local as secondary DNS also.......big confusion ,pls guide me
In case my main server crashed and i came to reinstall the os,how i can bring the server.domain.local back to its position as the root AD domain.
if u can just send a link concerning this issues..thanks in advance
Thanks all for the response....
Yes i gave server.domain.local as the AD DNS name ,is it correct or i should have created server1.domain.local as an additional DNS.Next time atleast i can make it correct.but i have given server.domain.local as the DNS in all the clents as dns,in case server.domain.local goes down ,the clients will try to login with the DNS root IP which willn't be available,wht will happen here..?or i think i should have given server1.domain.local as secondary DNS also.......big confusion ,pls guide me
In case my main server crashed and i came to reinstall the os,how i can bring the server.domain.local back to its position as the root AD domain.
if u can just send a link concerning this issues..thanks in advance
Thanks all for the response....
ASKER
Also thanks for the FSMO link..let me go through that.
Let me try explain with a scenario:
You have a domain with a DNS name domain.local. The domain has 1 domain controller, called server1. That makes the server's full DNS name server1.domain.local. You want to bring in a 2nd domain controller, so you run dcpromo on a server called server2. In the dcpromo wizard you instruct it to be installed as an additional domain controler for the domain domain.local. This server becomes a domain controller with the full DNS name name server2.domain.local. The domain containing all user and computer accounts is all the time domain.local. When a user logs on to their workstation belonging to the domain, that domain.local also shows on the dropdown box. While at least one of the servers is available, users will be able to log on normally. At this point if you haven't made any changes, server1 will hold all the FSMO roles and it will be a global catalog server. If you have configured both servers to host a DNS server (which is recommended), you should configure all your domain members to use server1 as their primary DNS and server2 as secondary.
I don't fully understand what your configuration is like and what changes you've made. While it's of course possible that everything is fine, I recommend you spend some time reading about the technologies, since at least your terminology is a bit confusing at some points. A good place to start in my opinion is the Windows 2003 Deployment Kit, especially the Designing and Deploying Directory and Security Services chapter:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/reskit/deploykit.mspx
You have a domain with a DNS name domain.local. The domain has 1 domain controller, called server1. That makes the server's full DNS name server1.domain.local. You want to bring in a 2nd domain controller, so you run dcpromo on a server called server2. In the dcpromo wizard you instruct it to be installed as an additional domain controler for the domain domain.local. This server becomes a domain controller with the full DNS name name server2.domain.local. The domain containing all user and computer accounts is all the time domain.local. When a user logs on to their workstation belonging to the domain, that domain.local also shows on the dropdown box. While at least one of the servers is available, users will be able to log on normally. At this point if you haven't made any changes, server1 will hold all the FSMO roles and it will be a global catalog server. If you have configured both servers to host a DNS server (which is recommended), you should configure all your domain members to use server1 as their primary DNS and server2 as secondary.
I don't fully understand what your configuration is like and what changes you've made. While it's of course possible that everything is fine, I recommend you spend some time reading about the technologies, since at least your terminology is a bit confusing at some points. A good place to start in my opinion is the Windows 2003 Deployment Kit, especially the Designing and Deploying Directory and Security Services chapter:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/reskit/deploykit.mspx
ASKER
Thanks a lot.....let me go through that.
Backing Up Active Directory Components
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/27efdda8-2766-4d28-b1d0-daeef7ba5b3c1033.mspx
Performing a Nonauthoritative Restore of a Domain Controller
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/f3bfb611-dcbe-4365-8f1d-3321916aeb631033.mspx