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Recreate AD on an SBS 2008 - Can it be done?
Experts,
This is an unusual one, but I would love to avoid rebuilding this server.
It is a SBS 2008, only about 10 users, but big mailboxes and hosting a complicated production website.
Approximately 6 months ago something happened to the NTDS.DIT file. It carried on working though and I only discovered now that there is a problem - too late for backups to be useful. If I try to add a user it fails and generates an error, besides that it works perfectly.
NTDSUtil says the file is corrupt. I have tried all combinations of NTDSUtil and ESENTUTL. This will not fix the file in such a way that the AD service will start (even when NTDSUtil gives the file the all clear).
In a non-SBS situation it would be straightforward to add another DC, promote it and remove AD from the problem server, then add the original DC server back again. I think this would work here because the data in AD is all readable.
But I have read that with SBS it could be problematic to follow this route, because it wants to be the only DC. SO my question is could I do this, and if so how?
Thanks.
This is an unusual one, but I would love to avoid rebuilding this server.
It is a SBS 2008, only about 10 users, but big mailboxes and hosting a complicated production website.
Approximately 6 months ago something happened to the NTDS.DIT file. It carried on working though and I only discovered now that there is a problem - too late for backups to be useful. If I try to add a user it fails and generates an error, besides that it works perfectly.
NTDSUtil says the file is corrupt. I have tried all combinations of NTDSUtil and ESENTUTL. This will not fix the file in such a way that the AD service will start (even when NTDSUtil gives the file the all clear).
In a non-SBS situation it would be straightforward to add another DC, promote it and remove AD from the problem server, then add the original DC server back again. I think this would work here because the data in AD is all readable.
But I have read that with SBS it could be problematic to follow this route, because it wants to be the only DC. SO my question is could I do this, and if so how?
Thanks.
SBSActive DirectoryWindows Server 2008
Last Comment
pcguy-za
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You can backtrack by simply transferring the FSMO roles back to the SBS server.
ASKER
Thanks for the advice, I am going to try to a migration.
I have been managing 20+ SBS's for years, just always kept them in good shape so have never had an AD fail like this. Very annoying.
The site is a development copy. The production site is hosted at a data centre - so that is OK.
If the AD propagation fails will I be able to backtrack. Maybe a swing migration would be safer?