Move the SYSVOL and NTDS folder to another drive
Hi,
I have a single domain controller (2012 R2) with 2 drives and I have installed the NTDS and SYSVOL folders to a separate drive (D).
At first I was doubting to install them on the same drive (C) but I read somewhere that it is better to put them on a seperate drive (for performance/space requirements).
However, now I want to configure a system state backup to a local drive but Windows Server Backup (WSB) does find any suitable local drives. I guess this is because C is used for the operating system and D is used for SYSVOL and NTDS folders.
Now I would like to move SYSVOL and NTDS to the C drive so I can configure my backup but it seems the only way to do this is to demote and re-promote the DC. However, this is a live production environment so I can't just do that.
Does anyone have an idea on how I should proceed? Is there another way to move the NTDS and SYSVOL folders?
There is another thread about this already on EE but it assumes there are multiple domain controllers.
Thanks already!
I have a single domain controller (2012 R2) with 2 drives and I have installed the NTDS and SYSVOL folders to a separate drive (D).
At first I was doubting to install them on the same drive (C) but I read somewhere that it is better to put them on a seperate drive (for performance/space requirements).
However, now I want to configure a system state backup to a local drive but Windows Server Backup (WSB) does find any suitable local drives. I guess this is because C is used for the operating system and D is used for SYSVOL and NTDS folders.
Now I would like to move SYSVOL and NTDS to the C drive so I can configure my backup but it seems the only way to do this is to demote and re-promote the DC. However, this is a live production environment so I can't just do that.
Does anyone have an idea on how I should proceed? Is there another way to move the NTDS and SYSVOL folders?
There is another thread about this already on EE but it assumes there are multiple domain controllers.
Thanks already!
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You can follow the steps outlined below. It shows how to backup the system state for AD.
https://redmondmag.com/articles/2015/07/09/back-up-active-directory-system-states.aspx
https://redmondmag.com/articles/2015/07/09/back-up-active-directory-system-states.aspx
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Thank you Antzs and Satish for the fantastic help and the valuable input!
ASKER
I'm considering both options but I will have downtime with the second option as well since I need to reconfigure Fortigate to send DNS and authentication requests to the new DC. Admitted, this will be less downtime than moving the files using ntdsutil but also still requires setting up another server first.
I'm considering now to force the Windows Server Backup to still do the system state backup to my D drive. I guess this should be possible with a scheduled task. Any idea how to proceed here? I only want to keep backups for 2 days.