{"id":9651,"date":"2009-05-26T19:24:00","date_gmt":"1999-11-29T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=9651"},"modified":"2009-05-26T19:24:00","modified_gmt":"1999-11-29T20:00:00","slug":"planning-active-directory-forest-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=9651","title":{"rendered":"Planning Active Directory Forest Recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

The scouts say something about preparation.\u00a0 I can\u2019t remember what it was but the idea is that it\u2019s better to have done the work to be prepared for a disaster rather than save some time and then get bit*h-slapped by the disaster.\u00a0 For example, what do you do when something nasty happens to your Active Directory Forest?\u00a0 Microsoft posted<\/a> a guide on this.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t recommend having a lab for your production network enough.\u00a0 Get yourself a TechNet account for this.\u00a0 Set up a single server running something like Hyper-V and create an internal network that matches your production network (or networks).\u00a0 Do a P2V of things like some of your DC\u2019s and other critical systems.\u00a0 This gives you an identical copy of your production system.\u00a0\u00a0 You may need to do an AD metadata cleanup to remove the DC\u2019s you don\u2019t P2V.\u00a0 You can easily use it for test and development from then on.<\/p>\n

I used to do that in the past.\u00a0 I spent 80% of my time on the test systems.\u00a0 For example, when redesigning our AD delegation, I scripted it all using DSACLS.\u00a0 I tested it over and over.\u00a0 When we were ready for production I simply ran the scripts on the production network.\u00a0 Days of work on the test system and minutes of work on the production network with predictable results.\u00a0 We did the same with GPO work and SMS 2003 software deployment.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d definitely recommend you do this with processes such as AD disaster recovery testing and for testing backup\/recovery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The scouts say something about preparation.\u00a0 I can\u2019t remember what it was but the idea is that it\u2019s better to have done the work to be prepared for a disaster rather than save some time and then get bit*h-slapped by the disaster.\u00a0 For example, what do you do when something nasty happens to your Active … Continue reading “Planning Active Directory Forest Recovery”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-active-directory"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t