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Restoring all domain controllers in a Windows domain (on vmware)

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Mildur
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

Machine account changes their passwords automatically every 30 days.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/security-policy-settings/domain-member-maximum-machine-account-password-age

 

If a computer changed his machine password in the last two weeks, and you restore the AD to a date two weeks ago, this computer must be removed and rejoined to the active directory.

Product Management Analyst @ Veeam Software
M
Userlevel 3

Trust relationship failures are generally easy to resolve, but that said, going 3 weeks back, I’m betting, depending on the number of workstations (and servers), there may be a lot of trust relationship failures.

 

In a smaller environment (35 workstations), with not a lot of new activity, what causes a trust relationship to get lost - are they renewed every few days or something?  Or would the only ones lost be those of any new PCs added to the domain?

dloseke
Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Please keep in mind, that restoring a 3 week old backup could result in some problems, like changed passwords (user/computer).

Other than that, it could result in a more serious problem: devices in the network may lose the trust relationship with that domain.

 

Trust relationship failures are generally easy to resolve, but that said, going 3 weeks back, I’m betting, depending on the number of workstations (and servers), there may be a lot of trust relationship failures.  Better be prepped with one of these two commands.  There is also a way to issue this command remotely, but I’d be sure that you know the local admin password on everything first.  Best of luck with you on your Authorative restore.  I don’t think I’ve ever had to do one authoratively….just non-authorative restores.

 

Command Line:

netdom resetpwd /s:Domain-Controller /ud:domain administrator /pd:*

 

PowerShell

Reset-ComputerMachinePassword -Server "EU-S01" -Credential Domain01\ShellAdmin

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.management/reset-computermachinepassword?view=powershell-5.1

https://shellgeek.com/reset-computermachinepassword-in-powershell/

Derek M. Loseke, Senior Systems Engineer | Veeam Legend 2022-2023 | VMSP/VMTSP | VCP6-DCV | VSP/VTSP | CCNA | https://technotesanddadjokes.com | @dloseke
Scott
Userlevel 7
Badge +8

Hi all.  There is the possibility that this weekend I might need to restore all of our domain controllers in our domain (hopefully this does not come to pass).  It is not a very active AD domain so hopefully but I might have to go back about 3 weeks to get around a problem.

Can someone point me to documentation as to how to do this from within Veeam with all the DCs down?  This would mean that no dns resolution will be happening (do I have to create a hosts file on the Veeam server to get around this?).

Another hiccup is that for one of the DCs, I notice now that application aware processing has not been turned on so it is going to be restored as just a member server without any special processing for the AD database.

Thanks.

I did this recently mid day in a HUGE environment after someone blew it up. 100’s of VM’s and file servers were not accessible and critical infrastructure was all down.(stressful)

 

  1. YES make hosts files. Have EVERY Veeam server or other server you will need in it, Proxies, storage, Veeam server, SQL server, ESXI host, vCenter, file shares etc. I now have an updated copy in multiple spots if it happens again. Also keep a list of all your Veeam IP’s on hand so if you ever lose DNS.
  2. Consider separating your DC’s and DNS servers. They don’t need to stay together. this makes life much easier going forward.  (Still keep a host file available if you need it)
  3. Call Veeam support for help if you need. 
  1. The easiest way for me would be to power down ALL of the DC’s and restore the master as authoritative. I’d then restore the other/rest and let them sync. Having the roles on on DC going forward lets you know that that is your master and you should always use it for restores. 
  2. There is a procedure for this, Call Veeam and see what they say if your app aware processing doesn’t work.  You will be ok, but i don’t know if the procedure changes. 

 

 

Link State
Userlevel 7
Badge +7

Hi @MckITGuys 

Hi,
Can someone point me to documentation as to how to do this from within Veeam with all the DCs down?  This would mean that no dns resolution will be happening (do I have to create a hosts file on the Veeam server to get around this?).

- you can compile an hosts file to put on all veeam servers.
- Or added the IPs of the vcsa\esxi etc to the veeam B&R Console.

Another hiccup is that for one of the DCs, I notice now that application aware processing has not been turned on so it is going to be restored as just a member server without any special processing for the AD database.

I have a trick, if you have not flagged AA for AD you can open the backup with Explorer FRL restore, from here you can also open application restores even if you have not enabled AA, this applies to granular restore of AD objects.

As mentioned above, there are some verifications before performing the restore:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/identity/ad-ds/manage/ad-forest-recovery-determine-how-to-recover 

- Verify that you have all DSRM passwords for each Domain Controller to be restored.

- I attach procedure for resetting DSRM passwords. https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/it-it/000136611/resetting-the-directory-services-restore-mode-administrator-password 

- All domain controllers with FSMO roles must be under backup.

- Perform a Virtual lab restore with clients in domain to verify that the Forest\Domain is consistent after the reset.

- Verify which sync tecnology of SYSVOL FRS or DFSR.

Backing Up and Restoring an FRS-Replicated SYSVOL Folder - Win32 apps | Microsoft Docs

- the restore cases can be two:
  - Non-authoritative restore allows you to restore individual domain objects, this Veeam does easily; you also have the ability to compare the object in production with the object to be restored. in case of changes to the object.

- What is the Forest\Domain Functional level?
- Since Windows 2012 R2, it is possible to enable the "recycle bin" for fast restoring of objects without usingthird parties party software.

Authoritative Restore to completely restore the Forest\Domain

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/identity/ad-ds/manage/ad-forest-recovery-perform-initial-recovery 

I attach info recycle bin + Veeam AD Aware.
https://forums.veeam.com/veeam-backup-replication-f2/veeam-explorer-for-ad-and-ad-recycle-bin-enable-t29703.html  

- After authoritative restore verify that SYSVOL re replicates correctly
- Verify PDC time sync
- verify GPO functionality.
- If you have a CA verify correct operation.

the advice is to authoritative restore the server ( or the two servers) that has all FSMOs as its role.
-Then proceed with the installation and fresh promotion of new DCs.

-Also from the Windows 2012 R2 version, it is possible to clone Domain Controlles with a simple procedure.

Virtualized Domain Controller Cloning Test Guidance for Application Vendors | Microsoft Docs

Virtual Domain Controller Cloning in Windows Server 2012 - Microsoft Tech Community

Step-by-Step Guide to clone a Domain Controller - Technical Blog | REBELADMIN

Obviously by staying 3 weeks behind in addition to changing user passwords, you may also lose the computer\user accounts created during that time.
If you describe us accurately the situation and network topology of the Domain as said by @MicoolPaul  we can make a more detailed plan.
thank you

 

Veeam: VMCA | VMCE | VMXP | Veeam Legend - Microsoft: MCITP | MCP | MCSA | 2008 R2 | 2012R2 | 2016 | MCSE Core Infrastructure | MCSE Cloud Platform - Azure: AZ900 | AZ104 - VMWare: VCP-DCV Vsphere 7.x - Cisco: CCNA (Expired)
MicoolPaul
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

Morning!

 

Veeam would be terrible backup software if you couldn’t recover your AD environment, so the answer is a definite YES!

 

Lets go over a few basic parts to this and build a strategy for you:

 

Firstly, you’ve quite rightly highlighted your DNS will be impacted. We need to consider the impact from a few perspectives:

  • vSphere: Does vCenter manage the ESXi hosts via FQDN entries or IP addresses? If it’s via FQDN, you’ll be best avoiding using vCenter within Veeam for your recovery as you’d have to mess with your VCSA to avoid the DNS issues. We can just target an ESXi host via IP address within Veeam
  • Veeam: Veeam needs to be able to talk to its components, is your Veeam server an “all in one” box? If not, are your components/servers being targeted via FQDN or DNS? If FQDN I would just edit the hosts file to ensure this continues to work.
  • AD: What DNS configuration are you using here? Are all the domain controllers aiming at themselves (relying on DNS replication) within their DNS client/network config, are they all pointing to a central DNS server, or are they all aiming at each other. This could impact how you want to recover.

Secondly, what OS are your domain controllers? Windows Server 2012 R2 added some virtualisation safeguards for AD to help if you restored a DC out of sequence.

 

Thirdly, check your retention policy, make sure the backups you’ll need aren’t going to be deleted due to retention this week, if in doubt you could also export the backups you need for an extra layer of confidence.
 

Finally, are your DCs backed up at the same time or at different times? I’d want to use the latest backup available as my primary and reattach my older DC backups to that.

 

Once we’ve got some information here to play with, we can put together a more tailored plan.

 

I’d also suggest using virtual labs to test this in an isolated network prior to carrying out in production, so you can be confident you’ve hit any & all snags prior to doing it “for real”, and as you can do this with the same backups you’ll actually want to recover from (as you said you could be going back a few weeks), so it will be an identical process.

Michael Paul - #VeeamLegend | #VeeamVanguard | Veeam Certified Architect | VMware vExpert | https://micoolpaul.com | Twitter: @MicoolPaul | Mastodon: @micoolpaul@masto.nu | Bluesky: @micoolpaul.bsky.social
marcofabbri
Userlevel 7
Badge +13

I had to do it once; after a ransomware hit.

we restored the backup of the primary dc, it was only 12 hours before (old) backup, but we faced some issues in trust and Kerberos authentication, but just making the gpupdate / force in most pcs with the problem it was fine, just one of them (they were 200 clients) needed to be kicked out of the domain and adopted back in.

after restoration ok, we deployed a new secondary domain controller, not restoring the backup, to avoid authoritative or sync issues.

hopefully helps you.

cheers.

Exactly. If it’s restored before tgt release the trust could be broken.
Few days may be ok, 3 weeks are a lot.

But if all DCs are losts, there’s no other way than try...

Backups are like pizza, I love them. | Linkedin: @marco-fabbri-it
HunterLAFR
Userlevel 7
Badge +8

I had to do it once; after a ransomware hit.

we restored the backup of the primary dc, it was only 12 hours before (old) backup, but we faced some issues in trust and Kerberos authentication, but just making the gpupdate / force in most pcs with the problem it was fine, just one of them (they were 200 clients) needed to be kicked out of the domain and adopted back in.

after restoration ok, we deployed a new secondary domain controller, not restoring the backup, to avoid authoritative or sync issues.

hopefully helps you.

cheers.

Luis F.- HunterLF - HunterLAFR - lfconsulting.org
marcofabbri
Userlevel 7
Badge +13

Please keep in mind, that restoring a 3 week old backup could result in some problems, like changed passwords (user/computer).

Other than that, it could result in a more serious problem: devices in the network may lose the trust relationship with that domain.

Backups are like pizza, I love them. | Linkedin: @marco-fabbri-it
regnor
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

If application aware processing is enabled, a domaincontroller gets restored in non-authoritative mode. For a faster/better restore, the first DC should be placed in authoritative mode, all others in non-authoritative. For the one DC which has AAP disabled, I would manually go into recovery and non-authoritative mode as otherwise this one could cause replication problems.

The following article describes all the details: https://www.veeam.com/kb2119

 

Please keep in mind, that restoring a 3 week old backup could result in some problems, like changed passwords (user/computer).

Max M. | Systems Engineer @Veeam | VMCE/VMCA | former Legend & Vanguard
Chris.Childerhose
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

Those articles look great for restoring a single object - but I might have to restore the entire AD database (for reasons too deep to go into here).  I wonder if I just restore the entire vm image?

Also, I have another potential problem: one of the 3 DCs did not have application aware processing turned on so it does not even show up in the restore wizard - turning that on tonight!  I think there was initially problems with that DC and somehow then it never got fixed or at least turned on.

Albert

If the main DCs have application aware on restoring the VM would be ideal and then you will need to check AD with the tools required within windows.

Chris Childerhose - VMCA2022 | VMCE2023 | Veeam Vanguard 7* | Veeam Legend 3* | vExpert 5* | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
M
Userlevel 3

Those articles look great for restoring a single object - but I might have to restore the entire AD database (for reasons too deep to go into here).  I wonder if I just restore the entire vm image?

Also, I have another potential problem: one of the 3 DCs did not have application aware processing turned on so it does not even show up in the restore wizard - turning that on tonight!  I think there was initially problems with that DC and somehow then it never got fixed or at least turned on.

Albert

Chris.Childerhose
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

You can follow along this blog post by Veeam - Recovering the Active Directory Domain Services - Best practices for AD administration (part 3) (veeam.com)

Never had to recover AD myself but with Veeam it should be manageable.

Also here is how to restore items only - Restore AD Items

Chris Childerhose - VMCA2022 | VMCE2023 | Veeam Vanguard 7* | Veeam Legend 3* | vExpert 5* | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
wolff.mateus
Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Recently I restored a single AD on my homelab without any problems.

However, it was not a production environment like yours.

 

Take a look on this article:

https://www.veeam.com/blog/active-directory-domain-controller-backup-recovery.html

 

IT Lover | Veeam Vanguard | VUG Leader | Blogger

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