Surebackup Results: unable to perform Domain Controller restore from a crash-consistent backup.

Hi ​@cday - Welcome to the Community.

Have you followed the VBR User Guide here, I assume?

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbr/userguide/surebackup_hiw.html?ver=13

Have you added the DC into an Application Group? Is that where you’re having the issue? You can check logs in: %ProgramData%\Veeam\Backup\<surebackup-job-log> to see if anything further shows there. And of course...Veeam Support is always recommended as a first resort to troubleshoot your issues.

Yes, its in an application group. I’ll check the logs and if they don’t shine any light on it for me I’ll open a ticket with support. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. 

No problem ​@cday . Keep us posted if you can.

Hi ​@cday,

In general, you need the following things (please refer to the manual / helpcenter link shared above for details):

• Service Account with permissions (Built-In Administrator in case of Domain Controllers)
• Network connection from the Guest Interaction Proxy (whoever carries that role) to the Domain Controller
• Firewallports allowed on the network an OS level (Windows Firewall etc.): https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbr/userguide/used_ports.html?ver=13
• AV ports on DC and Veeam components opened as required: https://www.veeam.com/kb1999

Once that is done, you don’t want to see an error or a warning running the job. Then you should be good to test via SureBackup. Please also make sure to assign the DC role and the service account in the application group as well.

Best

Lukas

Another thing to check on your DCs is the VSS Writers to ensure when the backup job runs AAP can create the proper backups.

Run this - 

vssadmin list writers

Check to ensure the NTDS and DFRS writers show and listed as Stable with no errors.  If they are in failed state, you can restart - Volume Shadow Copy & Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS) to fix them.

This can lead to improper backups with AAP and possibly cause the issue you are experiencing.

Hi ​@cday 

Are you running V13 in your environment and possibly use a Linux Guest Interaction proxy? If so, there might be a fix available and I recommend to open a support case and let the colleagues look at it.

VSS provider issues on the DC itself. On the DC, open Event Viewer and look under Applications and Services Logs > Microsoft > Windows > Backup and also check the Application log for VSS source errors around the time of your last backup. A broken VSS provider or a VSS writer in a bad state will cause exactly this. The NTDS writer specifically..