Tag: backup

Enable Backup and Restore for Group Policy

Hi guys,

while surfing the net I found this cool blog about enabling backup and resoter for your group policies.

Jeremy Moskowitz wrote it and here’s a little preview of the article. On the end is the link to the complete article.

Continue reading “Enable Backup and Restore for Group Policy”

System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 Hyper-V protection: Configuring cluster networks for CSV redirected access

When System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 (DPM) is protecting Hyper-V guests using the Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider (the VSS provider), DPM will be using software snapshots when backing up guests located on Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) disks. While the backup is in progress, the CSV will remain in re-directed access mode for the duration of the guest backup.  This means all disk I/O for Guests located on that CSV will be in redirected mode and be going over the network instead of direct access to the CSV and performance may be affected.  Continue reading “System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 Hyper-V protection: Configuring cluster networks for CSV redirected access”

Back Up and Restore the DHCP Database

DHCP servers store DHCP lease and reservation information in database files. By default, these files are stored in the %SystemRoot%System32DHCP directory. The key files in this directory are used as follows:
  • Dhcp.mdb The primary database file for the DHCP server
  • J50.log A transaction log file used to recover incomplete transactions in case of a server malfunction
  • J50.chk A checkpoint file used in truncating the transaction log for the DHCP server
  • Res1.log A reserved log file for the DHCP server
  • Res2.log A reserved log file for the DHCP server
  • Tmp.edb A temporary working file for the DHCP server

Backing Up the DHCP Database
The Backup directory in the %SystemRoot%System32DHCP folder contains backup information for the DHCP configuration and the DHCP database. By default, the DHCP database is backed up every 60 minutes automatically. To manually back up the DHCP database at any time, follow these steps:
1. In the DHCP console, right-click the server you want to back up, and then click Backup.
2. In the Browse For Folder dialog box, select the folder that will contain the backup DHCP database, and then click OK.

Registry keys that control the location and timing of DHCP backups, as well as other DHCP settings, are located under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesDHCPServerParameters.

The following keys control the DHCP database and backup configuration:

  • BackupDatabasePath Sets the location of the DHCP database. You should set this option through the DHCP Properties dialog box. Click the Advanced tab, and then set the Database Path field as appropriate.
  • DatabaseName Sets the name of the primary DHCP database file. The default value is DHCP.mdb.
  • BackupInterval Determines how often the DHCP client information database is backed up. The default is 60 minutes.
  • DatabaseCleanupInterval Determines how often the DHCP service deletes expired records from the DHCP client information database. The default is four hours.

Restoring the DHCP Database from Backup
In the case of a server crash and recovery, you might need to restore and then reconcile the DHCP database. To force DHCP to restore the database from backup, follow these steps:
1. If necessary, restore a good copy of the %SystemRoot%System32DHCPBackup directory from the archive. Afterward, start the DHCP console, right-click the server you want to restore, and then click Restore.
2. In the Browse For Folder dialog box, select the folder that contains the backup you want to restore, and then click OK.
3. During restoration of the database, the DHCP Server service is stopped. As a result, DHCP clients are temporarily unable to contact the DHCP server to obtain IP addresses.

Back Up and Restore the System State

On Windows Server 2008 R2, there are approximately 50,000 system state files, which use approximately 4 GB of disk space in the default installation of an x64-based computer. The fastest and easiest way to back up and restore a server’s system state is to use Wbadmin. With Wbadmin, you can use the START SYSTEMSTATEBACKUP command to create a backup of the system state for a computer and the START SYSTEMSTATERECOVERY command to restore a computer’s system state. (Note that when you select a system state restore on a domain controller, you have to be in the Directory Services Restore mode.) To back up a server’s system state, type the following at an elevated command prompt:
wbadmin start systemstatebackup -backupTarget:VolumeName
Here VolumeName is the storage location for the backup, such as F:.

To restore a server’s system state, type the following at an elevated command prompt:
wbadmin start systemstaterecovery -backupTarget:VolumeName
Here VolumeName is the storage location that contains the backup you want to recover, such as F:.

Additionally, you can do the following:

  • Use the –recoveryTarget parameter to restore to an alternate location.
  • Use the –machine parameter to specify the name of the computer to recover if the original backup location contains backups for multiple computers.
  • Use the –authSysvol parameter to perform an authoritative restore of the SYSVOL.

You can also recover the system state by using a backup that includes the system state or by performing a recovery.

From the Microsoft Press book Windows Server 2008 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant, Second Edition by William R. Stanek.

How To Backup and Restore Group Policy

By now you have probably Created a Central Store for Group Policy Administrative Templates and imported the Terminal Server & XenApp Tuning Group Policy, but what about backup? Did you know that Microsoft have created Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) scripting samples that makes it extremely fast and easy to backup Group Policy Objects (GPO). With these sample scripts you can backup all or single GPO’s, grant permissions, import, restore, list and more. Check out the script examples here.

Download and install the GPMC Scripting Samples and create a weekly scheduled task.

Command line example :

cscript "C:Program FilesMicrosoft Group PolicyGPMC Sample ScriptsBackupAllGPOs.wsf"
"%XA%Group PolicyBackups" /Comment:"GPO Weekly Backup on %DATE%_%TIME%"
/Domain:ctxlab.local

If something should happen to your GPO it’s very easy to restore it, with a script or simply by selecting “Restore from Backup” within GPMC shown in the picture above.

ePO 4.5 backup and restore procedure

If you ever are in the situation that your ePO 4.5 server crashed and you need to reinstall it check it this procedure for getting it started and running again:

http://www.jackcobben.nl/?page_id=233 

NOTE: If you don’t follow these steps then you arein trouble. Make sure you have the same server name and same database instance name (EPOSERVER). Otherwise you can reinstall SQL again to get it working !!!!!