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Known Issues for AD DS Backup and Recovery

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

The following known issues exist for Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) Backup and Recovery in Windows Server 2008:

  • Administrator credentials are required for scheduling backups. Backup Operator cannot schedule backups by default, and the privilege cannot be delegated.

  • Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE), which is required for volume recovery, does not support Terminal Services.

  • A system state backup and recovery includes Active Directory–integrated Domain Name System (DNS) zones but does not include file-based DNS zones. To back up and restore file-based DNS zones, you have to back up and recover the entire volume that hosts the files.

Note

Windows RE is available on the Windows Server 2008 operating system product disc.

  • The target volume for a system state backup cannot be a critical volume by default. A critical volume is any volume that has a file that is included in the system state backup. To change that behavior, you can add the AllowSSBToAnyVolume registry entry to the server. You must also verify that the following prerequisites are met before you perform a system state backup to a critical volume:

    • The volume used to store the system state backup needs twice the amount of free space as the size of the system state backup, until the backup completes.

    • Make sure that the target volume has no shadow copy before the backup starts.

    • If a system state backup is stored on a source volume, backup settings should be configured for full backups. By default, these settings are configured for full backups.

    • Periodically check that no other user or program maintains a shadow copy on the target volume.

    • Do not keep volume-level backups and system state backups in the same location.

    To add the AllowSSBToAnyVolume value to the registry:

    1. Open Registry Editor. To open Registry Editor, click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.

    2. Browse to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\wbengine.

    3. Right-click the wbengine key, click New, click Key, and then type SystemStateBackup.

    4. Click SystemStateBackup. Click Edit, click New, click DWORD (32-bit) value, type AllowSSBToAnyVolume and press ENTER.

    5. Double-click AllowSSBToAnyVolume and type 1 as the value and then click OK.

    A value of 0 prevents the storing of system state backup on a source volume. A value of 1 allows the storing of system state backup on a source volume.