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I've a DC (no secondary in thie environment) with the raid controller failed. I've retored it temporary on a VM using the backup (ShadowProtect).

On the system partition I have 2 SQL Express DBs used by software installed only on clients. On a separate partition I have the users data.

Using the VM only DBs and users data are changed (no AD or software modifications).

To restore the original server I was thinking to do these steps:

  • Replace the controller
  • Boot the server
  • Import the DBs from VM
  • Synchronize the users data

I want to avoid to perform another recvoery from virtual to physical. Any suggestions on possible problems?

Thank you.

Jeronimo
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1 Answers1

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You could fix your physical machine, boot it from CD and reinstall Windows. Install AD & add it to your existing domain/forest as a second DC.

That'll keep AD sorted out, and take the pressure off while you're working on migrating the rest of the data back - treat the other data as any server migration. SQL files can be taken offline and moved using robocopy and re-attached on other servers fairly easily - not sure about SQL config in terms of roles, users and access rights. User data (unstructured file data?) should be fairly easy with robocopy or similar.

Once done, decommission your virtual DC (dcpromo back to a standard member server) and get rid of it.

I would suggest having a second DC though - virtual or otherwise. It's just good practise.

Snellgrove
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  • Why I need to reinstall Windows? The server is turned off but is still working. If I replace the raid controller with an identical one I need only to import di raid configuration and I have the system up and running again. Why I can't use it as it was few days ago and update only DBs and users (unstructured) data? – Jeronimo Sep 04 '15 at 11:26
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    Because bringing up another, older "copy" of the DC is bad. If you are going to do that bring it up offline, demote it to a standalone server and then add it to the network (assuming the VM DC is still good). and always have a 2nd DC :D – TheFiddlerWins Sep 04 '15 at 14:06
  • Indeed. Your restored-to-VM DC is still going forwards in time, accepting password changes (of both users *and* machines). You dont really want to go backwards in time, especially as it's so easy just to reinstall and create a new DC on the original hardware. – Snellgrove Sep 16 '15 at 09:27