Windows Server® 2012 Unleashed

Backing Up Active Directory

Active Directory domain controllers contain a copy of the database that stores all Active Directory-related information. This is stored by default on the C: drive, but to back it up properly administrators need to back up the domain controller’s system state. Also critical to an Active Directory backup is the backup of the SYSVOL folder, which contains all of the Group Policy-related files and folders. To properly back up a domain controller, a full backup should be scheduled to run nightly or multiple times per day. In addition to scheduled backups, text file exports and securing the most important objects can assist with reliability and recovery efforts. If full backups cannot be performed daily, performing system-state ...