Orin, Another DC would be the way to go if you can arrange good physical security for your DC, figure out the secure network connectivity, and a good way to remotely manage the DC. Then you really have a hot site instead of a DR site.
The key on DR for Active Directory is to test your DR method. You "can" restore AD from tape from the ground up although this should be your absolutely last resort. You will have better luck restoring AD onto exact hardware but you can do it on dissimilar hardware if you can get past the HAL and device driver issues. Dissimilar hardware restores are an issue for us since our servers are mostly Dell and the DR servers are Compaq. Some good KB articles on this subject (Some have been mentioned before in this thread): 1. How to Perform a Disaster Recovery Restoration of Active Directory on Dissimilar Hardware --> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263532 2. Active Directory Disaster Recovery - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/ad/windows2000/support/adrecov. asp 3. Best Practice Recommendation for Recovery you Active Directory Forest - http://download.microsoft.com/download/win2000srv/utility/1.001/nt5/en-us/fo restrecovery.exe Dissimilar hardware issues: 4. Network Adapters are missing or incorrect in Device Manager after you run NTBackup to restore system state data - http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=810161 (This problem fixed in 2000-SP4) 5. I was able to resolve a restore of a VM ESX Server DC to a Compaq DL380 by following the steps on in-place upgrade mentioned in KB 263532. That process fixed the HAL and the various device driver issues I encountered. An in-place upgrade retains AD and security while re-enumerating the HAL and devices. 6. If you have trouble with your third-party vendor backup product for restores onto dissimilar hardware, try using NTBackup. I have found that for whatever reason, NTBackup will work while some other products don't. -Stuart P.S. Of course some of the issues with dissimilar hardware restores and bare metal restores are much better handled in Window Server 2003 with Automated System Recovery (ASR). Make me temped to move to 2K3 much sooner than planned... -----Original Message----- From: Orin Rehorst [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, November 07, 2003 9:43 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Bare metal restore on other hardware? Our hot site contract includes use of equipment only for test and actual disasters...no permanent usage. I wanted to put an additional domain controller at our remote operational facility that we will be supporting should the data center here go down. Doesn't that sound like the way to go? Regards, Orin Orin Rehorst Port of Houston Authority (Largest U.S. port in foreign tonnage) e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (713)670-2443 Fax: (713)670-2457 TOPAS web site: <www.homestead.com/topas/topas.html> -----Original Message----- From: marcus [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, November 07, 2003 10:34 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Bare metal restore on other hardware? Is having a domain controller at that site out of the question? -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Chris Flesher Sent: Friday, November 07, 2003 11:25 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Bare metal restore on other hardware? We managed to do a restore of AD to other Hardware. However, what we did is re-install the OS, put the backup client on there, and do a restore. Tivoli's TSM product worked pretty well in this regard. > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:ActiveDir- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Orin Rehorst > Sent: Friday, November 07, 2003 10:15 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [ActiveDir] Bare metal restore on other hardware? > > I'm charged with planning for disaster recovery. The goal is to > restore active directory to new hardware at a hot site. > > Can you do a bare metal active directory restore on other hardware? > > TIA > > Regards, > Orin > Orin Rehorst > Port of Houston Authority > (Largest U.S. port in foreign tonnage) > e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Phone: (713)670-2443 > Fax: (713)670-2457 > TOPAS web site: <www.homestead.com/topas/topas.html> > > > List info : http://www.activedir.org/mail_list.htm > List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/list_faq.htm > List archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/mail_list.htm List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/list_faq.htm List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/mail_list.htm List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/list_faq.htm List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/mail_list.htm List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/list_faq.htm List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/mail_list.htm List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/list_faq.htm List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/
