The following best practices help you use the Active Directory Recovery Agent effectively:

• Review information on finding and viewing specific data to restore before you start a restore job. You should also review details on restore options and restore jobs.

  See the Backup Exec 2010 Administrator's Guide.

• Back up Active Directory (System State) and Active Directory Application Manager/Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (ADAM/AD LDS) data to a backup-to-disk folder. After you back up the data to the folder, you can migrate the backup data to tape at your convenience.

  This strategy provides you with the following benefits:

  • It lets you administer Active Directory or ADAM/AD LDS without the need to individually catalog the object items and property items that are contained in the backup sets.

  • It saves you time. Backing up to a backup-to-disk folder is faster than backing up to tape.

• Select the Granular Recovery Technology (GRT) Active Directory backup job option for System State backup jobs on writable domain controllers. When you have GRT backups of a writable domain controller, you can restore individual Active Directory items when necessary.

  Note:

  For information on best practices for Backup Exec Granular Recovery Technology (GRT), refer to the Granular Recovery Technology Best Practices.

• Run System State backup jobs on read-only domain controllers. System State backups are required to restore the read-only domain controller when a disaster recovery is required.

The following best practice helps you use the Active Directory Recovery Agent effectively with Windows Server 2008 or later:

• Select the Backup Exec Active Directory backup option called "Perform VSS snapshot consistency check before backup". When you run a VSS snapshot consistency check, you ensure that the Active Directory snapshot that Backup Exec creates for the backup is valid.