Active Directory Backup and Recovery Step-by-Step

  You can also restore Active Directory information on a domain controller by restoring the System State data from backup media. This restores Active Directory as well as the other System State components on which Active Directory depends. There are two general methods for restoring Active Directory from backup media. those are,
1. nonauthoritative .
2. authoritative.
Nonauthoritative restore means that when a domain controller is restored from backup media, the restored data is updated through normal replication. Each restored directory partition is updated with that of its replication partners.
Authoritative restore means that after Active Directory is restored nonauthoritatively from a backup medium that the entire directory, a subtree, or individual objects can be designated to take precedence over any other instances of those objects on replicated domain controllers. So, through normal replication, the restored domain controller becomes authoritative in relation to its replication partners. Even if the authoritatively restored replica set is older than the current replicas, the older data is replicated to all of its replication partners. Authoritative restore is typically used to restore a system to a previously known state,
 
Here I'm going to use Nonauthoritatively Restoring Active Directory technique. for that we can use Windows Server backup tool.
Fist you can follow below mentioned steps to enable windows backup feature.
Go to Roles and services



Select windows Server backup Feature 
 



Once you done with the installation you can open Windows Server backup Tool.

Then you can configure new backup  job. here I'm going to select “Backup Once” option. 

It’s good to have full server backup with us. because of that I'm selecting Full Server. 

I’m going to keep the backup in a remote location and i have already shared a folder for that. Here I’m giving the path of the Share folder. 
You can give permission for this backup file. 



 
To restore, You can select the backup job and from the action pane select Recover




Here you can elect the file and the folders that you want to recover.

You can select the recovery location as Original location or else you can say that Recovered that toy another location.

Once you click recover file will be recovered to the location that you have selected before.

SCCM2012 Client Installation Error

When you try to install SCCM client, If you install the SCCM for first time and you have not configured your Boundary groups then you will get the below mentioned error
Error: Some of the selected resources are not assigned to any site

To resolve this Go in to Admiration > Boundary Groups > Then select Create new Boundary Group

Give a Name for the new boundary group and add the boundaries in the second window.

Go to References and Select
1. Use the boundary group for the site assignment
2. Assign the site from the drop down box
3. Add the Site system Server

Click ok to continue.  Once you finished with that you can go to devices and try to Install Client

 

SCCM2012 Installation Error

 
When you try to configure SCCM 2012 with SQL 2012 sometime you will get the below mentioned error message.
“The logon account for the SQL Server service cannot be a local user account, NT SERVICE\<sql service name> or LOCAL SERVICE. You must configure the SQL Server service to use a valid domain account, NETWORK SERVICE, or LOCAL SYSTEM.”

To troubleshoot this you can follow the below mentioned steps.
Go in to SQL 2012 Server, click Start > SQL Server Configuration Manager

Then Click SQL Server Services > in the right window pane, right-click SQL Server <instance name>, click Properties

Click the Log On tab, click “This account”, click browse then select the AD account which you have created before with the Password.

Once you done with that, Re-run the Prerequisite Check for SCCM 2012 and validate that you do not see the prerequisite for SQL Server service as a warning or failure.

[Solved] please wait for the windows module installer

After installing the windows updates, the server giving an error saying that "Please wait for the Windows Modules Installer" and automatically restarting the server. Try to logging as Safe mood. Then tried all other options that windows is giving under log on window. but same screen came and cannot logging to the server.
This PC is a virtual one and when I try to attach a ISO file and boot from that unfortunately that was also not worked.



Found that when this PC is boot up, I can ping and access the drivers attached to that server. Means I have 50% chance to remotely change the settings in this PC.



Then I log in to another server by using admin credentials and go in to services. under that you have a feature to remotely access other computer services. Please follow the below mentioned steps to try that.

Go to Services then  right click and select connect to another Computer.



Find the computer name from the active directory computer group. If the PC is not under a domain you can try this by using the IP address.




Then when you go down you can see that "Windows Modules Installer" Service is  up and running.

 

Disable the "Windows Modules Installer" Service and reboot your server. Once this service disabled server will automatically back to the logging screen.
 
 

Hope this will help you to reduce the time wasting for finding solution for  "please wait for the windows module installer " issue.   :)

How to Install the FSRM (File Server Resource Manager) in Windows Server 2012

 

File Server Resource Manager is a suite of tools that allows administrators to understand, control, and manage the quantity and type of data stored on their servers. By using File Server Resource Manager, administrators can place quotas on folders and volumes, actively screen files, and generate comprehensive storage reports. This set of advanced instruments not only helps the administrator to efficiently monitor existing storage resources but it also aids in the planning and implementation of future policy changes.

To do this, I have created a Virtual PC with Windows 2012 Server and Promoted the server as a Domain controller. then enable the file Serve.

To enable FSRM you can follow the below mentioned steps.

Go in to Manage > Add Roles and Features

Click Next.

Next window you can select Role-based or Feature-based installation

Need to Select the destination Server from next window.

Then Select the File Server Resource Manager under File And Storage Service > File and iSCSI Services

Here you need to click Add Feature.

In next window you can click next because we don’t want to add any additional feature.

Click Install after check the confirmation window.

Restart the Server and once the Server boot up, you can find the FSRM Service under Tools.

Server Manager > Tools > File Server Resource Manager

Hope this will help you to configure your FSRM service in Windows 2012 server and I’ll try to cover How to assign Folder Quotas , File Screening, Storage Reports, Event Log Integration, Automated Scripts and E-mail Notification configuration on FSRM.

How to disable Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address in Windows 2012 Server

 

This issue I saw in Windows 2012 Sever and got to  know that this can be seen in Windows 2008 and Windows 7 PC’ also. hope below steps will help you to resolve the IP Address conflicting issue in your virtual environment.

When you enter Ipconfig /all command you will see something like this.

C:\Windows\system32>ipconfig /all

First you need to check the ip version 4 interfaces and the interface ID numbers. for that you can type,

C:\Windows\system32>netsh interface ipv4 show inter

Now you know your Ethernet interface ID is no 12. Then you can run below mentioned command.

C:\Windows\system32>netsh interface ipv4 set interface 12 dadtransmits=0 store=persistent

After that you need to  restart your Server and once it boot up, check the network settings.

C:\Windows\system32>ipconfig /all

Now Your server will work with the network settings which you have entered.

After restarting your server still if you are getting the Same error. you can do a DHCP service restart by going in to Services (Type Services.msc  in CMD) then restart the DHCP Service.

Hope this helps you..