I'm in the process of testing our disaster recovery plan to simulate bare metal recovery of an Windows Server 2012 Active Directory Domain Controller. We have several DCs in our domain and the one we're recovering holds the Operations Master role.
The BMR is being done on a spare server with identical hardware, RAID configs and RAID VD sizes. The restore completes without error and the server boots successfully. Since the original DC is still in service, our restored "clone" server is not connected to our local network. Regardless, we can login to the clone server without any problems.
Once logged in, the Server Manager Dashboard shows that 7 services aren't running:
wins | status:stopped | start type:automatic
user access logging service | status:stopped | start type:automatic (delayed start)
distributed transaction coordinator | status:stopped | start type:automatic (delayed start)
diagnostic policy service | status:stopped | start type:automatic (delayed start)
network policy server | status:stopped | start type:automatic (delayed start)
intersite messaging | status:stopped | start type:automatic (delayed start)
windows event collector | status:stopped | start type:automatic (delayed start)
When we try to access the "Active Directory Users and Computers" console snap-in, we're presented with the following message box:
1 2 3 4 5 | Active Directory Domain Services---------------------------------
Naming information cannot be located for the following reason:The server is not operational.
If you are trying to connect to a Domain Controller running Windows 2000, verify that Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 or later is installed on the DC, or use the Windows Server 2000 administration tools. For more information about connecting to DCs running Windows 2000, see Help and Support
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Not a particularly helpful message. Dismissing the message box displays the snap-in but the domain isn't listed in the left pane and there's a single node titled "Active Directory Users and Computers" with the dreaded red X icon.
Selecting "Action>Change domain" from the menu bar allows me to browse to and select my domain but after selecting the domain and after dismissing the "Change Domain" dialog, I receive the following error:
1 2 3 4 5 | Active Directory Domain Services
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The domain corp.mydomainname.local could not be found because:
The server is not operational.
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There are also errors in the event log, many of which have to do with the lack of network connectivity. I obviously can't connect the restored server to our network without unplugging our live DC since the restored server is its' clone.
Other info that might be relevant:
- We still have a Windows 2003 R2 DC so our Domain Functionality Level is Windows Server 2003
- This DC also has the Network Policy Server and Certification Roles enabled
- We're using BackupAssist Windows Server Backup software (backupassist.com) to create/restore BMR backups.
So here we are: Are the AD errors serious, fatal, or normal because I'm presently detached from the domain and can't see the other DCs? I'm quite confused as to how to proceed. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks -- Steve