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Currently I have the following types of servers all with single roles per server:


AD (DNS, AD, Sysvol, Com+, Certificate stores, Registry)
IIS (Metabase)
Exchange
FileServer
MSSQL
FileServer
TerminalServer
HyperV Host

What are the drawbacks of not backing up system state on each of these roles for disaster recovery? Are the risks negligible on any roles?

Scripts4Life
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    If you're backing up these servers for the purpose of disaster recovery (assuming you want to perform a full server restore and not just restore the data to a new server) why would you exclude the system state? Why would you consider whether or not you should or could exclude the system state? Stop nitpicking. Back up the system state. – joeqwerty Feb 10 '15 at 15:59
  • I was assuming that the OP was pricing a third party backup solution and was wanting to reduce the price. If so, perhaps s/he should go for something like Windows Server Backup (free!) on the servers that aren't using the third party solution. – Katherine Villyard Feb 10 '15 at 16:03
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    @Scripts4Life: If I wanted to ensure my best chance of performing a full server recovery (which is what disaster recovery is about) then I'm not going to exclude anything. Data recovery and disaster recovery are two very different things. If we're talking about disaster recovery then I want to back up everything that's required to perform a full recovery of the server in question, not just the data on that server, which means backing up the System State. – joeqwerty Feb 10 '15 at 16:15
  • Are there any technet articles you are aware of that go over what is included for each Microsoft server role by system state backups? My backup strategy includes imaging the OS drive over the internet for approximately 100 servers on a weekly basis in addition to files, MSSQL, MySQL, ExchangeIS, Exchange brick level, HyperV vms using child partition snapshot. We use system state to provide a closer point in time which is crucial for AD. I am working on documenting other changes since the last image system state would be helpful for or when it is necessary in case of these other MS roles. – Scripts4Life Feb 11 '15 at 06:20

1 Answers1

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The only supported backup for AD is system state (or third party equivalent). You can't just slap a new copy of ntds.dit into the old location and reboot. Well, you can, but that's not a supported restore method. ;)

For Exchange, your backup software needs to be Exchange-aware in order to be supported. Also, Exchange 2007 and higher stores a lot of information in Active Directory (see above).

HyperV wants a VSS level backup.

As for file servers, terminal servers, and MSSQL, SQL Server has its own internal backup that you should be running (and backing up the files it creates), and you might lose the printers or something like that if you don't do a system state on the terminal servers and file servers, but that's about it. You might decide that you don't need a system state on those (although I'm not going to come out and say that because I don't know exactly what you have on those servers).

However, it might be easier to restore with a system state backup. I personally back up all my local servers with something that'll let me do a bare metal restore.

Katherine Villyard
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  • To expand on my question I am wanting to document what other server roles such as exchange it makes sense to restore the system state to bring items even more current. For example with exchange...if I create a mailbox on 25th and lose the server on the 27th. I restore to an image backup on the 24th. Essentially I shouldn't need to restore system state for the exchange role server as all data for the mailbox should be in AD. I haven't tested that exact scenario yet. – Scripts4Life Feb 11 '15 at 06:23