Jon, I'm sure there are a number of pros and cons and I'll let others chime in ... one advantage of having a backup of the Active Directory on a given DC is time to recovery. While you can bring an active directory back by simply installing it and letting it synchronize to "catch-up" to the rest of the organization, this synchronization can take quite a long time depending on the size of the directory. In this case, a backup product can give you a point-in-time copy of the active directory such that the synchronization process only has to "catch-up" from a time in the recent past. The time to restore from a tape can be much quicker then doing a synchronization from ground-zero.
- Jim J.P. (Jim) Smith TSM Client Development Here's an interesting question: why would you want to backup a DC, especially where you have a DC (W2K) or two in every remote site of the WAN? Why/what would you ever restore that you wouldn't get from the other domain controllers if one or even a few are down? I ask this because my theory is "when in doubt, backup it up". At a couple hundred dollars a license it seems a reasonable assurance policy (depending on the budget, of course). Another theory applies here as well, "backup everything, exclude only as needed, even if that client options set gets pretty big". ____________________________________________ Jon R. Adams IT IPS BST Infrastructure Premera Blue Cross Mountlake Terrace, WA 425-670-5770 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
