[ADUG]

 I'm just working through our 2k3 forest recovery document using our 2008 infrastructure and I've come across something - after carrying out the full server recovery restore of AD on the 1st root domain and 1st child domain DC, I've noticed that sysvol gets wiped away after the 1st reboot after the restore.

In 2k3, we used the burflags d4 to set sysvol as authoritative but I know wbadmin has a switch to make sysvol authoritative in 2008 - I'm wondering if I need to do the equivalent in 2008 (setting burflags to d4 doesn't appear to work in 2008).

I can't see a way of doing this through the restore GUI, nor via ntdsutil (not without restoring system state again and marking sysvol as authoritative).  Anyone got any ideas?

Cheers

Jon

 A bit more information - after the DC comes up after the full system restore, it moves the contents of sysvol to the PRE_Existing folder and is waiting to replicate with a partner DC to reinitialise sysvol.

I'm struggling to find any information about this in the ether - anyone got any ideas?

Jon,

Is this still an issue for you?

D2/D4 are for FRS in Windows Server 2000/2003

Windows Server 2008 uses DFS-R in a new domain and has different management toolset.

Hi Mark

Microsoft have advised on the course of action to take so I'm in the process of testing that out as I write this.  Will report back when I know one way or t'other.

Jon

BTW, we're still using FRS as we haven't converted all our DCs to 2008 yet.

A belated update but an update all the same.

I've come back to this problem again after trying out Microsoft's suggestions.

They initially pointed me at http://support.microsoft.com/?id=947022 but this only applies to netlogon not being shared, not both netlogon and sysvol.

I've run through the DR process from start to finish but at the end, I'm still left with netlogon and sysvol not being shared, unless I follow the instructions in the KB article (which feels like a bodge to me).

I still haven't got an answer on how I make the restored dit authoritative - anyone got any ideas?

Jon

 Ok, I think I have nailed it - d4 burflags still applies but the added step is to move the contents of the NTFR_pre-existing folder into the usual locations prior to rebooting the server.  Without this, the restore will never initiate sysvol replication even though the AD replication engine will get sorted out during the rest of the Forest recovery process.

I found this answer on a forum post and I think there's a KB to go with it - will look it up and post back.

I've tested this out and it works so I'm pretty confident.

Jon