Server Management and Monitoring - MCTS Guide to Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Configuration - page 524

To perform most tasks with the Wbadmin program, you must be a member of the Backup
Operators or Administrators group. You must also open a command prompt window with ele-
vated privileges (by right-clicking the command prompt and clicking Run as administrator) if
you aren't logged on with the Administrator account.

You can download Ntbackup, available in previous Windows versions, and
use it to restore backups created with Ntbackup to a Windows Server
2008 system. However, you can't use it to create backups on a Windows
Server 2008 server.

Perform a System Recovery If you must perform a full recovery of your OS because of a
disk crash or similar failure, you need the Windows Server 2008 installation disk or access to
Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) . You can install WinRE on your server's hard drive and
access it by pressing F8 when the boot process starts. You can also access WinRE by booting to the
Windows Server 2008 installation DVD and selecting the Repair Your Computer option. Installing
WinRE on your hard drive is recommended because the installation DVD might not always be avail-
able. You can restore a complete backup from a local or removable disk or a network location.

Active Directory Backup and Restoration
Active Directory is backed up when you perform a full backup of a domain controller or when
you back up the volumes containing system recovery information. The Active Directory database
is also backed up when you perform a system state backup with Wbadmin.
An Active Directory restoration can be nonauthoritative or authoritative. A nonauthorita-
tive restore restores the Active Directory database, or portions of it, and allows it to be updated
through replication by other domain controllers. An authoritative restore ensures that restored
objects aren't overwritten by changes from other domain controllers through replication.
A nonauthoritative restore of Active Directory is usually done when the Active Directory data-
base is corrupt or when you're doing a full server recovery. For a nonauthoritative restore, you
must restart the domain controller in Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM). To do so, press F8
when the server begins to boot to access the Advanced Boot Options menu (see Figure 13-8). After

Figure 13-8 The Advanced Boot Options menu