How to backup and restore your Windows Server Essentials 2016 By Mariette Knap backup and restore, disaster recovery, system state restore, dsrm In this tutorial, we learn how to backup and restore our Windows Server 2016 Essentials Server. When you add USB backup drives I suggest you make sure they are at 2.5 the size of the data you want to include. That way you are assured that if the amount of data growth on your server it will always be included in the backup routine. It is considered best practice to have at least 3 backup drives and you rotate those every day. One is connected to the server, one you carry with you to change daily and one is stored in a safe offline remote location. I am always surprised if I ask SMB owners about their backup routine. Most of them tell me that they have not changed backup drives for some time and if I ask if they ever tested a restore it remains silent. 1. How to configure your backup drives in Windows Server Essentials 2016 From the Windows Server Essentials Dashboard choose ‘Set up Backup for the server’. Next Make sure you check ‘Show all drives that can be used as backup drives’ and choose the drive you want to use. You are warned that anything on the drive will be deleted. Give it a name and put a sticker on the USB drive so you know which drive is which. The default schedule runs twice per day. That is good enoigh for me, click next I choose the defaults and click next Click ‘Apply settings’. Close Click ‘View the server properties’. I ran already a backup on this server so there is one entry in the log. But if you want to know more about your backup routine and the amount of (free) space on your backup destinations read on. From the Start Menu choose Server Manager Choose ‘Windows Server Backup’. In the list, you see my previous backup listed and also the amount of free space on my backup drive. Click ‘Configure Performance Settings’. You will see that it is set to ‘Faster backup performance’. This means that the first time the backup is run it will perform a FULL backup but subsequent runs will be incremental. Click Cancel. But there is another way of getting information on the status of your backups and free space. This is really the ‘Essentials’ way and that is the path you should follow. Click on ‘Generate Health Report’. There is our Health Report. Open it. Scroll down and see what you get! A nice status update on Used Percentage, Free space, and capacity. 2. How to restore files and folders To be honest, this could not be easier. From the Essentials dashboard you can restore Files and Folders and follow the wizard. Click Restore files and folders. Click Next If your backup is on this server (means USB connected) click Next For explanation purposes I choose ‘Restore from a backup that I select (advanced) but if you only want to restore your latest backup choose ‘Restore from the most recent backup (recommended). Choose the date and time, click Next Click Files and Folders Choose the files and/or folders you want to restore. You can choose to restore to the original location and create copies of the existing files and folders. If you want to test a restore I would choose ‘Another location’ and do a compare of the restored folders/files with the original versions. Click restore now. Click Close 3. How to recover from a disaster In this example, we restore the whole server from a backup and we boot from USB stick. If you don’t know how to create a bootable USB stick I suggest you read Create a bootable USB pen drive for your Windows 2012 R2 installation. You can also start a disaster restore without USB pen drive if your server is still able to boot. Have a look at the method I choose to reboot the server in the next chapter ‘How to restore system state’. Once the server is started from the USB drive choose next. Choose ‘Repair your computer’. Choose Troubleshoot Choose System Image Recovery If there is still a drive with a readable Operating System the wizard will detect that and give you a choice but if this is a new drive this will not be shown. Choose the image you want to restore. You can choose to format and repartition the disks in your server. I would do that just to make sure everything is deleted before restoring. You must choose this when restoring to a new drive or array in the case your server was lost due to a fire or theft. Click Next Click Finish Click Yes. Work in progress Click Restart now 4. How to restore system state Restoring system state from a backup made with the backup routine set on the essentials dashboard does not work and renders your active directory useless. if you need to restore system state without a bare metal restore you must make a separate backup to separate media with windows backup. How to make a system state backup Restoring System State on a domain controller can only be done in Directory Restore mode. If you try to start a System State from within Windows Server Backup while the server is started with all Directory Services started it will tell you that it failed. A System State may be needed if your server has some corruption in System Registry, COM + Database, Certificate Services, Active Directory, SysVol or the IIS Metabase. System State restore does not restore any user files. From Windows Settings choose Update & Security. On the left choose Recovery Click Restart now Choose a reason and click Continue. Click Troubleshoot Click Startup Settings Microsoft seems to not list Directory Services Repair Mode in this list but later we will see this in the list we can choose from, click Restart. One the server has been restarted choose Directory Service Repair Mode. This can take some time…be patient. Your domain administrator account cannot be used because Directory Services are not started. We will need to use the local administrator for this procedure. Logon with your local administrator account. That is the account you used to initially installed the server or if you have migrated from an older OS you were asked to set a password as soon as you ADDS on the new server. In another tutorial I will explain how we can sync the Domain Admin (the one you use to normally logon to the server) with the account that owns the DSRM password. Choose Administrative Tools Choose Windows Server Backup Choose Recover Choose This server and click Next Choose the date and time, click Next Choose System State and click Next Choose Original location and click Next Check ‘Automatically Reboot and click Recover. Read the warning and click Yes. System State restore is running. Once this is done and the server has rebooted I would DCdiag to check the health of your Active Directory
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