If you are authoritatively restoring only a portion of the directory, not the entire directory, it is not necessary to perform this step. However, if the subtree or object that was authoritatively restored contained elements from the SYSVOL, such as a Group Policy object, you should also restore that portion of the SYSVOL authoritatively.
Requirements
- Credentials: local Administrator or Domain Admins
- Tool: N/A
To restore applicable portion of SYSVOL from alternate location if necessary
1. If still in Directory Services Restore Mode, restart in normal mode.
2. After the system restarts and after the SYSVOL share is published (it can take a few minutes before the SYSVOL share and its sub-folders appear on the domain controller), copy the required files and folders from the SYSVOL directory that was copied to the alternate location to the original location. By doing this, the files that were overwritten are replicated to the other domain controllers, so that the SYSVOL is the same as that which was present at the time of backup.
Example: restoring applicable portion of SYSVOL from alternate location
The following example shows how to copy SYSVOL from the alternate location to the original location. Depending on your system, your drive and folder information can vary.
1. Copy the contents of the scripts directory from:
c:\\sysvol\c_\winnt\Sysvol\Domain\scripts\
2. Add the contents to:
c:\Winnt\SYSVOL\Sysvol\domain\scripts\
3. Copy the contents of the policies directory from:
c:\\sysvol\c_\winnt\Sysvol\Domain\policies\
4. Add the contents to:
c:\Winnt\SYSVOL\Sysvol\domain\policies\
By restoring the SYSVOL authoritatively, the files on the restored domain controller are authoritative for the domain and replicate to other domain controllers. Changes made to any policy after the backup will be lost.
For example, a Group Policy object by the name of Finance Policy existed at the time of the last backup, and was referenced by a folder in the SYSVOL directory as:
C:\WINNT\SYSVOL\Sysvol\Domain.com\Policies\{31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9}
However, shortly after the last backup, an administrator edited the Finance Policy, and although the properties of the GPO changed, the globally unique identifier (GUID) of the GPO remained the same. As a result, the GPO is still referenced by the same directory name {31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9}.
When the directory is authoritatively restored, the folder {31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9} from the alternate SYSVOL location is copied to the original SYSVOL location. This replaces the old folder and thus the changes the administrator had made after the backup are lost. This step is necessary, however, to maintain the synchronization between Active Directory and SYSVOL.
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