WIGITAL recently had a RAID 1 array in an Essential Business Server fail. This array was the System Volume on the Management Server. Parity could not be restored… system down! Numerous sectors on both mirrored disks ultimately verified to have called it quits. This server was out to pasture and this time, no happy cows. Mooo!

So… how to restore Essential Business Server from the Installation Wizards ??? In considering EBS restoration, think data first. In the Management Server, there’s plenty of it. The data to be restored in EBS includes the following:

MANAGEMENT SERVER

• Active Directory Domain Services logs
• Active Directory Domain Services database (NTDS.dit)
• Active Directory Domain Services SYSVOL file
• Microsoft SQL Server® database for System Center Essentials
• SQL Server database for Windows Server Update Services
• SQL Server database for Administration Console

For reference, the messaging and security servers include…

MESSAGING SERVER

• Microsoft Exchange Server database

SECURITY SERVER

• SQL Server database for Forefront TMG

NOTE: Reinstalling the Management Server into Essential Business Server is about a 4-5 hour affair if things go well. Assuring the health of the second Domain Controller ( the Messaging Server ) is an advisable first step.

Replace a Server in Windows Essential Business Server

For walkthroughs on restoring EBS, the best article in my opinion is on TechNet  ( currently as of 2010-01-06 ) . It walks through every step needed to start restoration of  the servers .

TECHNET – Replace a Server in Windows Essential Business Server

Please follow the steps carefully and pay attention to the details. Not every aspect of restoring an EBS management server is covered but the article gets the ball rolling. Additional guidance may be necessary as you go deeper into the EBS Installation Wizards themselves during re-install. In this particular case, the wizards worked very well with one exception… The Wizard Restore for the Management Server will eventually go looking for an authoritative time source in the domain, and because we’re restoring the Management Server, it will not find one. We discuss this through the rest of this post as a help to other pros working on this platform.

EBS Links to be aware of  relating to restoration:

Change Installation Settings for Server Replacement

How to repair Windows Essential Business Server components using MMS.msi

Windows Essential Business Server Backup and Restore

How to Reinstall Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server in Essential Business Server

Update Rollup 1 for EBS 2008 and Updated Preparation and Planning Wizards are Released

EBS 2008 Management Restoration – the PDC Emulator Operations Master and Authoritative Time Source

The Essential Business Server Installation Wizard is designed to look for a Domain Controller holding the PDC Emulator Operations Master role and then look to it as the authoritative time source in the EBS domain. Unfortunately during our “RESTORATION” , the PDC Operations Master is literally the server we are restoring. Therefore… the wizards insistence on locating an authoritative time source cannot be met (yet).

The PDC Operations Master ( in Windows 2008 ) emulates the functions of a Primary Domain Controller PDC  for pre-Windows 2000 client. Only one server in the domain performs this role and in an EBS environment, that server is the Management Server “by design”

Since during the restoration of the Management Server their is no PDC remaining (it has failed in our case), there are two errors that will occur while running the Restoration Wizards.

1. in the stage where the Management Server is re-joined to the domain, the EBS Installation Wizard will fail when “Synchronizing time with domain”. Time synchronization fails because the authoritative time source is no longer there (… only true when restoring an EBS Management Server)
2. when the PDC is eventually found (by making some changes to the second domain controller), the Messaging Server will become the PDC but will still not be seen as an Authoritative Time Source until the necessary changes are made to it’s registry. This sets W32time “on that system” as authoritative and ”Synchronizing time with domain” can then be accomplished.

When restoring a Management Server in EBS 2008, be prepared to make a few changes in advance.

in two steps:

1.) ”forcefully” transfer the PDC Operations Master role to the Messaging Server ( the EBS environments second domain controller)

2.) make the Messaging Server authoritative as the domains time source.

Forcefully Transfer PDC Operations Master Role to Messaging Server

The following knowledge base article ( Microsoft KB324801)  describes  How to view and transfer FSMO roles in Windows Server 2003 . While this article accurately describes the transfer of roles, it does not touch on some of the language used when the transfer is “forceful”. Since there is no Management Server acting as PDC , there is no PDC to respond to the transfer request, and therefore, a forceful transfer will be necessary. NOTE: A forceful transfer occurs when the Domain Controller requesting the transfer of the role  ( in our case, the PDC Operations Master role )  cannot find the Domain Controller to which that role has been assigned .

So in preparation for understanding this in Restoration terms… when the EBS Installation Wizard of a Management Server reaches the following stage ( it will fail ):

• Management Server Installation (title bar)
  • Progress of joining the domain (heading)
  • Please wait while the Management server joins the domain (caption)
• Synchronizing time with domain (STAGE of Overall progress)

To accomplish transfer of the PDC Operations Master role from the Management Server to the Messaging Server, use the above proceedure (  How to view and transfer FSMO roles in Windows Server 2003 ). The language of the pop-up windows in a “forceful” transfer will be similar to the following (and I’m paraphrasing)

POP-UP WINDOWS

• “Are you sure you want to change the Operations Master?”  [ OK ]
• “This computer is a non-replication partner. Do you want to continue with the transfer?” [ OK ]

POP-UP WINDOWS – AFTER FAILING TO MAKE CONTACT WITH THE PDC ROLE (because it’s not there to respond)

• “Under some circumstances a forced transfer can be achieved. Do you want to attempt a forced transfer?”  [ OK ]
• “The operations master role was successfully transferred.” [ OK ]

Make the Messaging Server Authortative for Time Synchronization

To satisfy the Installation Wizard Time Synchronization request, the next step is to make the Messaging Server authoritative for W32time in the windows domain. Check out these two articles on how to do that.

Configuring the Windows Time Service by the veteran Mitch Tulloch

and TechNet – AD DS: The PDC emulator master in this forest should be configured to correctly synchronize time from a valid time source

Complete the Essential Business Server Installation Wizard and Restore the Management Server

Now that the Messaging Server can respond to the EBS Installation Wizard “Time Synchronization Request”, we click retry and the process moves forward. To finish installing the EBS 2008 Management Server, please follow the TechNet articles at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc512500(WS.10).aspx . This is the lengthiest part of the restoration and may require 3 or more hours with Updates. It is a good time to read up on the restoration of the Management Server data that will be restored once the EBS Management Server is up and running again.

Reversing the PDC and Authoritative Time Source Changes and Establishing the EBS 2008 Management Server as Authoritative

To return the EBS environment to it’s default state, it’s necesarry to return the PDC Operations Master role to the Management Server. You will note that this is not done automatically by the EBS Restpration process when restoring a management server to EBS. This must be manually achieved when once the Management Server is restored to an existing EBS domain.

Log on to the EBS 2008 Management Server

• GO TO Start | Run | type dsa.msc
• Right Click on Active Directory Users and Computers ( the top node in the navigation pane ) | navigate to All Tasks and click Operations Master
• Select that tab  [ PDC ]
• Under the field that titled Operations master: observe the language – “To transfer the operations master role to the following computer, click Change.” and note the filed list the EBSMGMT.domain.local server.
• click the Change button
• at the “Are you sure you want to transfer the operations master role?” prompt, click Yes
• “The operations master role was successfully transfered.”
• note that you will see the EBSMGMT.domain.local server listed as the PDC Operations master

Log on to the EBS 2008 Messaging Server

• GO TO Start |  Run | type dsa.msc
• Navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters\Type
• Double click the REG_SZ object Type and change the value to NT5DS
• Navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Config\AnnounceFlags
• Double click the REG_DWORD object AnnounceFlags and change the value to A
• ** change back any additional time setting adjustments you may have made
• GO TO Start |  Run | type cmd
• at the command prompt type net stop w32time && net start w32time
• close your editors

Log on to the EBS 2008 Management Server

• GO TO Start |  Run | type dsa.msc
• Navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters\Type
• Double click the REG_SZ object Type and change the value to NTP
• Navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Config\AnnounceFlags
• Double click the REG_DWORD object AnnounceFlags and change the value to 5
• GO TO Start |  Run | type cmd
• at the command prompt type net stop w32time && net start w32time
• close your editors

Begin the process of restoring your Management Server data from BACKUPS.

MANAGEMENT SERVER data to be restored

• Active Directory Domain Services logs
• Active Directory Domain Services database (NTDS.dit)
• Active Directory Domain Services SYSVOL file
• Microsoft SQL Server® database for System Center Essentials
• SQL Server database for Windows Server Update Services
• SQL Server database for Administration Console

EBS 2008 Backup and Restore Links

Good articles to be aware of in backing up and restoring EBS

Back Up Using Windows Essential Business Server Tools

Moving Data Files for Windows Essential Business Server

Solving AD Replication issues with EBS 2008 Planning and Preperation Wizard

Essential Business Server 2008 Blog

EBS Technical FAQ

thank you…

WIGITAL Computing Pros serves computing and network infrastructure needs in Southern California. Thank you for reading.
Mark Raborn
WIGITAL