Additional AD (Win 2012 r2)

Question

I have additional AD (windows 2012 r2). Now the hard disk is having an issue. But for now its working. Can I clone on another HDD and boot, will it work as before (like Additional AD)? I will be greatful if anyone has done the cloning successfully.

I do have full image backup also. If I restore on another HDD will this work as before?

Regards
Sandeep

Answer 1

Hello

Thank you for your question and reaching out.

I can understand you are having query related to Disk in AD server.

I would suggest you to run first chkdsk /f /r and check the result of the command if there is no bad sectors or errors and also check event logs related to System-> Disk

If Disk result is good in checkdisk and event viewer then you can clone it.

and If you have full image backup then I will suggest you to take latest backup and turn off that DC and restore it on new Disk with same IP and MAC address to avoid any AD replication issue.

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Answer 2

I would not do this, the much simpler / safer method is to stand up a new one for replacement.

I'd use dcdiag / repadmin tools to verify health correcting all errors found before starting any operations. Then stand up the new 2012, patch it fully, license it, join existing domain, add active directory domain services, promote it also making it a GC (recommended), transfer FSMO roles over (optional), transfer pdc emulator role (optional), use dcdiag / repadmin tools to again verify health, when all is good you can decommission / demote old one.

--please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--