Active Directory and Disaster Recovery

To backup an Active Directory, you need to back up the system state of the domain controller, which will include all the Active Directory information.

>> Ntbackup.exe backup systemstate /j “Active Directory Backup” /f “C:\ADBackup1.bkf”

MS TechNet Article “How to use command line parameters with the Ntbackup command in Windows Server 2003”

Restoring the system state is a little more involved, and is covered in depth in the following Microsoft TechNet Article.

Microsoft TechNet Article “Active Directory Operations Guide: Active Directory Backup and Restore”