Domain Controller (DC) does not recognize the domain after restoring from backup

Issue:

After restoring from backup, the domain controller (DC) does not recognize the domain.

Cause of this issue:

When you restore an Active Directory domain controller from backup, you may run into some issues related to that DC's authentication with the domain. When you attempt to run Active Directory management tools, i.e. Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC), the system may notify you stating that the specified domain does not exist or could not be contacted. This could be caused by many reasons; however, the most common reason is that the domain services were not restored in the correct order in the affected domain controller.

How to fix this issue?

After restoring the DC, login and verify if the SYSVOL share is present. If it is not present, then follow the series of steps mentioned in this Microsoft article to make it available again. Alternatively, if you have other working DCs, then you can try to restore the domain trust back to the machine. To do this, first, seize all roles from the affected DC and move all of them to the other working DCs. Then you can demote the affected machine, remove it from the domain, and then re-add it.

Did you know that, ADManager Plus, an Active Directory management and reporting tool, comes loaded with the following AD backup and recovery features:

• Capability to perform incremental as well as full backups.
• Restore specific objects or even only the individual attributes of specific objects.
• Backup and restore different AD objects without accessing the domain controller directly, and more.

Download the 30-day free trial of ADManager Plus and check out the above features and also a lot more of them which you'll love!