Our W2K sysdmins are preparing to roll out AD and W2K in the next couple of
months and one of the sticking points is "What is really required to
properly support an AD environment for DR ?".

What we have to work with: 3 TSM servers, AIX 4.3.3, TSM 4.1.1 soon to be
4.2.X , 3 L700 about 65 - 70 % utilized. Backups running about 16 hours a
day.

What the clients will look like: W2K, Print and File servers, with many
smaller specialty systems. Automated build process except for the very
specialized.

What I am trying to accomplish: Suitable DR options to recover under extreme
circumstances.

Option 1:
A lot of system state backups to a centralized, redundant and remote system.
No system drive backups. (suggested by the SYSadmins for W2K)

Option 2:
System state backups to a local drive on the client then archived using TSM
and retained for ???? . They are shooting for 15 - 30 day retention. No
system drives.

Option 3:
Backup system drives, and system state data with a combination of the above
listed information.
( My suggestion to backup system drives in the event a group of files are
deleted from the system drive).

Problems:
>From what I have been told and read, the system state information is going
to be enormous after the full roll-out and could be in the neighborhood of 3
- 5 gb for each system initially and would continue to grow as more and more
uses are researched and deployed for AD.

Has anybody completed a AD deployment and what effects has it had on your
backup infrastructure ? Has your data grown substantially or is it about the
same ? Any gotchas after a server needed to be recovered ?

Any information would be helpful.


Duane Ochs
Systems Administration
Quad/Graphics Inc.
414.566.2375