Today Veeam announces Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Active Directory! It’s a valuable, innovative and FREE extension for Veeam Backup & Replication. Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Active Directory will allow you to browse the backup of an NTDS.DIT database to locate containers, objects, and their attributes and then restore them to their original location in the running domain controller or to a new location.
In the good old days, like yesterday, Active Directory recovery demanded the downtime associated with restoring the VM that hosted the Active Directory Domain Controller and then using active directory restore mode to recover containers, objects, and their attributes. Unfortunately, some attributes such as passwords were problematic or downright impossible to recover. With Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Active Directory, you can now browse the Active Directory database (.DIT) file directly in the backup of your domain controller VM to find and restore the desired containers, objects, and attributes directly to the running Domain Controller.
With Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Active Directory you can:
- Find and view containers, objects, and attributes
- Restore containers objects and attributes to their original location or to other Active Directory locations
- Export containers, objects, and attributes as .ldf files (these can then be imported to any Active Directory database using the industry standard LDIFDE tool.)
- Restore passwords on Active Directory objects
“I like to say that v8 is the “release with a twist”. Almost every major v8 feature has a really cool and unexpected twist, which makes it really stand out among similar solutions. For Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Active Directory, the twist is its unique ability to recover passwords! Imagine accidentally deleting the entire OU with all your users. Without this feature, each user will be prompted to set the new password upon first logon, which is very disruptive and insecure. But this feature will come even more handy if you lose an OU with computer accounts! Even if you simply restore those back, computers will not be able to logon to the domain because of computer account password mismatch. Now, just imagine the nightmare of going to each computer, switching it into workgroup, and then joining it back into the domain… hundreds of times!” – Anton Gostev, VP of Product Management Veeam.
Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Active Directory supports Active Directory database files (.DIT) in versions from Windows Server 2003 through Windows Server 2012 R2, and supports Exchange attributes from Exchange 2010 and 2013. That means you can reconnect recovered user accounts in Active Directory to their corresponding Exchange mailboxes. The important thing to note here is that Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Active Directory is very easy to use, and it allows you to confidently recovery Active Directory objects in an intuitive interface.
One of the best things about Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Active Directory is that it is completely FREE! It comes with every edition of Veeam Backup & Replication including Veeam Backup Free Edition.
If you use Active Directory then Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Active Directory will make your life easier.
