Organizational units (OUs) are Active Directory (AD) objects that can hold any number of AD objects including users, groups, computers, and even other OUs. OUs are the smallest AD objects to which group policies can be assigned and hence, play an important role in domain administration. This highlights the need for a system that can maintain consistent and reliable OUs, while keeping in mind the number of objects that will be affected if any unwarranted modifications occur to GPOs linked to OUs.
A change management solution that can back up every change made to the OUs and restore them immediately would solve this critical issue.
RecoveryManager Plus is a web-based change management tool that has been designed to address all problems related to backup and recovery of OUs in AD forests. With features including nested OU backup and restoration, hierarchical restoration of deleted or modified OUs, RecoveryManager Plus serves as a one-stop solution for all your backup and restoration needs.
The following features of RecoveryManager Plus make it the perfect tool when it comes to backup and restoration of AD OUs.
Restore deleted OUs: Restore an OU or container to its last known state when it is unintentionally deleted.
Complete OU tree recovery: Restore all nested OUs and AD objects, partially or completely, when recovering a deleted OU. This ensures that all parts of the AD environment stay completely accessible, even after accidental deletion of OUs.
Restore OU delegation permissions: Restore assigned OU delegation permissions when they have been modified. Restoration of delegation permissions means that users who have been delegated the proper authority to perform AD tasks will be able to carry out their administrative tasks immediately after restoration.
Restore OU security permissions: Restore security permissions and privileges assigned to OUs just like any other OU attribute. Any elevated privileges or restrictions assigned to the OU and its members will take immediate effect after restoration, thereby facilitating uninterrupted working process and data security, respectively.
Parent OU restoration: With the native Active Directory restoration tool, deleted OUs cannot be restored if their parent OUs have also been deleted. RecoveryManager Plus helps administrators overcome this obstacle by restoring the parent OU along with the OU during the restoration process.
Rollback OUs or containers: Rollback OUs to a previous point in time and undo all changes made to them after that point. For each change made on an OU or its child objects, a rollback point is created. OUs can be rolled back to any of the available rollback points.
Change management: Each change made to an OU is recorded and stored as an incremental backup. This allows administrators to view all changes made on an OU and reverse any individual changes that they deem unnecessary.
Version management or comparison: Each change made to an OU is stored as a different version in the backup. This allows you to view the different versions available, compare them, and select the version you want to restore.
Restart-free recovery: When using RecoveryManager Plus, you do not have to restart your domain controllers when you recover deleted OUs or containers from Windows 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, and 2012 R2 servers. This ensures that users from deleted OUs do not have to wait until the domain controller restarts to resume work.
GPO links backup RecoveryManager Plus tracks changes made to GPOs linked to OUs. Linked GPOs' backup history is maintained for each OU and can be used to restore the GPO links to a previous version. Restoring GPO links will also restore the deleted GPOs, where appropriate.