I'm in a bit of a jam with my two domain controllers (DCs). They're virtual machines that lost connectivity to the Storage Area Network (SAN) at the same time, and now neither of them can boot up properly. I've tried recovering DC1 using recovery mode, clearing the NTDS logs, and running esentutl for repairs, but nothing seems to work. The event viewer indicates that lsass keeps crashing. As for DC2, which runs on a core load with no GUI, I can't even log in using recovery mode because it says there's no available DC to authenticate my password. Any thoughts or suggestions on what I can do to fix this situation?
5 Answers
Do you have any backups? If not, you're really in a tough spot. Without backups, you're basically stuck without a paddle here. It's worth noting that restoring a DC from a backup is tricky and could cause issues like tombstoning if the backup isn't recent enough.
If you're able to access DC2, try disconnecting the network interface card (NIC) and then log in with cached credentials. Once you're in, double-check the DNS settings and make sure it's pointed to itself as the primary.
Sorry to hear about your issue! This is definitely a tough lesson. Maybe it's time to consider a more resilient backup strategy for the future, so you don’t find yourself in this situation again.
Definitely a learning experience! Next time, think about using local storage for at least one DC to avoid this dependency and potential single point of failure.
Have you looked into tools like U-Move? It can pull data directly from your NTDS file into a fresh Active Directory, which could save you from having to start entirely from scratch.
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