Everyone cares about the data he has and to save it from danger or accident, you need to have a backup of it otherwise even it is not granted a minute. What the benefits of backup are insufficiently you know or might have experienced, and here are they: convenience, safety, ease of recovery, ease of access, affordability etc for e.g: it protects operating system, system state, files, folders, application data, etc and if you lose all of them, you are comfortable because you’re able to restore them again from the backup.
Also, you can perform one-time full backup or schedule backup and you can store backup files in the internal hard drive, external hard drive, USB flash drive, DVD. If you use a USB flash as a backup storage, be sure it is NTFS format and a USB flash drive is suitable for one-time backup, for scheduled backup storage use the hard drive or portable/external hard drive but I recommend backing on external hard disk and its the best way because if you lost your data from internal drive then you can recover it back from external hard drive. If the backup plan is scheduled, the server will automatically backup the server in a specified time and specified the place. While last time server takes a backup, as a result the previous backup files will be replaced by the new one. In this article, I show you how to backup windows server 2016 step by step.
Backup Windows Server 2016 Step by Step
Before we start, you need to plan where and how the backup should perform for e.g: where to store the backup files, where to backup whether one drive or whole system and should the backup be scheduled or perform once now.
#1 Install Windows Server Backup Feature
1. At the first step, what we need to do is install the Windows Server Backup feature in order to backup the server. Open Server Manager, click on Manage and select Add roles and features, skip the welcome page by hitting Next then hit Next>Next>Next until the Features page appears. On the Select Features page, scroll down and choose Windows Server Backup feature then hit Next button. The Windows Server Backup is not a role, it is a feature, so don’t get confused.
Select feature
2. No reboot is needed for this feature installation, hit the Install button, it takes a while, be patient!
Install feature
#2 Create a Backup Plan/Backup system
1. Once the Windows Server Backup feature installation finished, you’re ready to create a backup plan means you can backup now, before doing that put a glance down on backup plans and decide which one to do.
Backup Plans
Full Server (All volumes): If you choose the option, you backup all files and it is the best option.
Critical Volume: choose this option to backup some critical files and folders.
System State: Choose this option to backup files that are needed for system state recovery.
Individual Volumes: You can backup one volume by choosing this option.
Folders and files: You can backup single folders and files choosing this option.
2. Now that you’ve selected a backup plan you’re prompted to do a backup, to do that;
open Server Manager and click on Tools then click on the Windows Server Backup option from drop-down list to open backup server.
Windows Server Backup
3. When the Windows Server Backup opened, on the Action side bar three option are available, Backup schedule, backup once and recover and schedule backup: it creates a time-based backup upon the schedule means the server automatically takes backup in the specified time and the Backup once option is for one-time backup so, select Backup once option because here we’ll backup once to show you on.
Backup once
4. On the Backup options page, two options are available, choose the Different options. This option is used when you haven’t created schedule yet. then, hit Next.
Different options
5. As mentioned before, the Full server backup does a full server backup, by choosing this, you backup everything on the server. If you don’t like to do that, a Custom option is available to let you specify some of the folders, files, etc to backup.
Full server backup
6. Specify the Destination drive you want to save backup files, so, I select the Local drives in order to select the hard drive I want in the next step.
Destination type
7. Here try to save the files to a separate hard drive, you can’t save backup files in C:\ drive, there for save it in another place. If you choose a local drive, certainly backup server give you warning that the drive is in the backup list. I don’t pay attention to because I have created a separate drive for the backup files, you do so.
Backup Destination
9. Finally, we are done, begin the backup process by clicking on Backup button and take a rest. Certainly, it takes a while but it depends on your files, folders…
Take Backup
Conclusion
So, we did windows server backup successfully and you learned how to backup windows server fully. Don’t worry if you don’t know how to use the backup files means to restore them, We are here to show you. I show how to use them in next articles. For any question about taking a backup, feel free and leave a comment.
Printing and file sharing are the essential sectors for users, groups, organizations in a network. Like in a network, there are a large number of printers with different varieties and there are an enormous number of groups, users who need to use. As an administrator, you should know how to install and configure print services in Windows Server to manage tens or hundreds of printers in a network. As most of the modern printers have a network interface card and Internet Protocol (IP) address can be assigned to the printers. Therefore, all users through the network can access and use them. One of the most handful features in print services is print pooling by which a number of printers are added to a pool. When one is performing a print job, other printers perform the next print jobs sent to them. As you can grant priority access to a printer from 1 through 99. When there are two print jobs in the print server, the user with higher priority will get the job done before the another. In this lesson, we will learn + understand how to install and configure print services fully in Windows Server 2016. Let’s get started.
Microsoft uses some terms referring to components of print services architecture, better to know for the certification exams or working with them. The Components involved with the print services are the following:
1. Print Device: printer device is actual hardware that produces hard-copy documents on paper.
2. Printer: It is the software interface through which a computer communicates with the print device.
3. Print Server: It is a server or a standalone computer which receives print jobs from clients that are attached locally or connected to the network.
4. Driver: It is a device driver that converts print jobs generated by an application to appropriate string of commands for a specific printer.
Attaching Printer Device
These are four fundamental configurations, you can configure a printer to work. As a result, the printer works depending on your configurations to print documents.
1. Direct Printing is the simplest way of using a printer device. That a printer is attached directly to a Server. The Server sends a print job to the printer, as a result, it produces the hard-copy document.
2. Local-attached printer sharing: Except direct printing, you also need to share printer and printer device with other clients on the same network. In this arrangement, the Server which is directly attached to the printer device works as a print server. Doing this, you can share the print server’s printer. Consequently, the clients can use the print device through server’s print interface. As a result, the advantage of this arrangement is that everyone from everywhere in the network has access to the printer device. Also, it is handful when you have light printing jobs.
3. Network-attached printing: Unlike the previous kinds of attaching the printer device with computer by USB or other port, here you don’t need to attach them. Instead, you can attach a printer device directly to a network. As a result of attaching printer device to a network, it becomes the network component. Most of the printer devices nowadays have network interface card (NIC) which allow you to attach a network standard cable to it. Due to this capability, a print device can have their own IP addresses. Also, you can buy NIC card separately and attach to a printer device. If the printer device has none of this capabilities a standalone print server is possible to be used.
Finally, by network attached printing you’ve to choose a computer to act as print server or let all or everyone uses the printer directly (or be print server) by sending print jobs and seeing their own queue. If you’ve chosen to be the print server everyone or multiple users then there are many disadvantages, which includes:
Users examining the print queue see only their own jobs.
Users are oblivious of the other users accessing the print device. They have no way of knowing what other jobs have been sent to the print device or how long it will be until the print device completes their jobs.
Administrators have no way of centrally managing the print queue because each client has its own print queue.
Administrators cannot implement advanced printing features, such as printer pools or remote administration.
Error messages appear only on the computer that originated the job that the print device is currently processing.
All print job processing is performed by the client computer rather than being partially offloaded to an external print server.
4. Network-attached printer sharing: In this method, you assign a computer as a print server and use it to serve clients means when you install a printer on a computer(that becomes the print server), you will share it on the network and configure it to access the printer directly through TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) port. When done, you just share the printer for the clients and manage them for accessing + managing.
Install Print Services Role in Windows Server
First of all, we need to install Print and document services role on Windows server 2016. Consequently you can use Windows server print services.
Role Installation
1. Open Server Manger and click on Add roles and features to install Print and document services role.
Add roles and features
2. In the Welcome we’ve got nothing to do at all. Click on Next button. In Select destination server page, elect the Select a server from the server pool. Select the server you want to install the role on from the list below. Click on Next button.
Select a server from server pool
3. Put a check mark in the box next to Print and document services. A small windows pops up and wants you to add some features for print services management. Click on Add features to install management tools. If you don’t install the management features, you just install the core service.
Print and document services
4. In the Print and Document Services page, provided essential information about the services to be noted. Finally click on Next button.
Print and Document Services
5. In the Select role services page four options are visible:
1. Print Server: It is the actual print server. Selecting this option you can manage print services components as printers and drivers and furthermore things.
2. Distributed Scan Server: allows you to send scanned images to specific users or groups in the domain.
3. Internet Printing: It creates a web page and gives the access to printer clients using printers through IIS web server.
4. LPD Service: This option enables UNIX clients running line printer remote (LPR) to send print jobs to Windows printers. I install only Print Server.
Select Role Services
6. We’re almost done. Click on Install button for installing the role on server. No reboot is needed.
Confirm installation selections
Configure Print Services in Windows Server
First of all we need to add some printers and drivers on the server and manage them.
Open Server Manager, click on Tools dropdown menu and select Print Management services. Using this tool we can add and manage print services easily.
Server Manager
While Print Management tool is opened. Expand Custom Filters on the left pane to see the custom filters. You see four default filters:
All Printers: It shows the list of all printer connected to the domain from all print servers.
All Drivers: You can see a complete list of all drivers available for your clients through all the domain.
Printers Not Ready: It shows you list the servers which are not available to clients. They don’t work, fix them.
Printers With Jobs: Shows the list of printers currently doing print jobs.
Below Custom Filters another option is visible by the name Print Servers. Expand it to see all the print server in your domain. You can add all print servers in the domain here for easy management. Just right-click on Print Servers and select Add Server and go on.
Print Management Window
You can see the same options like drivers and printer below the SVR-A server as the below Custom Filters. So the difference between this and the Custom Filter is that which the printers shown below the filter is the list of all printers in the domain. The printers below the Print Servers is the list of printers installed on each print server.
Add Printer
1. Print Management tool opened, expand Print Servers and right-click on the server and select Add Printer option.
Add Printer
2. In the Welcome page we’ve nothing to do so just click on Next button. In the Printer Installation page select the Add a new printer using an existing port. Elect a port and hit Next button.
Add new printer using this port
3. In the Printer Driver page select Use an existing printer driver on the computer option. From the drop-down list select a driver that matches your printer device manufacturer and model.
Use an existing printer driver
4. Now you need to type a name for the printer in the box shown in the picture below. Below the Printer Name you can also see another option: Share this printer. As a result you can choose a share name and location for the printer. If needed you can leave a comment for users guidance.
Printer Share Name and location
5. Finally we are done with adding printer on a server. Just click on Finish button to finish the wizard. While finished the wizard you can find the printer in All Printers option in the left pane. If you would like to print a test page selecting Print a test page at the bottom of the wizard also you can add another printer by selecting Add another printer.
Finish the wizard
Add Driver
Maybe you need different kinds of drivers for client computers to use be able to use print device. So you need to have 32-bit and 64-bit drivers.
1. First of all you need to right-click on Drivers option below the server which you want to add driver to. Select the Add driver option.
Add Driver
2. In the Welcome page we have nothing to do. In the Processor Selection page you need to specify which kind of processors do your clients use. You can one or both of the options and hit Next.
Processor selection
3. In the Printer Driver Selection page you need to specify two things. First of all you should specify your devices’s manufacturer. Secondly specify the printer model. In addition to these you have one more useful option. If you have driver on a disk, you can click on Have Disk button and find path of the source and add it.
Printer Driver Selection
4. We are done and the driver was added to the server. So click on Finish button due to finish the wizard.
Finish the Wizard
Conclusion
Ok, that’s all. For any kind of question feel free and leave a comment below the post. I answer you as soon as possible.
As you know, Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) is installed on a server that is called Domain Controller (DC). You can add dozens of domain controllers to an active directory for load balancing, fault tolerance, etc purposes. All the domain controllers should contain the same contents like user accounts, computer accounts, etc for working as a group.
They need to replicate with each other. When you add a new domain controller to existing domain, they automatically replicate with each other. If the new DC and the previous DC are on the same site, they can replicate easily with each other. If the new DC is in a remote site, therefore automatic replication is not so practical. Because they are replicating through Wide Area Network (WAN) connection which costs much and takes a long time. That’s why I’ve written the article in two parts. Part 1 is for Local Area Network (LAN). Part 2 is for Wide Area Network(WAN).
In this article, we will learn how to add additional domain controller to existing domain in local area network(LAN). Let’s move on.
Add Additional Domain Controller to Existing Domain
First of all, we need to install Active Directory Domain Services on the new DC, then promote that as DC.
#1: Role Installation
1. First of allopen Server Manager by clicking on Server Manager icon in Start Menu. When Server Manager opened, click on Add roles and features to open roles and features installation console.
Add roles and features
2. Skip the Before you Begin page. Let the role-based or featured-based installation selected; click on Next button. In the Server Selection page, again click Next button.
Select installation type
3. Select Active Directory Domain Services role, a window pops up, click on Add Features button to add active directory management tools.
Active Directory role
When installation process is completed, reboot the server, log in as an administrator and furthermore follow the following steps.
#2: Promote this server to a domain controller
1. When logged in as an administrator, click on Promote this server to a domain controller hyperlink to promote the server to domain controller.
Promote this server to domain controller
2. Select the Add a domain controller to an existing domain option, below the specify the domain information for this operation, type your domain name. If you are logged as a standard user, you can change the credential below that. Click on Select button, a new window opens, select your domain name then hit on Ok then Next button.
Deployment Configuration
3. In the Domain Controller Options page, leave unchecked the DNS server if you don’t want to install that on your DC. Let the Global Catalog checked. Type a password and confirm it then click Next button.
Domain Controller Options
4. In the Additional options page, Specify the server that you want replicate with and copy all information from that domain controller to new domain controller.You can take a snapshot from AD DS and apply the image on the new machine. The new machine will have the exact copy. You can read about the Install From Media (IFM) here:
5. In the Paths and Review options pages almost we have nothing to do, skip them by clicking on Next button. In the prerequisite page if any error you see, check that then click on Install button.
Install
#3: Root DC and New DC Replication
We are almost done, just use the DCs to replicate between the root DC(DC01.tactig) and the new DC(DC02.tactig). While replicating between these two DCs, the Active Directory files will be copied from the DC01.tactig to DC02.tactig. then check out, you will see all files exactly the same to the root domain controller in the current domain controller.
6. In the Server Manager, click on Tools and select Active directory sites and services option.
Active directory sites and services
7. In the left pane expand the Sites>Default-First-Site-Name>Servers, then the name of the current server that you are now working on, then click on NTDS Settings. In my case DC01 is root doamin controller and I am logged in currently in DC02 which is additional domain controller.
NTDS Settings
8. Right-click on automatically generated node, Click on Replicate now, an alert informs you that replication between root domain controller and new domain controller occurred.
Replicate now
9. Do the same thing for DC01 in the same server. Expand DC01 node and click on NTDS Settings. Right-click on automatically generated then click on Replicate now option. Both server replicate with each other and all the contents of DC01 will be copied in DC02.
Replicate now
Conclusion
Finally we’re done! After all, you’ve completed replication between two DCs successfully, but remember if the DCs are in different sites, then you can do it using our next article that will be the second part in addition of this.
Managing network is a critical task in the networking world but not much tough with active directory. The Active Directory was first time introduced in Windows Server 2000 for centralized domain management. Before the active directory, Microsoft had added tools to manage users, computers but they were not as efficient as active directory. The Active Directory Services (AD DS) or directly Active Directory (AD) is the repository of management and information. You can manage and have information of every type of information about users, computers, services. Also, it offers excellent services like load balancing, failover cluster. As much as it’s affected that much, you need just to make it relevant and take care of it means you need to take backup of the active directory if someone accidentally delete something or being hacked. Therefore, if the domain controller stops working, you should be able to restore the data back. Don’t worry, because we have the every solution of your problem, let’s move on and do it now.
Backup Active Directory in Windows Server 2016
The Active directory backup is not much involved. Indeed, you can learn and do it easily.
First of all, you need to install the Windows Backup Server, using Server Manager.
1. Open Server Manager, click on Add roles and features, skip the Welcome page clicking on Next button, then select the server you want to install the backup server on, click on Next button. It is not the role; it is a feature, skip the select Server Roles page. In the feature page, scroll down and check the Windows Server Backup, hit Next!
Install feature
2. In the Confirm installation selections page, click on Install button. Take a rest, because it takes a while, no reboot is needed.
Install feature
3. Now on the Server Manager, click on Tools, then click on Windows Server Backup at the end of the list to open the server.
Windows Server Backup
4. Now the server backup is opened, click on backup once. If you like to make a schedule for active directory backup, so click on Backup schedule.
Backup once
5. Select Different options, click on Next button because Different options are used while we don’t have any schedule for backup.
Different option
6. On the Select backup configuration page, two options are available, Full Server and Custom. We just want to take backup of the active directory, so we choose the second option.
Custom backup
7. In the Select items for the backup page, click on Add items button, select system state option and click on Ok button. so you are done here, hit next!
Add items, system state
8. It is the time to decide where to restore the backup files, Local drives or shared folder; I choose the local drive.
Destination type
9. In the Select backup destination page, the place for backup files restoration is specified.
Destination page
10. We are done, so click on the Backup button, take a rest. Let the server do its work.
Backup Active Directory Fully on Windows Server 2016
Conclusion
Ok, hope it was informative and helpful, to restore the Active Directory backup, follow our next article covering restoring active directory’s backup.
