Active Directory Forest Recovery - Devise an AD forest recovery plan

Applies to: Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2, Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2

Depending on your environment and business requirements, you may not need to perform all the steps described in this guide to perform a successful forest recovery. Given that this guide serves only as a template for forest recovery, it's vital that you devise a custom forest recovery plan that suits your environment and meets your business needs.

Plan

For example, in your forest recovery plan, you should have a detailed topology map of your forests. The map should list all the information about the DCs, such as their names, their roles and back up status, and the trust relationships between them.

Practice

You should practice your forest recovery plan at least once a year. Also, it's a good idea to perform a forest recovery drill when there are membership changes to the Enterprise Admins or Domain Admins group. This helps ensure that your information technology (IT) staff fully understands the forest recovery plan.

Next steps