Hello:

My eDirectory 8.8 SP6 Servers went "up in the magic purple smoke", but thankfully I had recent backups (Boy was I wrong).  I have noted the following backup and restore process but something clearly seems to not be working (as in restore fails with errors like 6031, 602, etc.)

Me environment is as follows:

* OS: Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 (32-bit)

* eDirectory Version: 8.8 SP6

* Number of eDirectory Servers: 2 one as "master" replica and the other as "read/write"

* Is Novell Client installed on affected servers: YES

* Additional Novell Software: GroupWise 8.0.0, ZENWorks 7.0, Novell Messenger 2.0 (these are add-ons that will need to be installed once eDirectory fully back up and running)

Let's look at this from the point of view of restoring from a complete server rebuild so backups will be set up at the end (I'm using DSBK from Start > Control Panel > Novell eDirectory Services):

Prior to any of the below (after a fresh OS install I take these preliminary actions)

0.1 Setup TCP/IP, remote desktop, etc.

0.2 Install Novell Client

0.3 Install eDirectory into a "new" tree giving it the same name and structure as the old one that died)

0.4 repeat steps 0.1-0.3 on the second server.

0.5 proceed with the below

[Current eDirectory Backup/Restore Procedures)

#1. Recover NICI with this: restore -f C:\NDSBackup\DSBack\<BackupName1>.bak -l C:\NDSBackup\DSLog\recover_nici.log -e <Password_Here> (the reason for choosing this backup is it seems to have NICI data where as the later versions (even though they used the -b (full backup) and -e <password> (NICI Backup) options) this goes off without a hitch (NICI files restored successfully))
#2. Either reboot the server entirely or just restart the windows service (this results in the eDirectory agent being unavailable and unable to be brought back up)

#3. Restore eDirectory with this command: restore -r -a -o -f C:\NDSBackup\DSBack\<desired_backup_file_2>.bak -d C:\NDSBackup\DSLog\nds.rfl -l C:\NDSBackup\DSLog\2recover.log (this backup file was chosen as it was the one that had the directory in a state before the accidental deletion)

#3. Turn on Roll-Forward Logging: setconfig -s -L -T -r <path to root> (a nds.rfl folder will be created under this location.  the -s tells the program to begin a new roll-forward log)

#4. Take a backup with this command: backup -b -f C:\NDSBackup\DSBack\<current_Backup_filename>.bak -l C:\NDSBackup\DSLog\20240831_Clean-Dir2.log -t -w -e <password for NICI data> (this starts the cycle all over again)

Based on what I'm experiencing here, I think I will just need to manually rebuild the eDirectory tree (recalling the structure from memory to the best of my abilities then placing users, groups, etc. into that structure manually to then restore the remaining functionality (e.g. groupWise, IM, etc.))

Any help in this matter would be much appreciated and thanks for helping me better my skills and understand what I'm doing :-)