Restore Deleted Active Directory Objects Using Recycle Bin

In an Active Directory (AD) environment, it's quite common for administrators to accidentally delete AD data. The impact, however, depends on the type of objects deleted. For example, if you deleted a single user's data, it may not really have a big impact on the organization. But, if you deleted one or more containers or organizational units (OUs), it can result in downtime and loss in productivity.

The native recycle bin functionality of Active Directory can redress some of the issues, but it has some limitations. This functionality is operational only from Windows Server 2008 R2 and higher. Moreover, the absence of a user-friendly GUI and search filters only make it harder to search for a particular object from the list of deleted or tombstoned objects.

RecoveryManager Plus from ManageEngine addresses all the limitations of native recycle bin and acts as a one-stop solution to your backup and restoration needs.

Highlights of RecoveryManager Plus:

• Restart Free Recovery: This tool eliminates the need to restart your domain controller to perform recovery operations, ensuring continuous and high availability of domain controllers.
• Recover Group Membership of Deleted Objects: When a deleted object is restored, the group membership of the deleted object is also restored along with other attributes.
• Restore Passwords on Recovery: Restores the last set password of users and computers on recovery.
  • User: This feature allows the user to log on with their last set password and begin work as soon as the account is restored.
  • Computer: This feature enables the computer to rejoin the domain immediately after recovery.
• Restore Entire Container: Restores all or selected objects of one or more containers in a single click.
• Hierarchical Restore: Restores the parent container if it was also deleted with the object.
• Preview Restore: Prevents restoring wrong values by getting a preview of the value to be restored before the actual restoration process.
• Advanced Search Filters: Narrow down search results for deleted objects by restricting search to a particular OU, object type, or changes made during a specific time interval.
• Version Management: Every change made to attributes of an object is stored as a different version. Restore your deleted object to the desired version.
• User-Friendly GUI: With its user-friendly GUI, searching and restoring object(s) does not involve complex PowerShell and VB scripting!
• Automatic Recovery of Linked Objects: When a deleted object is restored, all deleted linked objects like groups, direct reports, and manager are also restored.
• Forced Replication after Recovery: The tool replicates the restored objects to all domain controllers after recovery, ensuring consistency in AD data across all domain controllers.
• Lower Forest Functional Level Requirement: A forest functional level of 2003 is sufficient to use the recycle bin feature in RecoveryManager Plus.