Follow up on lag sites... sort of.

Ned here again. We recently had a very lively discussion about 'Lag Sites' as a disaster recovery option. If you've been digging around the MS Download Center, you may have already come across Introduction to Windows Server 2008 R2.  After some digging, you'll come across:

Improvements in Active Directory Domain Services
The Active Directory Domain Service server role in Windows Server 2008 R2 includes the following improvements:

• Recovery of deleted objects. Domains in Active Directory now have a Recycle Bin feature that allows you to recover deleted objects. If an Active Directory object is inadvertently deleted, you can restore the object from the Recycle Bin. This feature requires the updated R2 forest functional level.

So while this won't be a replacement for solid backups, it certainly should augment them well and allow admins to get data back quickly without the need for complex lag site arrangements, or worries that the deletion has occured before the backups have had a chance to capture it. As always, this is pre-release documentation and there are no guarantees made about the component availablity or even if it will be included yet. Definitely keep your eyes open for it though. :-)

Definitely skim that document, there are all sorts of interesting tid-bits in there for the sharp-eyed. More news to come...

- Ned Pyle