We will see in this post how to automate the AD database (NTDS.dit) offline defragmentaion with Powershell under Windows 2008 server. With Windows 2008 server, you no longer need to restart the DC in DSRM mode, you just need to stop the Active Directory service.
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When you perform a complete domain or forest recovery, after you have restored the first DC system state, you have to cleanup metadata of the DCs on which you will reinstall AD using a DCPromo. For more information about disaster recovery plans I suggest you read this document.
On a Windows 2008 server when you delete the DC computer object, server object removal (cn=ServerName,cn=Servers,cn=SiteName, cn=Sites,cn=Configuration,dc=ForestRootDomain) and metadata cleanup are performed automatically. On a Windows 2003 server you need to use the ntdsutil command line tool and delete the server object manually. This post describes how to set up a semi automated process to perform these steps.
