Always Safe

UMove is always safe to run on the source computer. UMove will never modify or change the contents of your Active Directory database on the source computer in any way.

Windows Server 2008: UMove asks the Volume Shadow Service (VSS) to create a temporary volume shadow snapshot of the C: volume. UMove backs up AD from the temporary snapshot. The backup operation is done in the background and typically takes only 5-10 minutes. The operating system will silently drop the snapshot when UMove terminates. This is exactly the same procedure that Windows Server Backup uses to create a backup of the System State.

The backup operation will take longer if AD has a large number of user accounts or if UMove must back up a large database such as Exchange.

Windows Server 2000-2003: UMove runs NTBACKUP to make a backup of Active Directory using the standard documented Microsoft backup procedure. This is exactly the same procedure that NTBACKUP uses when creating a backup of the System State.

No Interruption of AD Service

During the backup there is no measurable delay or interruption of AD service.

Exchange on Windows Server 2000-2003: The delivery of incoming messages to Exchange may pause temporarily while the information store is backed up.