How to Backup and Restore Group Policy Objects (GPOs)

How to Backup and Restore Group Policy Objects (GPOs)

Backing Up and Restoring Group Policy Objects

GPO's are crucial in maintaining an organization's security outlook. Therefore, it is pivotal to take backups of the GPOs to mitigate any negative effects caused by accidental deletion or modification. Having recent GPO backups can ensure that the GPOs can be restored to their original state with all configurations, should something unwarranted happen. Follow these steps to ensure that your GPO's are backed up before you make any major changes to it. 

To create a backup copy of your Group Policy Objects:

  1. Create a folder for this backup procedure. Give it a name and location that is easy to remember.
  2. Select the GPO you want to backup.
  3. On the Action menu, click Back Up.
  4. Specify the location of the backup folder and click Back Up.
  5. Click OK on the information window.
  6. Click OK on the BackUp GPO window.
This will create a backup of the GPO in the specified folder. 

Restoring GPOs: 

You can restore the objects of a backed‑up policy to your current domain (single‑target restoration) or to the parent domain and one or more child domains (multi‑target restoration). For example, you are on a domain named Headquarters.com. If you restore a GPO that you previously backed up, you perform a single‑target restoration. You decide to restore the GPO but also want the Finance.Headquarters.com domain, a child of the Headquarters.com domain, to have the same GPO. If you restore that GPO to both domains, you perform a multi‑target restoration.
 
To restore saved GPOs from the same domain: 
  1. Navigate to the Group Policy Administrator program group.
  2. In the left pane, expand GPO Explorer to the domain where you want to restore GPOs.
  3. In the left pane, click All GPOs.
  4. On the Action menu, click Restore.
  5. Complete the Restore Group Policy Object wizard.

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