I was trying to backup and restore an ADAM database to a different server the other day. I copied all files under "Program Files/Microsoft ADAM" folder to the same path in the destination server and started the ADAM service in the destination server up.
Although the service come back up successfully and I was able to connect to the instance with ADAM ADSI Edit mmc snap-in, I found I had to reset every single user's password before they can login again.
Has anyone got this issue before? Is the password encrypted with the server IP address or something like that?
From what I've heard on the grapevine there is a lot of SID/RID references in the ADAM database which sometimes prevents restores of ADAM backups from one server being restored on to other servers.
What I have seen work is ensuring that the local administrator group is assigned to administer the ADAM (which assigns default SIDs to the ADAM data) and then backup the ADAM.
The restore can then occasionally be put on a different server. It's only worked for me a couple of times....