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Unattended Operation

U-Move can run from an XML script for unattended operation.

Unattended operation is supported for backing up, for restoring, or cloning Active Directory. It is not supported for upgrading Active Directory.

For scheduling automatic backups of Active Directory, see Scheduling a Backup and Creating a Custom Backup Job.

Creating the Settings File

To run in unattended mode, create a settings file. A settings file is an XML script that contains pre-recorded answers to the questions during the interview.

To create a settings file, walk through the interview up to the until you see the button Finish. When you see button, stop. Do not click the Finish button; instead right-click and select Save Settings.

This will write the settings file to the folder where you installed U-Move (typically C:\Program Files\UMove). The file is named UMoveSettings.xml.

To run in unattended mode

To run U-Move in unattended mode, open an administrative console and type the following:

PowerShell Script

cd "C:\Program Files\UMove"
start -FilePath "UMove.exe" -Wait ↵
     -ArgumentList "-xml UMoveSettings.xml"


CMD Script

cd /d "C:\Program Files\UMove"
start /wait UMove.exe -xml UMoveSettings.xml


Create a PowerShell or CMD script with the above commands. When you click on the script it will run U-Move without further prompting.

Adding extra steps: AD backup

For a backup or a cloning-out operation, you can append an additional command to copy the BKF file to another computer. For example, you can append the following command to copy the BKF file to your NAS device:

copy "C:\ADBackup\DC01.BKF" "\\NAS-Device\Backups\UMove"

Adding extra steps: AD restore

For a restore or a cloning-in operation, you can copy the BKF file from another computer or your NAS device before you run U-Move. For example, you can prepend the following command to the start of your script:

copy "\\NAS-Device\Backups\UMove\DC01.BKF" "C:\ADBackup"

This will copy the BKF file from your NAS device.

AD restore: Run in background

When U-Move restores AD it first stops all services, including Task Scheduler. If you intend to run your AD restore script from a service, you will need to remove the -Wait and /wait options. This will allow U-Move to stop all services while continuing to run in the background.