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3 Replies Last post: Oct 4, 2007 3:07 PM by tom howarth  

P2V Domain Controllers-Gotchas? posted: Oct 4, 2007 1:24 PM

Click to view Odurasler's profile Enthusiast
Odurasler
87 posts since
Apr 12, 2006

All,

We'll be P2V'g 2 of our domain controllers in our network. They are Windows 2003 servers with AD, DNS, DHCP, IAS, Certs, WINS, etc. Has anyone gone through P2V'ng their DCs and ran into any issues? Are there anything to watch out for?

Thanks in advance.

Re: P2V Domain Controllers-Gotchas?

1. Oct 4, 2007 1:28 PM in response to: Odurasler
Click to view esiebert7625's profile Guru User Moderators vExpert
esiebert7625
6,795 posts since
Oct 23, 2006
This is usually not recommended. The preferred way is to create new VM's then dcpromo then and transfer and FSMO roles. If you do decide to do it the below links will give you some things to watch out for..

Virutalization of Active Directory - http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=352424񖂨
Considerations when hosting Active Directory domain controller in virtual hosting environments - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888794
Virtualizing a Windows Active Directory Domain Infrastructure - http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac9710.pdf
How to detect and recover from a USN rollback in Windows 2003 Server: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885875/
How to detect and recover from a USN rollback in Windows 2000 Server: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875495/
P2Ving Domain Controllers - http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=390630
Virtualize Domain Controllers or not? - http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=81928&messageID=630985#630985
What machines should not be converted - http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=73357

Re: P2V Domain Controllers-Gotchas?

2. Oct 4, 2007 1:29 PM in response to: Odurasler
Click to view sbeaver's profile Guru User Moderators vExpert
sbeaver
7,723 posts since
Nov 1, 2004
Time is the biggest thing and have you thought about bring up a Windows VM and then run DCPROMO to let Windows do it own replication and such?

Re: P2V Domain Controllers-Gotchas?

3. Oct 4, 2007 3:07 PM in response to: Odurasler
Click to view tom howarth's profile Guru User Moderators vExpert
tom howarth
7,394 posts since
Jul 25, 2005

Personally I feel there are too many gotchas with P2Ving a DC, I must prefer to build a new machine from a template or scratch and then run DCpromo and then transfer FSMO rolls if necessary. once replication is steady decommission the physical DC.

Regards

Tom

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