Convert Windows Domain Controller - Win2003 - For Backup Purposes

[Gedster100]

I have read posts regarding best practice for converting a Windows DC, however at this stage I want to keep the original DC and PDC running. I have run a conversion and when I log in on the virtual DC I get errors, however I did resize the partition and will try again keeping it the original size.

My question is however, If I want to convert to keep a virtual copy of a server, and then run up that virtual server running the network as a local host is this possible? Would there be a best practice for this use of VMware, I run 5 servers each with different roles including Exchange Server, File and Print, Intranet and I really want to run up the whole system in a virtual environment to do some testing.

Any pointers much appreciated.

Ged.

[ericsl]

Ged,

If you want to convert and then run your DC make sure that when it is running it is not on the same network as the operational DC. Also, you'll get errors if you DC does not have the NIC setup with the correct IP address as it had when it was physical. That is not done during the conversion. Start the machine with the virtual NIC disconnected, login (it may take longer with no network access to boot and login), open the new virtual NIC, add the correct server IP address to it and save. It may give you an error message stating the the IP address already exists in another NIC. It does but you can ignore it for now. Later you can delete the hidden NIC. Search the boards for how to do that. Do the same with the other converted physical machine's.

On the host machine (VMware Server?) give it a static ip address but don't plug the switch it is plugged into into your production network. Connect all the NIC's on the guests. They can now see each other on the network but not the production machines or the Internet (you'd need to route that somehow). This should be good for testing.

Update: Actually you can use the host's virtual network capabilities to create a private network for your test guests that will not be able to see your production network. Search the posts for help on this or create another thread.

Eric

[Draconis]

Are you saying that you actually have Windows NT AD or are you just saying the DC has the PDC emulator role in a Windows 2000 or 2003 domain/forest? Cause if you are at least in AD 2000, you can have a VM DC as a backup in case your regular one fails. If the physical one does die, you can have that VM take the 5 roles if you are in one domain deployment and take as much time as you want fixing the physical one. Just be mindful of what you will loose when you convert to a virtual environment but since its for testing that shouldnt be too much of a hastle. Just so that it is likely you dont blue screen, you should remove all physical devices that no longer apply in your virtual environment after you have converted into your test environment. You can look at this guy for help (). That will allow you to view all hidden devices that will not show up in your Device Manager. Even if you dont blue screen, it might give you some performance hits. Also, you said you have a print server, hopefully you have network-ready printers so you can just control them from that test print server and have test clients print. That will be tricky too since you shouldnt, as eric mentioned, have your test and production environments see each other. You will have to yank a test printer from time to time to test stuff out.