VMware Cloud Community
euphony
Contributor
Contributor

Virtualise Domain Controller

Is it ok to virtualise a domain controller while its on meaning a hot clone. Would this cause any issues with AD replication. Has anyone tried this.

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

Hot clone a DC ? - funny idea - I am pretty sure that those folks that tried it have only done so once - or in other words: forget it. Use coldclone or better - setup a new one

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

Personally I haven't and wouldn't because the USN can get out of sync before you could get the VM up. If you really have to virtualize it, I would use this tool http://www.sanbarrow.com/ so that you can do a cold clone. That said, my preference would be to do a fresh install of Windows in the VM and then promote it to a DC.

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jayolsen
Expert
Expert

NOO..either build new or cold clone from the boot cd. Also, if you do a cold clone do not resize your disk as that can lead to issues on domain controllers as well.

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asatoran
Immortal
Immortal

I've only hot cloned a DCs after hours with no one logged on. These were small networks (one server and less than 10 users) and the converted machine was NOT going into production. So I didn't need to worry about replication issues. But even then, I never got a 100% success rate. Many times, I had to restore AD after the conversion. As suggested, best to create a new VM and dcpromo to a DC, or at least a cold clone.

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bggb29
Expert
Expert

I know platespin does not support hot clone. Converter I amnot sure. I agree with all the others down the DC or run dcpomo on a new server

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dmanconi
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Another option here is to dcpromo the DC down to a normal server temporarily, then use converter hot to virtualise the server. Then once the server is all ok as a virtual machine, dcpromo again back into a dc.You can bring a tempoary dc up (vm) to move the fsmo roles to etc if requried.

Cheers

David

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theanykey
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Using an already existing VM (clone it with sysprep or build it from scratch), promote it to a Domain Controller.

Transfer the FSMO roles to the new Virtual Machine.

Demote the physical Domain Controller.

Use VMware Converter to import the once-DC local machine if you require any applications left behind.

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