live conversion of domain controller

[chaz112182]

hello

i just downloaded vCenter Converter Standalone 4.0.1 with the intention of converting a physical domain controller to a virtual machine running on esx 4.0. the end goal is to re create my production active directory and exchange environments to test the migration of user mailboxes from exchange 2003 to exchange 2007. are there any considerations i should be aware of here ? thought i'd play it safe and get a little feedback before messing around with the domain. thanks in advance ! just to clarify, im running an unmanaged esx 4.0 host and have just installed vCenter Standalone 4.0.1 on my client machine.

[Troy_Clavell · Accepted solution]

see this KB from VMware on their stance on P2V of a Domain Controller

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004588

>If the source is a domain controller, special considerations must be made. VMware does not recommend virtualizing an active domain controller with Converter. For more information, see Virtualizing domain existing controllers (1006996).

Your best bet would be to bring a new VM online and run dcpromo

[chaz112182]

i came across this discussion http://communities.vmware.com/thread/104897 but was hesistant, so i'm glad that i posted here before proceeding. i appreciate the insight, so what i need to do is:

create a new vm in production

run dcpromo and allow some time for replication

after replication completes, how would i proceed ?

[AaronD]

You will need to move the GC and FSMO roles to the new DC before decommising the old DC. DNS and DHCP will also need to be up and running on your new DC, if those services exist on the old server. If you have Exchange in your enviroment the new DC must me set as the GC or exchange will stop working.

Here are some articles I suggest you read:

I've done what you are attempting and the process (for me) went smoothly with the proper planning.

[chaz112182]

thank you. i created a new vm in production, ran docpromo, and then allowed some time for replication. then i used converter to clone the vm from the production esx host to my lab esx host. now i just have to cleanup metadata in my lab to get rid of any reference to other domain controllers.

[AaronD]

Anytime!

If you found my answer(s) helpful please award points.

Thanks!