Virtualizing the DC

[AmmarSM]

Hi

is it practical to virtualize the domain controller ?

[DSTAVERT]

Yes it is. There are issues that you should be aware of. Time drift is an important consideration. I would not P2V a domain controller unless you only have a single DC. I would install fresh and promote the new controller and then migrate the master roles.

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[DSTAVERT]

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006996

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888794

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[DPike]

We've virtualized all but one of our DCs in our environment. We chose to keep one physical in the event of a plan or unplanned SAN outage that caused us to lose access to our VMs.

As stated above, best practice is to create from scratch and do a dcpromo, however, you can P2V a DC, just be aware of the potential issues pointed out in VMware KB:1006996

_________________

Dustin Pike

VMware Certified Professional (VI3 & vSphere)

Virtual Blocks Blog

[AndreTheGiant]

Have a look at:

http://geekswithblogs.net/ntpro/archive/2005/07/27/48375.aspx

See also Microsoft notes:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888794 - Considerations when hosting Active Directory domain controller in a VM

Be sure to manage time in a right way:

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vmware_timekeeping.pdf - Timekeeping in VMware Virtual Machines

And, if you use DRS, add anti-affinity rules to separate DC on different ESXs.

Andre