How to disable snapshots for domain controllers in ESXi 5? Or other best practises?

[lchuakc]

Dear All,

I will need some help regards to disabling snapshots for 2 VMs in my HA cluster running Windows 2008 R2 Active Directory.

I've read that the best practises for VMs running Active Directory is never to snapshot them.

I am worried about the auto snapshots created by the systems periodically and problem arises if a snapshot is being reverted by mistake.

So what are the best practises for VMs running as domain controllers? To disable the snapshot function or other recommended methods?

Please kindly share. Thanks.

Rgds

Leslie

[Josh26 · Accepted solution]

leschua75 wrote:

.

I am worried about the auto snapshots created by the systems periodically and problem arises if a snapshot is being reverted by mistake.

VMware has no system to automatically take snapshots.

Snapshots exist either because you manually made them, or because a backup application created them. In this case, talk with your backup vendor.

[AlbertWT]

Yes, that is correct, usually when there is VADP backup in place, the snapshot is opened for that particular VM, and then when the VM is accidentally restarted or rebooted during the backup, then the snapshot will be left orphaned 😐

so make sure before rebooting the server, there is no backup in place.

just my 2 cents. HTH

[lchuakc]

Thanks Folks.

So basically there is nothing i need to set except to take note not to restart the domain controller while a backup is running?

Backup as in Arcserve Backup? Thanks.

[AlbertWT]

Yes, mine is using EMC Avamar backup.

[lchuakc]

Thanks Bro. So I just need to be careful on when to restart the server.