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aiea96701
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎09-11-2013 08:44 AM

Step by Step procedures to create VM AD Domain Controller with Windows 2008 R2


Hello.  I'm planning on upgrading a physical Windows 2003 SP2 server to a Windows 2008 R2 VM.  The plan is to create a new VM for the Windows 2008 R2 server.  It will replace the old 2003 server that is our AD Domain Controller.

But, before I do that I wanted to see if there is some sort of documentation  that could step me through all the things I need to consider and perform so that it has the best chance of success.   I have never done this before but have read numerous articles that lead me to believe this is a process that needs very careful planning ..... a missed step and joila....bad news.

So, any help will be greatly appreciated.

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hstagner
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
‎10-01-2013 04:48 AM

Since you are standing up a brand new 2008 R2 VM for the domain controller you are already ahead. I do not recommend converting physical AD Domain Controllers to VM's. It is best to stand up a new Domain Controller and dcpromo it.

As for best practices, a few of the most common ones are:

  • Make sure your PDC Emulator is syncing to a trusted time source.
  • Sync your ESXi infrastructure with the same NTP source that your PDC Emulator DC syncs with. Clock skew can cause many problems for an AD Infrastructure
  • Generally, you should not snapshot DC's. If you must snapshot DC's then do not roll back to that snapshot as it will cause corruption and problems in your AD infrastructure.
  • Most best practices revolve around AD best practices in general. The fact that the DC is a VM shouldn't matter.

Here are some resources for you:

VMware KB Article:

VMware KB: Virtualizing existing domain controllers

Straight from Microsoft:

Things to consider when you host Active Directory domain controllers in virtual hosting environment...

Pretty old but still valid in general:

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/Virtualizing_Windows_Active_Directory.pdf

Again, a few years old, but still has some valid points:

https://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/previewBody/17797-102-1-22992/BCA1709-EMEA.pdf

I hope this helps. Good luck on your project.

-----------------------------------------

Don't forget to mark this answer "correct" or "helpful" if you found it useful (you'll get points too).


Regards,

Harley Stagner

VCP3/4, VCAP-DCD4/5, VCDX3/4/5


Website: http://www.harleystagner.com

Twitter: hstagner

----------------------------------------- Don't forget to mark this answer "correct" or "helpful" if you found it useful (you'll get points too). Regards, Harley Stagner VCP3/4, VCAP-DCD4/5, VCDX3/4/5 Website: http://www.harleystagner.com Twitter: hstagner
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