techie08 Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 Hi everyone Currently i have one physical and 1 Virtual DC and I'm seriously thinking of making all my DCs virtual (on VSphere 5.5) and i just wanted to know if there is anything i need to configure in VMware because the DCs will be all very virtual or even config on the VMs themselves. If i were to make them both virtual, i guess i would need to make sure the Veeam backups backup both at exactly the same time? Part of me does still think should i keep one physical? or is it case that now there is no reason not to have them all virtual? Many Thanks
pantscat Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 If i were to make them both virtual, i guess i would need to make sure the Veeam backups backup both at exactly the same time? Part of me does still think should i keep one physical? or is it case that now there is no reason not to have them all virtual? Many Thanks No need to have them backup at exactly the same time - or at least I can't think of a reason for doing so. Not really any need to have a physical DC these days - make sure that you set restart priorities accordingly for your cluster so that the DCs are up first.
techie08 Posted July 7, 2015 Author Posted July 7, 2015 No need to have them backup at exactly the same time - or at least I can't think of a reason for doing so. Not really any need to have a physical DC these days - make sure that you set restart priorities accordingly for your cluster so that the DCs are up first. Do you have them all as VMs?
pantscat Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 Actually, no, when I last worked in a school I still had one DC physical due to hardware requirements. But... there is no real reason not to have them all virtual. As long as you've got VMware setup so that there's sufficient capacity to cope with a host failure, and you've got High-Availability setup then I can't see anything to worry about. VMs are easier to manage, faster to backup, restore... etc. etc. etc.
SHimmer45 Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 personally id still have 1 physical DC somewhere but then thats personal preference
sparkeh Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 What server OS are you running and are you clustering? After Server 2012 there isn't really a reason to retain a physical DC, however I like to run my virtual hosts as standalone machines, not domain joined and not DCs.
truebluesteve Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 I had 1 physical and 1 virtual until last September and now they are both virtual. I've had no problems and although I was a bit wary in the past of having 2 VMs, its actually been fine and the pro's far outweigh any cons there might be.
techie08 Posted July 7, 2015 Author Posted July 7, 2015 What server OS are you running and are you clustering? After Server 2012 there isn't really a reason to retain a physical DC, however I like to run my virtual hosts as standalone machines, not domain joined and not DCs. I will be upgrading all my 2008r2 DCs to 2012r2
sparkeh Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 Oh there's no need to backup the machines at the same time (that I can think off at least!)
techie08 Posted July 7, 2015 Author Posted July 7, 2015 I had 1 physical and 1 virtual until last September and now they are both virtual. I've had no problems and although I was a bit wary in the past of having 2 VMs, its actually been fine and the pro's far outweigh any cons there might be. Do you make sure you backup both at the same time and did you have to config any extra setings on the VMs or VMware?
SHimmer45 Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 What server OS are you running and are you clustering? After Server 2012 there isn't really a reason to retain a physical DC, however I like to run my virtual hosts as standalone machines, not domain joined and not DCs. or this imo
aleach2 Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 Do you have them all as VMs? We have both our 2012 R2 DCs virtualised. We have had no issues at all. We have had this setup for the last 6 years. If you are using Veeam to backup DCs you should never back them up at the same time. It will break the replication between your DCs.
teejay Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 From Server 2012 onwards there's absolutely no need to retain a physical server or to back up at the same time.
techie08 Posted July 7, 2015 Author Posted July 7, 2015 We have both our 2012 R2 DCs virtualised. We have had no issues at all. We have had this setup for the last 6 years. If you are using Veeam to backup DCs you should never back them up at the same time. It will break the replication between your DCs. How far apart do you back up each DC?
Norphy Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 (edited) Obviously this isn't an issue with VMware but with if you're running a HyperV cluster, you still need either a physical DC or a DC running on a virtual host outside of your cluster. Windows clusters need a running AD environment to start and if all of your DCs are in a HyperV cluster, you're boned That's pretty much the only circumstance that I can think of where a physical DC is required. Edited July 7, 2015 by Norphy
Chuckster Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 Since 2009 I had both DCs as virtual in VMware ESXi 4.1. The only thing I will say is make sure you back up both DCs at the same time. That way, if you ever need to restore a DC you can also restore the other one to ensure the AD replication is current and working. What you don't want is a restored DC out of sync by days with another DC. I've restored our DCs once in the past, which was for accidentally deleting the entire contents of the Netlogon folder. 1
techie08 Posted July 7, 2015 Author Posted July 7, 2015 Since 2009 I had both DCs as virtual in VMware ESXi 4.1. The only thing I will say is make sure you back up both DCs at the same time. That way, if you ever need to restore a DC you can also restore the other one to ensure the AD replication is current and working. What you don't want is a restored DC out of sync by days with another DC. I've restored our DCs once in the past, which was for accidentally deleting the entire contents of the Netlogon folder. aleach2 recomends that you dont backup at the same time whereas im with you. It makes more sense to backup at the same time!
jmak Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 I'm asking this in ignorance, not because I'm suggesting an answer.... If you have 2 DCs, isn't one of them primary and therefore shouldn't they synchronise once they're both back on line to whichever one has primacy? If the time is out due to reverting to a backup, would you not correct the time on the primary and then allow them to sync? My logic isn't based on reality or education, just what makes sense to me 8)
jtoland Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 If its your dhcp server make sure you set it to automaticly boot when system starts because it will be anoying if a power cut happens
IanT Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 All 38 schools we look after have virtual domain controllers, no need for physicals.
Norphy Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 I'm asking this in ignorance, not because I'm suggesting an answer.... If you have 2 DCs, isn't one of them primary and therefore shouldn't they synchronise once they're both back on line to whichever one has primacy? If the time is out due to reverting to a backup, would you not correct the time on the primary and then allow them to sync? My logic isn't based on reality or education, just what makes sense to me 8) No. Active Directory works in what's called a Multi Master mode. No one domain controller is considered to be the primary. This had been the case since Windows 2000 came into the market. Yrs, there are certain roles which are single matter but the bulk of it is multi master. 2
Sylv3r Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 We've had two virtual DC's for the last 5 years or so. Both on Windows 2008 and 2012. It's an interesting debate regarding backing up - i've never really thought about it to be honest.
sparkeh Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 Obviously this isn't an issue with VMware but with if you're running a HyperV cluster, you still need either a physical DC or a DC running on a virtual host outside of your cluster. Windows clusters need a running AD environment to start and if all of your DCs are in a HyperV cluster, you're boned That's pretty much the only circumstance that I can think of where a physical DC is required. Not with 2012, a cluster will start even with all DCs in the same cluster.
techie08 Posted July 7, 2015 Author Posted July 7, 2015 So in terms of backups using Veeam, should i definatly backup both virtual DCs at the same time or seperate them by half an hour or so? Also is there any special config required on the 2012r2 DCs? I just read about time synchronisation and the virtual DCs should poll an external time source. Is this correct?
truebluesteve Posted July 8, 2015 Posted July 8, 2015 Do you make sure you backup both at the same time and did you have to config any extra setings on the VMs or VMware? Our Veeam backups are sequential and the DC's are the first 2 to get backed up. We also use Redstor to back up offsite and these do happen at the same time but for not for any technical reason
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