Physical to Virtual (DC on 2012) Hyper-V

[newpersn]

Hi all

 

I know how to create virtual machines on Hyper-V But i want to convert a physical DC that is running Server 2012 (non R2) and turn it in to a virtual machine.

 

Is there a best practise to do this as its a DC or am i better rebuilding a virtual machine and transferring roles over so i can kill the physical box?

Edited February 13, 2016 by elsiegee40

[Quackers]

I used this years ago when i went Virtual. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx worked great.

[newpersn]

I used this years ago when i went Virtual. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx worked great.

 

I've seen that. I'm just unsure on how to do it, as its a DC/GC

[sonic1485]

+1 for disk2vhd - works a treat for us

[smithson83]

I've used that before also, worked well, but only as a stop-gap measure on a failing DC, to give me time to rebuild it properly on a purpose built VM.

I'm not sure what others thought are, but I would always want to build a new VM if I had the chance over a converted one.

 

If you can, I would seriously consider building a new VM for the role, promote it, and transfer the FSMO roles over

Edited February 5, 2016 by smithson83

[DJ-1701]

I used this to move over two 2003 DCs for a couple of months while preparing a new domain. As it was 2003 I needed to do some additional work to get the hard drives recognised, but 2012 should be fine. Just didn't allow network connectivity during the imaging process and the initial startup of the virtual server, before making sure it booted successfully and was connecting.

[3s-gtech]

Also used Disk2VHD here with great results. Also used it to convert between ESXi and Hyper-V. Should be fine for the job, but for a DC I would usually recommend building it fresh then promoting and moving the roles over instead. Just neater, not that much work depending on what else it does.

[Sagima]

Disk2VHD would work fine. Personally I'd just create another DC and transfer the roles over.

[sister_annex]

Why not create a new virtual fresh, promote it, make sure all your sevices are running correctly and demote and decommission your physical - bit more effort but you will have a nice clean virtual

[nwkeene]

I've used the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 3.0 to get 2 VM's from an ailing ESX system onto to our HyperV system and it worked rather well...

link here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn873998.aspx

 

For a DC though, i'd agree with the other posts on here and build fresh and promote etc.

[zag]

I'd keep all my Domain Controllers physical personally.

[sister_annex]

I'd keep all my Domain Controllers physical personally.

 

Why? is there a specific reason? Microsoft do support DCs as VMs

[PotNoodleTech]

On Hyper-V I'd keep one physical just incase but the rest can be virtual.

 

On ESXi if they're not AD linked, they can all be virtual.

[pantscat]

Is the DC doing anything other than being a DC?

[timbo343]

I was going to say, if its only doing DC roles, just demote the old one and recreate as a virtual.