P2V Curriculum Server and make it as a Hyper V Host

[password1234]

Hi Guys

 

Has anyone ever done a P2V conversion of a server (Which is also a domain controller and has Active Directory and DHCP) then made the main server as a host, installed Hyper V and attached the P2V disk to the main server

 

This is our situation

 

- Admin has a P2P Server Setup with 6 Workstations running SIMS

- Curriculum has its own proper server with AD/DHCP/DNS etc

 

Admin is managed by one company

Curriculum is managed by another provider

so they want both to be on a single server but independant of each other

 

The School wants to do the following wants everything to be on one server and wants the following done

 

- Current Curriculum Server will now be a hyper V host called "SCHOOL HOST"

- Create a new VM for the Admin Server and move data from the old peer to peer to this new server

- Do a P2V on the curriculum Server and create a separate VM for the curriculum Server

 

Had the following in mind

 

- P2V curriculum Server name the P2V Curriculum1 for example, install Hyper V, attach the converted VM - DC promo it

- Demote the Original Server as a DC which now acts as a host, remove the DC / DHCP / AD etc roles so this is now the host

- Create a new VM for admin install AD and Domain controller it Move all data across and setup users

 

 

 

Can anyone see any issues with this or have any better ways of approaching it

Only question I had is we have a single DHCP Scope can i say split the scope between the Server so for example

Curriculum Server will have IP range say 10.1.50.1 - 10.1.50.100

Admin Server will have ip range from 10.1.50.101 - 10.1.50.200

 

so have a DHCP Scope on both server

 

Would that work or anyone has better ideas?

[jmak]

I'm sure you know this, but just in case you get carried away:

 

Take a back up, test the back up, run P2V and test the result of the P2V by mounting it on a host that is in no way connected too your live network.

 

To answer some of your actual question, I'd be concerned if the school wanted to do this, because of blurred accountability. If there's a problem with the admin server, what's to stop the company supporting it blaming the host server or the way it's set up? Is the provider managing the curriculum server also going to manage the host? Are you certain that they're familiar with supporting virtualized servers. I'd also want to be sure that the school understands that they're getting an additional single point of failure in their network (at the minute, if the curriculum server went AWOL, you'd still have the admin network).

 

Having said that, I think virtualizing servers makes sense and the first one I had started as a P2V of the curriculum server.

 

After you do a P2V on a server, it has all the same roles as it did before, so in your case, you won't need to run DC Promo as it'll already be a DC. Once you've created the virtualized version you need to nuke the original server - you'll have no need for it (reminder: take a back up, test the back up, test the result of the P2V by mounting it on a host that is in no way connected too your live network).

 

Once nuked, install a clean version of whichever flavour of server you choose (I'd go with the latest, assuming licensing allows) and install the hyper-v role. Mount your VM of the curriculum and the client machines will see it as they did before. I'd strongly recommend that the host server only runs the hyper-v role.

 

You also need to check your server's hardware specs are up to the job. You'll need as much memory as you can afford and presumably a lot more disk space, unless you've got loads spare on your curriculum server.

 

It's doable, but make sure you have a fully documented plan and that all parties have signed up to it properly.

Edited February 8, 2020 by jmak

[XiJ]

We do this here where there were separate vlans for admin and curriculum. As above, P2V the dc, wipe the old physical and install a clean OS with hyper-v

 

Repeat on the admin server. You could even use the admin server as a second host.

 

I would look to have a single subnet. We’ve this this is some cases and as a temporary measure given admin clients a static DNS of the admin VM server to connect to that domain. Ultimately with a view of one flat network and security permissions / ACLS to keep things secure.

 

The only tricky thing here is responsibility of each area. If you have a good relationship it works - but can still involve some ‘finger pointing’ occasionally.

 

I’d also recommend ssd to Store your Vm’s on (data can be mechanical). Makes thing much quicker.

[mavhc]

You don't want to be running the cloned VM and original server at the same time, they'll have the same name, ip address, everything, and AD will go wrong

 

Find out the cost of buying SSDs for the server if it doesn't have them. P2V the HDD to a spare drive, remove the HDDs in case it all fails you can get back to exactly where you were. Put SSDs in, install free hyper-v server, or Server 2019/2016, install hyper-v role, use that for nothing else except hyper-v, so it doesn't take up a licence.

 

Copy VM to SSD based server, check it all works. Create new VM for Admin etc etc.

 

When it's all working great, could put hdds back in something as extra storage/backup space.

 

Really what you should be doing is firing this other company and putting admin machines on the domain like any other machine, they're not different, just causes hassle and insecurity because I'll bet £1000 the security of those admin machine is terrible, local admin users, updates broken, no SRP, terrible backups etc etc etc

[KK20]

yes. I went P2V with: 1x domain controller, 1x file server, 1x exchange server, 1x SQL server and 1x web server. All worked turnkey short of having to reassign IP addresses. All were windows 2012 at the time and I simply used windows backup/restore. I backed up via inbuilt server backup, shutdown each machine (not the only DC on the network, I retained the other DC as physical), restored the backup as a VM with identical disk sizes, booted up VM, changed IP and everything worked.

 

Dont forget that your DC doesnt want to get its time from the host, make sure you are using NTP.

 

Once I had virtualised, I then went about migrating services on each server as I would when decomissioning them. It should also be noted that I have inplace upgraded all servers except exchange and DC - those two were migrated as appropriate.

Edited March 30, 2020 by KK20