P2V Domain Controllers

Baz · 15 Apr 2009 at 17:25

Right, tricky one this...

I am wanting to test my current environment virtually, as it will soon be upgraded from Windows 2000 & Exchange 2000 to Windows 2008 & Exchange 2007... Lot of things can go wrong with this...

To get it right on the night, I converted my current DC's (three of them) over two days, without realising the replication problems and tombstoned entries.

Without taking the current offline, what is the simplest way? Would I be able to use a backup through BackupExec and redirect it?

Thanks

morfmedia · 15 Apr 2009 at 20:29

Best bet is to build a new DC, DCPromo it in, snapshot it, DCPromo out then revert to snapshot on isolated network I would have thought.

Godsbrother · 15 Apr 2009 at 22:18

Baz said:
Right, tricky one this...

I am wanting to test my current environment virtually, as it will soon be upgraded from Windows 2000 & Exchange 2000 to Windows 2008 & Exchange 2007... Lot of things can go wrong with this...

To get it right on the night, I converted my current DC's (three of them) over two days, without realising the replication problems and tombstoned entries.

Without taking the current offline, what is the simplest way? Would I be able to use a backup through BackupExec and redirect it?

Thanks

We did this and had no probs at all. We use ESX VI3 and just cloned the dc's and exchange servers connected them via virtual switches not connected to the lan and allwas peachy in fact it was a doddle.

Baz · 15 Apr 2009 at 23:26

Godsbrother said:
We did this and had no probs at all. We use ESX VI3 and just cloned the dc's and exchange servers connected them via virtual switches not connected to the lan and allwas peachy in fact it was a doddle.

How long did it take to clone each DC & Exchange?

Godsbrother · 16 Apr 2009 at 07:41

Baz said:
How long did it take to clone each DC & Exchange?

very very quick as ESX snapshots them to it and we run it all on a netapp fibre san so its pretty quick. You could use eXpress to create the backups for you then just restore them as a different VM and before you turn them on change the Vswitch.

We do all our main systems testing this way its a godsend compared to the 'old fashioned' way of needing real hardware!

iaind · 16 Apr 2009 at 07:54

Dont know if youve noticed but there's no free esXpress anymore!

I've used the converter for stuff like this before with no problems. I'd just do a hot clone of one DC and then dcpromo more machines on a separated network if you want more. You can force the removal of old DCs with ntdsutil if you need to. The only problem you might have with hot cloning is transaction logs not being up to date, but eseutil /p on exchange normally sorts that out well enough for testing

Baz · 16 Apr 2009 at 08:41

Looking now, there is a trial version of ESXPress, fully functional for 30 days

Now to get ESX installed and give it a whirl, thanks guys

RSR · 16 Apr 2009 at 09:19

Id be inclinded to make a fresh DC, it doesnt take long to get one up and runnning.

However, when we P2V'ed exchange i had all sorts of problems with the Netapp SnapManger and SnapDrive. So in the end i built a fresh exchange and mirgated the settings and mailboxes across.

We were also having problems with the iSCSI Qlogic cards at the time, so this could have been part of the problem.

RSR · 16 Apr 2009 at 09:25

Have a look at vRanger for individual VMDK backup. Thats what i currently use as well as the ESX volume is snapmirrored to our DR site.

A

Baz · 16 Apr 2009 at 09:30

andyd said:
Have a look at vRanger for individual VMDK backup. Thats what i currently use as well as the ESX volume is snapmirrored to our DR site.

A

That's what we are going with eventually, when we buy the kit. looks the dogs bits

RSR · 16 Apr 2009 at 09:31

Baz said:
That's what we are going with eventually, when we buy the kit. looks the dogs bits

Its a very good and powerful bit of software. Its got a thumbs up from me

Baz · 16 Apr 2009 at 09:34

Excellent, reasonably priced I thought as well

Now to snapshot physical servers to make believe ones

Baz · 16 Apr 2009 at 17:45

Godsbrother said:
very very quick as ESX snapshots them to it and we run it all on a netapp fibre san so its pretty quick. You could use eXpress to create the backups for you then just restore them as a different VM and before you turn them on change the Vswitch.

We do all our main systems testing this way its a godsend compared to the 'old fashioned' way of needing real hardware!

Looking at ESX VC Client, is this the Import Machine feature when you right click on a Host??

iaind · 16 Apr 2009 at 18:14

Thats the converter enterprise agent

Baz · 16 Apr 2009 at 20:57

I thought it was, can you snapshot a Physical server into the virtual environment?

Godsbrother · 16 Apr 2009 at 21:11

Baz said:
I thought it was, can you snapshot a Physical server into the virtual environment?

yes you can, reccomend you shut it down first if its exchange tho first if you can to make sure its consistant.

express has some very nice features coming out in the next version but then they need to keep moving as esx v4 is also going to have some new capabilities

Baz · 16 Apr 2009 at 21:18

Godsbrother said:
yes you can, reccomend you shut it down first if its exchange tho first if you can to make sure its consistant.

express has some very nice features coming out in the next version but then they need to keep moving as esx v4 is also going to have some new capabilities

No chance of shutting it down!

So at the moment, the recommended product is ESXPress?

iaind · 16 Apr 2009 at 21:19

Baz said:
I thought it was, can you snapshot a Physical server into the virtual environment?

You can, it pushes an agent out to the target machine and does the conversion from there.

The latest release of the converter (free download) is very clever. You can set it to do the conversion then shut down services (exchange/sql etc) and copy any data thats changed to ensure it's consistent. Then, it will shut down the source and boot the target VM :cool:

iaind · 16 Apr 2009 at 21:20

Baz said:
No chance of shutting it down!

So at the moment, the recommended product is ESXPress?

Dont worry about shutting it down. If its just a DC it'll work fine, if its a DB application then chances are it'll be inconsistent but most are easy enough to repair

Baz · 16 Apr 2009 at 21:50

iaind said:
Dont worry about shutting it down. If its just a DC it'll work fine, if its a DB application then chances are it'll be inconsistent but most are easy enough to repair

Only Database is Exchange 2000, which isn't too difficult to repair

The only problem I have now is converting 3 physical DC's and not buggering up the replication logs, which is a pain to sort out....