Running DC's on virtual machines, best practice

oB1

Hi,

Wondering what is the best practice, if any at all, when running DC's within a virtual machine environment on Hyper-V,
Say there is a cluster of 2 HyperV hosts running Primary and secondary DCs respectively, is this acceptable?..

I know by having two separate virtual DCs running on separate hosts, eliminates most of the disaster element, but is it recommended to do it this way?

As the hosts will also be on the same domain as the DCs it's kind of a weird setup.. The Hosts will be running the DCs that manage the AD domain the hosts are managed by.. Will it cause a doctor-who problem?

Just looking for some food for though, see if anyone has done the same before.

Thanks

Rob

dunworth1

if i am reading you correctly you want to put the host machine onto the domain
this is a terrible idea.
as if for you reason the virtuals don't start with the server you could have terrible trouble trying to log into the host as it will be looking for the dc

i have a site that has Primary and secondary DCs on the same host
though i wouldnt recommend this method for disaster recovery.

can i ask why you want to put to dc on the same host is there a need.

oB1

dunworth1 wrote: »

if i am reading you correctly you want to put the host machine onto the domain
this is a terrible idea.
as if for you reason the virtuals don't start with the server you could have terrible trouble trying to log into the host as it will be looking for the dc

i have a site that has Primary and secondary DCs on the same host
though i wouldnt recommend this method for disaster recovery.

can i ask why you want to put to dc on the same host is there a need.

No, you misunderstand, yes i want to put the host machines on the domain.. BUT i will have more than one host.. as in.. at least two, host one will run the PDC and host two will run the SDC so if one host went down, the other will still be active.. disaster recovery will be in effect in this case.

Instead of having individual machines, i just thought id spend more money on buy two or three host machines, and cluster them.. load them full of ram, and connect them to an iSCSI SAN

kaisersoze

I've got vmware, not hyper-v, and the only thing I set in the rules is the 2 dc's can't be on same physical host.
I've never really trusted it, so to be sure to be sure, I've also got one physical dc.

oB1

kaisersoze wrote: »

I've got vmware, not hyper-v, and the only thing I set in the rules is the 2 dc's can't be on same physical host.
I've never really trusted it, so to be sure to be sure, I've also got one physical dc.

Yeah, i get you.. basically what i will be doing.. or planning to do.. maybe i will look into having one physical DC in this case... suppose it wouldnt be to much of an expense..

kaisersoze

It really depends on what you have virtualised...

If you have most servers virtualised and there is an issue with phyiscal hosts, you dont really need a physical DC, as there will be little or no servers to access..

We have a 50/50 split physical/virtual (purely for MS, SQL and Oracle licensing reasons) so at least if there is a VM issue, the users can still access the physical kit.

If you are virtualising everything, i wouldn't bother with physical dc.

Only other recommendation I would make it :-

1. Make sure you have Dell DRAC configured or whatever equivelant manufacturer out of band mgt card. Life saver later on, trust me.
2. Make sure you have good working backups of the images e.g. Veeam
3. Create a test server on vm with some test data and delete the image and ensure the restore works. Life saver, trust me lol!

oB1

kaisersoze wrote: »

It really depends on what you have virtualised...

If you have most servers virtualised and there is an issue with phyiscal hosts, you dont really need a physical DC, as there will be little or no servers to access..

We have a 50/50 split physical/virtual (purely for MS, SQL and Oracle licensing reasons) so at least if there is a VM issue, the users can still access the physical kit.

If you are virtualising everything, i wouldn't bother with physical dc.

Only other recommendation I would make it :-

1. Make sure you have Dell DRAC configured or whatever equivelant manufacturer out of band mgt card. Life saver later on, trust me.
2. Make sure you have good working backups of the images e.g. Veeam
3. Create a test server on vm with some test data and delete the image and ensure the restore works. Life saver, trust me lol!

Cheers

Yeah, we currently run all physical machines.. and host everything in house, exchange front end, our intranet site etc..

it has taken me a long time to convince management to go ahead with the IT overhaul, but i finally have approval!

we are looking to virtualize everything, or at least, almost everything.. im heading up the project, and just wanted to put the thoughts out there, and see what people have to say.

we currently run all dell kit, so yep, DRAC cards will be as standard for sure

We have a Microsoft VLA so i was thinking of using DPM and or the hyper-v manager they use, to back up.. have no experience with it, but we would be getting it for free essentially.. so must look in to it.

hoping to have the infrastructure soon, so will get down to the testing

kaisersoze

I'd double check your figures and do a cost benefit anaylsis before you go down the microsoft road.

Nothing worth having is free :-)

good luck with the project.