Correction saying that exchange 2007 is supported***
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VMware best practice for windows infrastructure
We have windows 2000 and 2003 server environment. Our Exchange server is DC and holds FSMO, mail server roles. Which is a bad idea as per MS directives, but was implemented under unavoidable circumstances.
1. What is the best of practice to virtualize exchange alongwith Dcs? (need a solid implemented solution. I don't have VMware support)
Vmware structure is : 2 Data stores with HP storageworks MSA2000 SAN unit capacity of 5.0TB. We are only implementing servers as VM units.
Our total environment is Windows based servers and clients.
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Answers
I would suggest the following setup:
1 physical server - Exchange 2003
1 physical server - Primary DC with FSMO Roles
1 secondary virtual DC for DR and to do day to day administration without your IT staff doing anything with the primary DC which holds the fsmo role
You can then build the rest of your infrastructure around this platform i.e. virtual platforms this is how I would proceed
I have configured your setup exactly before (MSA2012i) and several ESX hosts. I would strongly recommend that the FSMO role DC be on a physical box as stated above. If you have vCenter and you need to take down the domain controller used by your vCenter..vCenter will lose connectivity and you may need to directly to the ESX host to fix.
Exchange you can keep virtual, works fine, we're running Ex2003 and Ex2007 in virtual environment. If the MSA2000 has 7200 RPM SATA drives I would not place Ex2007 on there but Ex2003 works well in most SMBs
For the Exchange piece the way to proceed is as follows, we have done this more than a few times
1. Stand-up a new VM and install an Exchange 2003 Server
2. Stand-up a virtual or physical server to be your new DC, DCPROMO
3. Migrate FSMO roles to a new DC
2. Migrate mailboxes and mail routing to the new server
3. Once old server is no longer performaning any Exchange functions, uninstall
4. Demote old DC. Take out of AD
5. Format and redeploy old server
The only issue you may have is with OWA. Since the you're not authenticating on a domain controller they may get a pop-up for re-authentication. A solution for this is Forms based authentication, set it up and you should be ok
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by: Raheem05Posted on 2009-11-05 at 13:29:35ID: 25754247
Which version of Vmware? Microsoft does not support any of its products on virtual platforms if the min vmware version is not 3.5 update 2, also exchange 2003 is not supported in a virtual platform saying that 2007, I am not saying that if you virtualise exchange 2003 it does not work it just wont be supported if you run into any issues and need assistance from Microsoft
Also the big issues around making your primary DC which holds fsmo roles virtual:
Time difference virtual machines have a tendency for drifting time, time synch is very important as Active Directory bases authentication on Kerberos (In specific for the PDC Emulator FSMO role)
Considerations when hosting Active Directory domain controller in virtual hosting environments
http://support.microsoft.c