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Vmware snapshots on Domain Controllers

I was told that you should not take snapshots of a domain controller using vmware tools.
Is this true?
If it is true, i could understand if you had multiple Dcs, as it could break replication, however, what if you only have 1 DC. would it still break or cause domain issues if you rolled back to the snapshot?

Justin C

It can still cause issues with any AD objects which were created or updated since the snapshot was taken. I wouldn't recommend it in a production environment, but if you're in a lab with relatively few changes being made and just want to be able to roll back over a short peroid of time you can probably get away with it.

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coolsport00

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bntech

ASKER

Are you saying, even taking a snapshot (not rolling back) could pose a problem as well, when you want to delete AKA commit the snapshot to the parent file.

So in summary - dont use snapshots on domain controllers - period
Also you recommend against snapshots on other servers as well -- i thought that this process was relatively safe for non-dcs.

Thanks for the responce guys

coolsport00

Yes, my recommendation is not to use them on DCs for sure and MINIMALLY on other VMs. Snapshots are meant for BRIEF periods...mainly when you're doing an update to a VM's guest OS. Take a snap, do the update, test for a day or 2, then delete the snap. That's all it should be used for.

Hope that helps.
~coolsport00

Justin C

Once you create the snapshot, all additional data and/or modifications to existing data are stored in the snap file. When you delete the snap, that data must be merged back into the the base disk. If the snap grows too large, the process of merging the data back into the original can take a very long time and becomes prone to error and corruption.

Like said above, snapshots are not meant to be left in place for long periods of time.

bntech

ASKER

Un-related, but are there any best practices \ settings to make on a DC running in a vmware environment. Same question for Exchange 2007..

Thanks for your answers

coolsport00

Mmm...there are a couple articles you can look at from both VMware and MS. You should ask this in another thread though as asking mulitple questions in a thread is frowned upon from EE (see: https://www.experts-exchange.com/help.jsp#hs=23&hi=23)

Regards,
~coolsport00

bntech

ASKER

I will post a new thread -- Thanks, feel free to reply \ answer the new thread at
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/26491740/Vmware-and-Domain-controllers-and-exchange.html