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ruhkus

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P2V a DC and upgrade from 2003 to 2008 strategy

I have a physical Windows 2003 server box that is my DC as well as file&print server and holds all FSMO roles, DHCP, DNS, etc. (We're a small company.)

This server is running out of space, and I am looking to virtualize it. I am also looking to start the move towards Windows 2008 Server.

Can you recommend the best way I go about approaching this? My initial hope was to keep everything still on this one server, have it as 2008 and virtualized (as opposed to 2 separate servers), but perhaps that's not the best idea anymore. I also would prefer to not have to recreate all the shares and printer access.

Please note I am using the free version of ESXi, so some of my options are limited. Thanks.
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James H
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There is no straight upgrade from 2003 to 2008. It will have to be a clean install of the OS.
What are the specs of this ESXi box?

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We  went through P2Vs where I was a few months ago with DCs and we used the offline/cold clone method using VMware converter and it worked fine. That is the only way to do a P2V (read more in the DS articles below)  We did run into 13559 FRS events (easily fixed).  

Note that keeps the OS as the same...you can't upgrade during a P2V

Our back end has good redundancy and our data centers are 2,000 miles apart so we are also not in danger of losing all of our DCs with a single SAN failure or a single host failure.

So far we have not noticed any performance issues.  Some people like to keep one DC has a "normal" DC but that is still debated.  Again in our case we have redundancy with that COOP site.

Watch time issues; don't sync with the host.  

The DS team wrote a good blog series that may help you too

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2010/06/10/how-to-virtualize-active-directory-domain-controllers-part-1.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2010/06/15/how-to-virtualize-active-directory-domain-controllers-part-2.aspx


Thanks

Mike
Download VMware vCenter Converter here

http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/datacenter_downloads/vmware_vcenter_converter_standalone/4_0

VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 4.x Documentation

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/converter_pubs.html

VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 4.3 User Guide

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/convsa_43_guide.pdf

For the conversion steps, read fellow Expert Bestway's article.

https://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/VMWare/A_3639-VMware-vConverter-P2V-for-Windows-Servers.html

Best Practice Video Guide here

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1004588

@paulsolov fellow EE Expert has suggested the following method:-

"If all else fails do the following as it has helped me over a hundred times when converter fails

1.  Download trial copy of Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery
2.  Install and take an image of the server
3.  Use VMware Converter to convert image (it knows it natively) to a VM"
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ruhkus

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Server specs of VM box are HP DL180 G6 server, no SAN, 1.2TB SAS array.

Since there is no straight upgrade from 2003 to 2008, it sounds like my first move should be to set up a 2008 Server VM.

In response to mkline71, I do not believe I can do the cold clone method, since it looks like I need to have a licensed copy of vCenter for that.

hanccocka, I have successfully p2v'd before, just not with a domain controller.

So if I do set up a 2008 VM, is it possible to go about moving everything from the 2003 DC to it and then shutting down that DC and renaming the 2008 server to the same name as the 2003 (to address the file/print shares)?
So if I do set up a 2008 VM, is it possible to go about moving everything from the 2003 DC to it and then shutting down that DC and renaming the 2008 server to the same name as the 2003 (to address the file/print shares)?

Yes.  Setup a 2008 R2 VM as a DC.  You can move roles to it and rename the 2003 DC as something else.  Then rename the 08 DC the same name as the old one.  I recommend keeping the same IP as well but you'll obviously need to re-IP the old DC first.

Look out for time issues as mkline71 mentioned.  I would sync with an outside NTP source.
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bgoering
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Yeah with an upgrade don't P2V but for a regular conversion it does work fine and the DS team even goes over it.

Some other roles commonly seen on DCs


•        DNS
•        DFSR
•        FRS
Backup Agents
•        SCOM/monitoring agent  
•        Anti-Virus
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I don't like renaming DC's either - to address the file print shares create a 2nd vm with the name of the old  dc, move you shares to that. robocopy mentioned above is a decent tool to move them.

For print you will have to install your drivers and recreate the shares.
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Thanks everyone for the great advice. Taking everything into consideration, here is what I'm thinking should work the best all around -

1. Create new VM with 2008 and new server name
2. Setup new VM as DC and transfer FSMO roles, other associated tasks
3. Demote current physical server so it's no longer a DC
4. Now that the physical server is no longer a DC, could I just p2v it so that it keeps the same name and can serve as my file/print server but w/o the DC status? This seems to avoid issues with needing to copy over files and set up printers again, but I don't know if I"m overlooking anything with this strategy
Yes, that process should work just fine for you. For the P2V you might want to give VMware Converter Standalone (free) version a shot. You can get it at http://www.vmware.com/products/converter

Take a look at the documentation (http://www.vmware.com/pdf/convsa_43_guide.pdf)

For a physical to virtual (P2V) Windows conversion another Expert has written an excellent article on Experts Exchange: https://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/VMWare/A_3639-VMware-vConverter-P2V-for-Windows-Servers.html

You might also want to look at the VMware knowledge base article entitled "Best practices for using and troubleshooting VMware Converter." You can find that at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004588 

Good Luck
For the Print server part, you have to create new printers on the new 2008 DC, so you can not migrate the old printers from the 2003 DC due to changes of the drivers.

Best way would be to create new printers (and I mean printer objects) on the 2008 DC and distribrute them trough GPO's with Print Managment console in 2008 and than script/delete the old printers manuall on the clients.
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xcomiii,
 I am upgrading to a 2008 domain, but I'm keeping the print server on a 2003 server (p2v it). Will I still need to update my drivers? I wasn't planning on moving the print server to the 2008 DC.
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If leaving it on 2003 you will not need to create the printer objects on 2008 nor upgrade any drivers