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EdeakinFlag for United States of America

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Create a Lab Enviroment of my Active Directory

Guys, I have a Windows 2003 server running as DC and exchange 2003. I want to create a test environment of this server so I can test the upgrade process of Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010 in our corporate location that is on a separate network completely.
I thought the best way to do this was create a VPN connection on the new 2003 server (server2) to connect to the production server (server1) after I replicate the AD to server 2 I was going to disconnect the VPN and never connect again.

Can someone point me in the right direction with step-by-step instructions to achieve creating this test environment?
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setasoujiro
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... or use Microsoft Disk2VHD converter and run in isolated (read: not attached to the real network) within Windows 2008 Hyper-V.
You don't need those. I exactly advise to you, use VMWare Workstation 7, install this program to one of computers and install your servers in VM and test your necessites.

Good luck.
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Thank you guys for the advice, I looked over these recommendations over the weekend and one of the issues is that I do not know a whole lot about virtualization and what these processes could do to the production environment.
 
From the little I read is it possible to use VMware Player and the VMware vCenter Converter to convert the PtoV. I read that the vCenter Converter supports Hot Clone so that the production server will not be disrupted. Again from above I am concerned on what this could do to our production environment.

Can you guys shine some light on this and point me in a better direction that would help me make this happen?
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The one thing I cannot find is the amount of time it takes to perform a P2v. I know there are a lot of variables depending on the environment, but I have two disks (C=67GB and E=205GB). Will this take a long time (8hours or two days)being an Exchange 2003, DC GC, etc to convert and also will I need to provide space for 300GB of space for the VM on a separate device?

Can you give me any insight on this so that I can try and prepare for the unknown?
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Thank you for all your help!