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Move FSMO Roles from Physical Server and Decomission DC

Good day everyone. We currently have 4 Domain Controllers in our domain. The domain controller holding the FSMO roles is a very old Windows 2000 server. We would like to transfer the roles to a newer DC and decommission it.

 Here is our layout:

    FSMO role holder is a physical server, other 3 are VMs on different hosts (using Hyper-V)

    The 3 other DCs are on Windows 2003 SP2


Would it be a good idea to have all DCs as VMs or should at least one be on a physical machine?

In a previous question, a fellow member informed me that the Hyper-V servers should be set in a workgroup (because if they are in the domain and all DCs are virtual, they boot up and there is no DC available until the Hyper-V server finishes loading and starts the VM.

I understand this but I have all Hosts in the domain as I use GP and for authentication purposes. Would the only way around this be to have a physical DC?
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Would it be OK to have the FSMO role holding DC also be a VM Host? I am trying to avoid having one extra piece of hardware if at all possible, but not if it will cause any issues.
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Thank you for this information. My only remaining concern is how to handle a potentially situation where all servers have to be shutdown for maintenance. Given that the FSMO DC would also be a VM, as well as the remaining DCs, that would mean that the host machines (which are also on the domain) would be the first to start.

What type of issues would be noticeable and are there ways around this issue?
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Well, all roles would be on one DC. I am only referring to the impact of the DC not being on before the VM Hosts. The impacts you are referring to above are impacts to changes being made, with the exception of source time.
If you get your point correct, you are refaring to the order of starting the DCs up ?

If so, no empact. if the FSMO hloder was started up before othor DC there is no impact on the domain.
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Not quite. I was referring to the Host that FSMO DC resides on being started first, next the FSMO holder, and all the remaining servers.
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I understand the host would fail to communicate but would I am trying to figure out is whether any serious issues would arise by having this happen?

Not interested in having the Host hyper-v servers in workgroup environment for the reasons named.
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That's exactly what I wanted to hear. I knew it was a risk but wanted people's opinion on whether the pros outweighed the cons. Don't think so. I have the hardware to make this happen physically but wanted to try and reduce my footprint. Oh well, one more server to maintain. Thank you for your help.
You are welcome!

please close the quesiton if you get the answer.