seven45
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Hyper V on windows 2012 standard
Hi,
Old Scenario, We have a physical DC, a virtual DC, a physical App server, and a physical FTP server.
We bought 2 new identical Servers with windows 2012. Idea is to turn on HYper V and p2v the physical to virtual. However, I want to provide redundancy incase one of the servers go down. What's the best approach here?
Old Scenario, We have a physical DC, a virtual DC, a physical App server, and a physical FTP server.
We bought 2 new identical Servers with windows 2012. Idea is to turn on HYper V and p2v the physical to virtual. However, I want to provide redundancy incase one of the servers go down. What's the best approach here?
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That's the basic idea. There are several tutorials out there for Hyper-V Replica and it is free in 2012 and 2012 R2. Just bing/google "Hyper-V Replica" or "technet Hyper-V Replica" to get the technet articles (which I consider trustworthy and thorough enough) and other blog posts by people that have set them up (not necessarily trustworthy, but often more detailed.) Plus the newest Hyper-V books cover the topic in great detail. Amazon has several Hyper-V 2012 books and, when purchased from a reputable publisher, are often quite trustworthy and are usually more detailed than technet...best of both worlds, but at the cost of a book.
ASKER
Thanks---i'll look up the details on Hyper-V replica. Do I need to worry about licensing if I 1: p2v existing windows 2003 to the 2012? or 2: if I create a new virtual server with 2012 on it and upgrade the ftp and/or app to the 2012?
Well, of course you always have to consider licensing. And you don't "p2v from 2003 to 2012" ...a p2v, by definition, converts a physical install to a virtual install. It is the same OS, same apps, same software, same profiles. If you want to upgrade from 2003 to 2012, that'll be a step independent of your p2v. And if you are upgradiong, p2v may not even make sense since a more traditional migration may be faster and less error prone. There is a lot of planning involved in that process and without a lot more detail, I couldn't possibly cover all the permutations through EE.
ASKER
Thanks---I actually meant p2v as option 1 where I keep everything the same till next year until support for 2003 expires. or think about option 2--traditional migration. I should have been more precise. My question would be on option 2, I believe I have the option of having 2 VM's per license of 2012 (not including the physical host)---so if I use the physical host as a DC, then I only have 1 more license to use for a virtual machine. I was just trying to confirm that i'm on the right path.
No, if you use the physical host as a DC you don’t have virtual licences – it’s either one physical or two virtual machines.
Moreover, it is not recommended to add additional roles on a Hyper-V host from performance point of view.
Moreover, it is not recommended to add additional roles on a Hyper-V host from performance point of view.
ASKER
Thanks for the tips.
Luckily we don't have to worry about exchange and/or a full sql server. we have an app server that uses sql express, an ftp server on windows 2003. other than that---just the AD roles. I was trying to get redundancy without having to go with expensive solutions. Would you mind elaborating on the hyper-v replica?
From what you mentioned, I assume I can install a DC on each of the physical hosts, then p2v the ftp and the app server to one server and configure a replica on the other server so its in standby?