I'm considering creating a new domain controller in a remote branch office. They already have a physical domain controller but I'm considering decommissioning it in favor of a vmware host.
Nothing fancy…single host with DAS.
The branch office has WAN connectivity to other AD sites.
The idea would be to do the following:
- Build up the new VMWARE host
- Build up new DC vm with AD, DNS, DHCP roles
- After one week dcpromo the old physical DC and remove the DNS and DHCP roles
The end goal is to have a new VMWARE host at that site that can also host a Linux server they need for SVN. Failover, HA, vmotion, etc. isn't needed at this location. Backups will be done via their 2nd server (file/print server) via tape and BackupExec.
Besides the normal considerations about time sync/skew, is there any real concern with virtualizing this nowadays?
EDIT: This is only to virtualize a single DC at the branch office, and that office will only have 1 DC (the virtualized one). There are 5 people at this office.
Best Answer
No, this will work just fine so long as you remember to set these important VMs to auto-start on host reboot.
Just go into the configuration tab, then 'virtual machine startup', click on properties and set them in there.