iisiis-7vmware-vspherewindows-server-2008-r2
We have production Server 2008R2 VMs running IIS v7. The app pools have their own AD service accounts (not anonymous IUSR).
Will there be issues cloning these IIS machines into a stage environment? I'm assuming we'll have to sysprep them, which maybe difficult to automate (we're planning to do the cloning via PowerCLI and the nic setup via PowerCLI as well.)
As far as I can tell, the only real issue with cloning IIS v7 is if anonymous account was still in place.
Check your "Windows Features" for
Internet Information Services > WWW Services > Common HTTP Features > Static Content
Your concerns are valid and at the end of the day you will either have to assess each reward with its inherit risks.
Shared Content is great; but as you pointed out you then have a dependency on a remote host, and clustering storage technologies isn't cheap or simple. This type of setup has its place, and given your current solution I assume you aren't looking for a 99.999% uptime solution.
Have you thought about extending your script to disable load balanced nodes (at the firewall) during times when you sync content from Web1 > Web2?
Shared Config is great though, and uses a local cache copy if your UNC share is unavailable, and is a great way of ensuring web apps have the correct configuration.
My 2c's
Best Answer
Yes. You are correct you will need to SysPrep (Sysprep, Machine SIDs and Other Myths) your servers.
You can apply your Customizations (i.e., SysPrep settings) when cloning your machines using PowerCLI like so:
As for how SysPrep will effect IIS, I got conflicting answers doing a bit of research. The challenge I always have with SysPrep is that, I know it changes a lot of things during the generalize process but I always have difficulty finding documentation on what exactly it changes. It looks like that in Windows Server 2008, IIS is now supported by SysPrep (Sysprep Support for Server Roles) with the exception of instances where encrypted credentials have been stored the Applicationhost.config file. Previously with Windows Server 2003 and IIS 6.0 SysPreping was not a supported configuration (KB326779).
You take a good hard look at Web Deploy which will probably accomplish what you want to do with IIS in a more elegant fashion.
You really should follow @HopelessN00b's advice and test and document this process prior to committing to a plan that requires SysPrep.