DCPromo

We're virtualizing our DCs today.

Process:

Setup new 2k8 vm template.
Copy.
Get VM set up and newsid.exe it, rename.

For the domain:

Need to transfer the 5 FSMO roles.
Use ntdsutil and the GUIs to make sure.
ntdsutil - connect to the server you want to make master
- transfer the roles, only seize roles if you've messed up and forgotten something, or you've had the server crash.
- see here for details: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324801

Once DHCP and DNS are setup and running on the two VMs, take one physical DC offline by doing DCPromo, then unjoining (is there a proper term for that?) from the domain, then unplugging the network cable.
Take the IP address of the decomissioned DC and set up the VM DC to use it. Reboot the VM DC.
Should be working now - check that DHCP leases are being created, and that DNS reports the correct IPs.

Exchange will need to be rebooted to take into account the new DCs for 'configuration manager'. You can try and change this manually, but it's recommended that you just reboot - it'll automatically pick up the new DCs if the old ones are offline.

Been up all afternoon with no issues. Great!

Going to get a backup physical DC running again on our old PE750, just in case. Not entirely sure how we'll do the DHCP for it yet.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Learning through failure - a keyboard creation journey

Learning Opportunities - Watching/listening list

DFSR - eventid 4312 - replication just won't work