Small Business Server 2003 to 2012 R2 Migration and Virtualized Domain Controller Questions

garak0410

BackupAssist had been giving me conflicting stories...they said I can run their stuff on the host AND backup AD from the host and have granular restores. I am still a little wary of it as it just does one large backup and doesn't let me select what exact folders I want...

http://www.backupassist.com/education/resources/hyperv_implementation_guide.html

scottalanmiller

@garak0410 said:

By the way...turning off VMQ also made remote desktop much better... So that solved my speed woes for sure...

Yes. Sounds like that was just causing general network havoc.

scottalanmiller

@garak0410 said:

BackupAssist had been giving me conflicting stories...they said I can run their stuff on the host AND backup AD from the host and have granular restores. I am still a little wary of it as it just does one large backup and doesn't let me select what exact folders I want...

http://www.backupassist.com/education/resources/hyperv_implementation_guide.html

When you say "the host" what do you mean?

Why not use BackupAssist exactly like you are using it now?

garak0410

@scottalanmiller said:

@garak0410 said:

BackupAssist had been giving me conflicting stories...they said I can run their stuff on the host AND backup AD from the host and have granular restores. I am still a little wary of it as it just does one large backup and doesn't let me select what exact folders I want...

http://www.backupassist.com/education/resources/hyperv_implementation_guide.html

When you say "the host" what do you mean?

Why not use BackupAssist exactly like you are using it now?

The physical server that hosts the virtual's. What they kept telling me over and over is that the ONLY way AD could be backed up was only from the Domain Controller itself.

But as you said in the other post, I can just load BackupAssist on the Domain Controller, back up AD and remote backup the files and SQL and also do supplemental backups of the VM's with Unitrends when I get it working.

scottalanmiller

The "host" as you are calling it is not the Domain Controller. It is the HyperV control environment. It cannot be used for anything else. No DC, no backups. It is not available to you except to control HyperV. Don't think of it as being a Windows Server. From a license standpoint, it is not.

Your DC is a VM and just install BackupAssist there as the vendor said to.

scottalanmiller

This is, sadly, one of the ways in which HyperV is more confusing than every other product on the market. Microsoft, in an attempt to make things "easy" makes the SO confusing.

garak0410

@scottalanmiller said:

This is, sadly, one of the ways in which HyperV is more confusing than every other product on the market. Microsoft, in an attempt to make things "easy" makes the SO confusing.

Good, I am justified in my confusion. Ha. And I now see where something like Unitrends is helpful in VM backups now too.

OK, I am going to bump my DC up in memory to handle the backups for now. See, just see an advantage of virtualization. I just am not ready for new snafu's if they should arise related to Hyper-V.

scottalanmiller

And, just in case it isn't clear elsewhere, Unitrends is a VM on is own. It doesn't run on top of something else. You just download and pop into HyperV. It's an appliance, just in virtual form.

garak0410

@scottalanmiller said:

And, just in case it isn't clear elsewhere, Unitrends is a VM on is own. It doesn't run on top of something else. You just download and pop into HyperV. It's an appliance, just in virtual form.

Yes...I installed Unitrends and it automatically created a Hyper-V VM. It was nice.

garak0410

OK...this is officially Migration Week and ready to just "do it."...everyone has twisted my arm to remain with and trust Virtualization. Now that I got that VMQ turned off, the VM's run great.

So, another question I am unclear about and I have may have asked about it in some capacity...and I'll try to be as detailed as possible.

So, since I can skip running ADPREP on the existing Domain Controller since it is 32 Bit, when do I run it on the future new Domain Controller?

My next step in the migration portion of this is this:

			□ Add the AD role.
				® http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh472162
				® After adding the AD DS role and DNS roles to your new Windows 2012 R2 Server simply click the link under Post-deployment configuration from your server manager titled "Promote this server to a Domain Controller"
				® Walk through the wizard and add your new domain controller to your existing domain.

So, here are my questions:
I've never done this wizard before...will it eventually prompt me to enter a domain name? (I want it to be the same as my current one for sure)
By promoting it, it will not affect the other one at all correct? So I should be able to do this during business hours right? Only on demotion of the old one, will this one take over, right?

Thanks...

scottalanmiller

You should already be joined to the domain. It doesn't need to ask you the domain name because you only promote within the domain that you are already in.

scottalanmiller

Becoming a DC will not impact the other DC. Having multiple DCs at once is how AD is meant to be used.

garak0410

@scottalanmiller said:

You should already be joined to the domain. It doesn't need to ask you the domain name because you only promote within the domain that you are already in.

OK, going to go step by step now...even without having the AD role yet, it is OK to join my new Domain Controller VM to the domain, correct? Just wanted to make sure...

scottalanmiller

Yes it must be joined to the domain.

garak0410

OK...adding the AD and DNS roles currently...waiting on the wizard to complete.

garak0410

@garak0410 said:

OK...adding the AD and DNS roles currently...waiting on the wizard to complete.

I got to the joining the domain and promotion step and it is telling me the FORREST FUNCTIONAL LEVEL IS WINDOWS 2000. If it is referring to the old server, I've checked and it is 2003.

scottalanmiller

The old server is 2003 or it's functional level is 2003? Which did you check?

garak0410

@scottalanmiller said:

The old server is 2003 or it's functional level is 2003? Which did you check?

Both...I changed the Functional Level about a month ago in prep for this. Wonder if it ever replicated? So, stuck here now.

scottalanmiller

Maybe it didn't replicate. But there is only one DC, right? So nowhere for it to have replicated to.

garak0410

@scottalanmiller said:

Maybe it didn't replicate. But there is only one DC, right? So nowhere for it to have replicated to.

Well, bad choice of words...wonder if it REALLY changed it. It shows 2003. So, right now, stuck. I could reboot the current DC tonight but alas, it puts me behind a day now.