RE: [ActiveDir] Virtual Servers in Branch Offices

[Bernard, Aric]

Noah,   There are two schools of thought here (maybe more:-): Run the DC role on the physical host and the file server in the virtual guest Run the DC in one virtual guest and the file server in another virtual guest. I often leverage (1) but have used (2) before as well.   As for the physical host configuration, memory and spindles are key.   I like to provide as much RAM as possible to each VM running on the host without taking away what is necessary for the host and the services running on it (lsass for example).  As for the disk configuration I prefer to have a single “base” OS virtual disk that each VM is linked to with a separate differencing disk – you can save a few GBs and may get some performance benefits.   From the physical side, a high speed RAID configuration is a must if you want well performing VMs.  If you have enough physical disks, creating separate RAID sets for each of the differencing disks and the base OS disk will likely provide the best performance.  In many instance I deploy all of the virtual disks across a single RAID set spanned across as many spindles as possible.  There are many variables here such as the IO pattern of each VM so YMMV.   Regards, Aric   From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Noah Eiger Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2005 3:30 PM To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org Subject: [ActiveDir] Virtual Servers in Branch Offices   Hi -   Just to follow up on the design thread.... Since I am placing DCs in small branch offices is there a value in using Virtual Server 2005 to create separate virtual boxes (DC & file server) running on the same physical box? Some users have administrative access to the file server, and I'd love to keep them off the DCs. I am also curious about optimal physical and virtual drive configurations for such a box.   I reviewed the thread here about Virtual Domain Controllers but it seemed to focus on using them as backups. I am talking about production.   Any thoughts most welcome.   -- nme