RE: [ActiveDir] Virtual DCs

[Lucas, Bryan]

Title: Virtual DCs

Just because it’s a VM, doesn’t mean you can stop managing it.  You still have to patch it, monitor it, upgrade it, etc.  Only thing it buys you from a management perspective is less hardware to manage.  How often are you managing your physical hardware?  If the answer is a lot, then maybe you’d should look at better hardware ;)   IMHO, I think VM’s are a great thing, but I’m not sure I’d turn *all* of my DC’s into VM’s.  Typically we use them for DEV/TEST and lightly used web/app servers.   Bryan Lucas Server Administrator Texas Christian University (817) 257-6971 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rivera, Ada Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2006 9:30 AM To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Virtual DCs   I would agree with your comments whole heartedly.  I don’t think this is a good idea.  Add to the fact that we are running Exchange 2003 and all of our DCs are also GCs.   As to why “management” is directing us to do this, one can only surmise…My guess is they are thinking of this as a way to save on hardware costs and reduce the number of servers to be managed.   Thanks for your input.   From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Molkentin, Steve Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2006 9:50 AM To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Virtual DCs   Ada,   I am intrigued as to why "management" are directing you to do this. What benefits do they percieve? Do they understand the nature of the 2K3 directory and the load 7,000 users puts on it?   This is not a criticism - just a curious thinking out loud moment...   Personally - I wouldn't do it. Some would say a DC is a sacred thing, not to be toyed with. Proof of concept is always good in these scenarios...  if you were to set this up in a lab, even with just two VMWare-ed DC's, you could show the overhead this would place on the machine and help them to understand the additional cost this will bring.   Remember, a DC that is just a DC (AD, DNS, maybe DHCP) doesn't need to be a gutsy box - it can just be a PC rebuilt with Win2K3 server on it. However it does need to stay up all the time.  ;)   themolk.     From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rivera, Ada Sent: Tuesday, 6 June 2006 9:51 PM To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org Subject: [ActiveDir] Virtual DCs We have a single domain forest with about 7,000 users. Currently we 8 AD regional sites and one HQ AD site. The regional sites each have a DC serving their local regional area and there are multiple DCs in our HQ site. The environment is currently running Windows 2000 SP4 and we are looking to upgrade our DCs to W2K3. The direction from management is that we will put all of our domain controllers on VM Ware when we upgrade the DCs to W2K3. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Good or Bad idea?