If my SAN had a major issue, neither my VMs or my physical DC would have anything to do. All my clients could authenticate, but they woul�����t have anything to access.
I really feel like I���m missing an obvious underlying concept here and that makes me nervous. Bill From: John Cook [mailto:john.c...@pfsf.org] Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 3:21 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Pros/Cons of putting PDC/2DC on Virtual Server All I'm saying is most shops have an old but still useable piece of hardware with an OEM sticker on the case that would cost next to nothing to have online. What if your SAN had a major issue? John W. Cook Systems Administrator Partnership For Strong Families Sent to you from my Blackberry in the Cloud ________________________________ From: Bill Songstad (WCUL) To: NT System Admin Issues Sent: Mon Mar 30 17:35:33 2009 Subject: RE: Pros/Cons of putting PDC/2DC on Virtual Server I am not seeing the why of not putting all the DCs on a VM If my VM goes down, all the servers are down, yes, but all the servers are good and I can restore them to dissimilar hardware in a jiff If I keep a physical DC off the VM, all my other servers are still down so nobody is working still. I guess what Im asking is what is the value of having a physical DC if nobody can get to file-and-print or sql or exchange? What is the purpose of the extra physical box? Is there a problem with having all of AD down at one time? (I mean other than not allowing access to other resources; of which I have none) I suppose if I really should keep a physical server, I certainly wt have anything critical on it. I just dot like the idea of keeping an extra $1000 box with a $650 license on it just to keep the domain on two machines. Bring on the ridicule if Im making a mistake I opened my mouth to learn something her I just havet seen a good reason to have a physical DC if all your other servers are on a single VM. Bill From: Benjamin Zachary - Lists [mailto:li...@levelfive.us] Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2009 3:58 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Pros/Cons of putting PDC/2DC on Virtual Server I do/have all ds ed in vm environments. I do understand the feel good scenario. However, I place as much trust in the esx delivery as I do the physical box, if not more so since the vm is portable. Thas my .02. This structure is based around a san with or w/o vmotion (depending on budget). You can put a san together for next to nothing, that is fairly robust (drbd/openfiler/iet). With Esxi, and no vmotion. If a physical esx goes down you simply start them on the other machine. Its not pretty but it works, and a small/med shop that can be down for 15 minutes while someone does that can be worth saving the 5k. If you are talking about putting all your eggs in one basket thas acceptable in small/med environments. I know you mention this is a large environment so then I wonder how big could it be with just 1 exchange and 2 dcs ? Everything regarding restoring vms with DC data is well documented and there should be no surprises for those who need to do that. On the physical box, if the server crashes you have it even worse, because you cant just restor the image. You have to go rebuild the server, join the domain and then promote it again, or restore from backup. That actually sounds like more work, then restoring the vm, rolling back the ticket. In your particular case, it sounds like the advantages vmware gives you , space, consumption, failover have all been swept aside to save dollars. Therefore, I would say you should rethink the current solution. ________________________________ CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT: The information transmitted, or contained or attached to or with this Notice is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain Protected Health Information (PHI), confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, transmission, dissemination, or other use of, and taking any action in reliance upon this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient without the express written consent of the sender are prohibited. This information may be protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), and other Federal and Florida laws. Improper or unauthorized use or disclosure of this information could result in civil and/or criminal penalties. Consider the environment. Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to. ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
