DC with Exchange 2003 P2V migration

Discussion in 'Virtual and Cloud Computing' started by LukeP, May 2, 2010.

  1. LukeP

    LukeP Gigabyte Poster

    1,194
    41
    90
    Has anyone successfully migrated 2003 DC with Exchange 2003 (on one server) into Hyper-V?

    We have a single server setup which I would like to recreate in virtual environment for lab purposes.
    Lab and production environments are on 2 physically separate networks.
    As far as I understand I have 2 options:

    1. Restore full backup onto prepared Server 2003 VM
    2. Use SCVMM to P2V it and move it to lab environment

    I followed this article but I'm not sure how successful it was. Event Viewer shows many errors and so is dcdiag.

    If there's no other way I'll probably try to tackle these errors one by one but I was wondering if it's not easier to do it using SCVMM.
     
    Last edited: May 2, 2010
    WIP: Uhmm... not sure
  2. Phoenix
    Honorary Member

    Phoenix 53656e696f7220 4d6f64

    5,749
    200
    246
    I doubt it, that's a very unsupported configuration :)

    Most people don't P2V any DC's, its more hassle than it's worth, creating a new DC is much easier (although not in this instance, with you running a DC and Exchange on the same system!
     
    Certifications: MCSE, MCITP, VCP
    WIP: > 0
  3. LukeP

    LukeP Gigabyte Poster

    1,194
    41
    90
    Thanks Ryan!

    I did restore it from the backup. It was a bit tricky but worked out well in the end.

    Here is what I did:

    1. Installed Windows Server 2003 on new VM and patched it to source server level (pretty much everything)
    Not 100% sure if updates were needed due to whole system volume being restored (ie C: drive)

    2. Edited boot.ini file to add /safeboot:dsrepair switch so after reboot it goes into safe mode
    3. In safe mode I ran full restore to original location overwriting files.
    4. After restore but before the reboot I edited HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NtFrs\Parameters\Backup/Restore\Process at Startup\BurFlags key to have a value of D4 (authoritative restore replication)
    5. Rebooted the system
    6. Pressed F7 on startup to force standard HAL
    7. Server started
    8. Logged into newly restored server, installed Integration Services (Hyper-V), rebooted and checked Device manager (all ok).
    9. Ran dcdiag which showed connectivity error
    10. Added DNS pointer record for DC as for some reason it wasn't there (I looked at the live server config for comparison)
    11. Dcdiag again showed FsmoCheck fail because of Time service not running. When trying to start w32time service it was coming back with an error 2: System cannot find the file specified.
    12. In command prompt I executed w32tm /unregister followed by w32tm /register
    13. w32time service started ok
    14. DCdiag showed no errors.

    So by the looks of it DC is fine. User accounts are there. Event log is clean (nothing unusual). DNS works. DHCP works.

    Exchange was on the system drive so it got restored as well.
    I left the restore process to run and restore all Mailboxes so we'll see how it went tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed.

    :biggrin
     
    Last edited: May 6, 2010
    WIP: Uhmm... not sure
  4. Phoenix
    Honorary Member

    Phoenix 53656e696f7220 4d6f64

    5,749
    200
    246
    so you can see why we generally don't do it then right?

    DCpromo.exe followed by some FSMO role transfers seems so much easier ;)
     
    Certifications: MCSE, MCITP, VCP
    WIP: > 0
  5. LukeP

    LukeP Gigabyte Poster

    1,194
    41
    90
    That's what I'm going to do on live environment too. I just wanted to clone the server so I can do a test migration first (both DC 2003-2008 R2 and Exchange 2003 - 2010).
     
    WIP: Uhmm... not sure

Share This Page

Loading...
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.