Clone a domain controller in virtualized environment

Question

We have a single domain controller running server 2022 in a virtualized environment (vmware vsphere cluster / 2 ESXi servers - one primary, one backup)

We have the domain controller running on the primary ESXi server with no current issues. I wanted to make a backup copy of this domain controller virtual machine on the primary ESXi and transfer the backup copy to the backup ESXi server for safe keeping if we ever need to launch it because of a failure on the primary ESXi server.

My research of this topic indicates that there are some potential issues that could arise if we ever launched the backup copy of the DC on the backup ESXi server).

Does anyone have experience with this scenario, and if so, do you have any suggestions or helpful hints in regards to things to watch out for?

Answer 1

Hi

I would more recommand to have a full backup of the server, some tool allows instant restore on the ESX (like veeam community which is free), that way you could put the backup file on another storage outside your ESX pool.

Another scenario possible if the backup ESX is there only for backup, would be to use vReplicator from VMware on it, which is free too. vReplicator sync the protected VM via snapshot (at each interval, like 10m or 1hour), and you can "start" the remote VM if the primary's one fail.

Answer 2

That's not a good plan really. The better plan is to always have at least two domain controllers for high availability and disaster mitigation. Just check the affinity is such that both DCs would not migrate to the same host. If the primary fails for some reason, you can easily seize roles to other one with no downtime.

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