Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion
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@dafyre said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
It should be noted that when there's two domain controllers involved, P2V is rarely a good idea from what I understand.
If you're going to decommission the second VM, then demote it and turn it off.... and then P2V Server 1 seems like a more viable solution to me...
Listen to @dafyre, I don't do Windows Server currently.
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@travisdh1 At least not until he's decommissioned server 2. 8-)
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For an office that small, just demote and power off the second DC. Then P2V the remaining DC to get easier backups and faster recovery (assuming you use a good solution like Veeam or Unitrends).
There is certainly no need for a second DC at that scale.
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@dafyre said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
It should be noted that when there's two domain controllers involved, P2V is rarely a good idea from what I understand.
If you're going to decommission the second VM, then demote it and turn it off.... and then P2V Server 1 seems like a more viable solution to me...
Order is not relevant.
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@JaredBusch said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
@dafyre said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
It should be noted that when there's two domain controllers involved, P2V is rarely a good idea from what I understand.
If you're going to decommission the second VM, then demote it and turn it off.... and then P2V Server 1 seems like a more viable solution to me...
Order is not relevant.
I guess if you are decommissioning one, I could agree. But generally doesn't P2Ving a Domain controller cause issues?
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@dafyre said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
@JaredBusch said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
@dafyre said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
It should be noted that when there's two domain controllers involved, P2V is rarely a good idea from what I understand.
If you're going to decommission the second VM, then demote it and turn it off.... and then P2V Server 1 seems like a more viable solution to me...
Order is not relevant.
I guess if you are decommissioning one, I could agree. But generally doesn't P2Ving a Domain controller cause issues?
Never has for me, but if you are worried about it, then simply shutdown DC 2 during the P2V. Then there is no other DC for things to get out of sync with.
But most SMB environments do not have that much AD traffic for it to matter.
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@JaredBusch said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
@dafyre said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
@JaredBusch said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
@dafyre said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
It should be noted that when there's two domain controllers involved, P2V is rarely a good idea from what I understand.
If you're going to decommission the second VM, then demote it and turn it off.... and then P2V Server 1 seems like a more viable solution to me...
Order is not relevant.
I guess if you are decommissioning one, I could agree. But generally doesn't P2Ving a Domain controller cause issues?
Never has for me, but if you are worried about it, then simply shutdown DC 2 during the P2V. Then there is no other DC for things to get out of sync with.
But most SMB environments do not have that much AD traffic for it to matter.
I mean don't change password or make new users during the P2V.
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@dafyre said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
@JaredBusch said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
@dafyre said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
It should be noted that when there's two domain controllers involved, P2V is rarely a good idea from what I understand.
If you're going to decommission the second VM, then demote it and turn it off.... and then P2V Server 1 seems like a more viable solution to me...
Order is not relevant.
I guess if you are decommissioning one, I could agree. But generally doesn't P2Ving a Domain controller cause issues?
No, restoring from backups is what messes up Pre Windows Server 2012 R2 DCs. 2012R2 and newer all understand VMs now and are able to compensate for an old version being restored.
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Did I read this right, when all is said and done, you will have no continuously running servers at this site?
instead they will power on the server only when they need to look for archived data?
Also where is the DB now? I didn't see that in the OP.
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@Dashrender said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
Did I read this right, when all is said and done, you will have no continuously running servers at this site?
instead they will power on the server only when they need to look for archived data?
Also where is the DB now? I didn't see that in the OP.
Thank you for the replies everyone!
Yes that is correct. The servers
will be down.The application and database will be moved to the cloud.
The server will exist only for access if needed. But will remain off at all other times.
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I am going to address the elephant in the room here.
- DCs should only only be DC, DNS, and possibly DHCP
- Separate the file server role to a new server (vm)
- Why the hell do you need roaming profiles or even active directory for a network with 6 workstations. Everything should be cloud based. They certainly don't need AD.
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I would:
- create a Server 2012 core vm (use barebone core install and no extra resources. You won't need them)
- Promote it to DC, add DNS, and DHCP
- Transfer the roles to it
- Demote the file server and the other DC
- Work on creating a new vm for a file server or consider a NAS with cloud backup.
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@IRJ said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
I am going to address the elephant in the room here.
- DCs should only only be DC, DNS, and possibly DHCP
- Separate the file server role to a new server (vm)
- Why the hell do you need roaming profiles or even active directory for a network with 6 workstations. Everything should be cloud based. They certainly don't need AD.
I was brought into this work after they had it all set up and running for years. I did way more than initally asked. Right or wrong, it is where it is.
Everything at the beginning was virtual and server 2003, the owner demanded an all physical design. He was 100% against all cloud.
I merely did the best as I could and as close to how they wanted. The AD had already been set up as well as the file shares where they were.
I tried very hard to help them move from premise based "physical" but he was having non of it.
I chose to move them to roaming profiles because I observed how the staff worked.
They all desk jump and will use a different workspace multple times during the day.
But they desktops were never exactly the same and data was always somewhere on another system. So it sped them up once I gave them roaming profiles.
Once they saw how the workspace was the same in the entire network they were much happier.
I also implemented user profiles as apposed to a universal single login at each computer where they shared all credentials between.
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@prcssupport said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
I did way more than initally asked. Right or wrong, it is where it is.
I merely did the best as I could and as close to how they wanted. The AD had already been set up as well as the file shares where they were.As a consultant your job is to do what is best for the network, not what some CEO of a tiny company thinks he wants. If I just kept networks the way they were and didn't make any major changes during my career, I wouldn't be where I am at now. Be careful not to get caught up in what works today. You need to recommend what works in the future.
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@prcssupport said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
Everything at the beginning was virtual and server 2003, the owner demanded an all physical design. He was 100% against all cloud.
Is he paying you to do exactly what he says or is he paying you for your IT knowledge?
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@prcssupport said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
They all desk jump and will use a different workspace multple times during the day.
But they desktops were never exactly the same and data was always somewhere on another system. So it sped them up once I gave them roaming profiles.
Sounds like they aren't properly licensing their software. I can't think of another reason to jump workstations throughout the day. They may initially save money, but all that desk jumping is going to cost them in the long run. More IT tickets and less productivity
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I've V2V'd one of our DC's (it was also our on-site exchange) it was rather painless once it was understood on the process to get it done.
Disable AD replication functions, export and import into it's new home. I would imagine the same thing would have to occur with a physical.
Disable the AD functions, P2V and import.
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@DustinB3403 said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
I've V2V'd one of our DC's (it was also our on-site exchange) it was rather painless once it was understood on the process to get it done.
Disable AD replication functions, export and import into it's new home. I would imagine the same thing would have to occur with a physical.
Disable the AD functions, P2V and import.
I don't get the DC P2V mentality. It is 10x quicker and less risky to build a new DC with the latest OS and transfer the roles.
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@IRJ said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
@DustinB3403 said in Upcoming Job couple thoughts on DC demotion:
I've V2V'd one of our DC's (it was also our on-site exchange) it was rather painless once it was understood on the process to get it done.
Disable AD replication functions, export and import into it's new home. I would imagine the same thing would have to occur with a physical.
Disable the AD functions, P2V and import.
I don't get the DC P2V mentality. It is 10x quicker and less risky to build a new DC with the latest OS and transfer the roles.
In this case (and I wasn't the decider on it) because of ADFS, and everything involved with it, it was cheaper to have me migrate the system into XS, than to pay our MSP to build a new one.
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IRJ's point was that P2Ving a DC is kinda a waste of time.
But, if you have a bunch of shares/data on it, it might just be easier to P2V versus building a new one, changing all drive mappings, etc.
