VMWare & Domain Controllers.

[Bozo]

We are looking to consolidate three servers onto one piece of hardware. One of the old servers is a Domain Controller.
Is it posible and safe to have it virtualized with two other servers?

Thanks.

 

[ddrueding]

Sure thing. I have 2 DCs and an Exchange server virtualized. No problems at all. You may want to manually control the boot order, so that the DC is up when the other machines start up, but if the DC is only a DC it should boot quicker than an app server anyway.

 

[Bozo]

Thanks for your quick reply!

I'm planning on using VMWare Server 2.0. Any issues with that?

 

[ddrueding]

Nope. I used that before I switched to ESXi. Both worked fine.

 

[Pradeep]

How big is the load on the DC Bozo? If it's getting hammered now I would suggest sticking with a dedicated box.

 

[Bozo]

It is only connected to 5 other computers. I monitored it for a while and it basically did nothing. I believe it is there for log-in purposes on the computers. :scratch:
This setup was brought in from an outside vender. A domain server, an sql server, and another server I'm not sure what it is doing. The servers are all dual Xeon boxes with hardly any load on them. This could all had been done with a core 2 duo and ~8GB of ram on one box.
A total of eight computers on an isolated, private network.

 

[ddrueding]

I've done consolidations like that plenty of times. Here is my low-risk method.

Get a new box (C2D with 8GB sounds right) and install ESXi or VMWare Server on it, install the VMWare converter on it as well.
Migrate all the machines to the new server, be sure to only have one or the other online at any one time, and set the new servers to the same IP as the old ones (they will keep the machine name and domain registration, but will revert to DHCP).
Power down the old servers, power up the VMs.

I've done this a lot, and the users have never noticed.

If they don't want to spring for a new box, one of the Xeons could do it. Just perform the steps above using any old spare machine, then once it is confirmed to work, blow away the old OS* on the Xeon and move the servers over.


*I haven't tried it but you could try installing VMWare server directly on the DC while it is running, and migrate the others to it. Leave the DC as a native server, and have the same hardware host the SQL and other machine virtually.