Domain controller on a virtual machine with physical host as member

Can I make a virtual machine with Windows Server 2008 R2 and make it my domain controller? and add physical PC and other virtual machines on it?

I dint try it yet

Χρήστος Γαβρίδης

Posted 2014-11-26T20:02:23.020

Reputation: 67

Huh? Yes you can have a VM that is also a DC, what makes you think you couldn't? As for the second part about adding a physical machine, I'm not following what you mean... As-is this question is too broad, and lacks all research effort (IMO). Please go try it and come back with specific questions about specific problems you run into. – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2014-11-26T20:16:03.940

add phycical machines in the domain network and work like i make my domain controller on a phycical pc – Χρήστος Γαβρίδης – 2014-11-26T20:17:11.507

A VM works just like a physical computer, GO TRY IT. :) – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2014-11-26T20:18:52.713

Having your only DC on a domain member isn't the greatest idea. It's probably better to leave the host as a standalone or deploy an additional, physical DC. Ending up in a situation where you want to work with a domain member, but no DC is available is very undesirable. – Der Hochstapler – 2014-11-26T20:57:45.013

Answers

The short answer is yes.

The longer is answer is more complicated...

Yes, you can make a virtual machine with Server 2008 R2 (or any Windows Server) and make it add Active Directory. You can also add more virtual machines to it and join them to the domain.

You can add the host machine (the physical machine) to the domain. However, this can cause some problems. Remember when rebooting the physical host - say for some updates - all the machines will be down. The physical host will try to come up first and connect to the domain and fail, since the VM with AD on it will not have come up yet.

I worked at a place where this very setup was implemented and it was a huge headache. In once instance, I could not boot the host server and ended up calling MS for support. The first thing they said was dont do this. After lots of troubleshooting, the solution was simply to disconnect the network cable and log into the host server locally, then I was able to get the VMs to start.

I highly recommend against doing this setup, as does Microsoft. The potential pain in troubleshooting issues is not worth it. Just leave the host machine as a stand alone server.

Keltari

Posted 2014-11-26T20:02:23.020

Reputation: 57 019