Dear expert,

I have created a new guest OS in VMware ESXi 4.1 according to the following procedures:-

1. Install windows 2008 R2 standard

2. Configure network information

3. Join the server to the domain

4. Run windows update

As I will promote the member server to domain controller.  Therefore, I have taken the snapshot for the member server before running dcpromo.  The aim of the snapshot is to make it easier to fall back if the promotion screws up.

When the promotion screws up, I will perform the following steps to re-promote the member server to domain controller.

1. Restore snapshot for the member server

2. May need to execute metadata clean up for the member server on existing domain controllers

3. Re-run dcpromo to re-promote the member server to domain controller.

I would like to know if the above procedures are correct when the promotion screws up.

Thank you for your kind assistance.

Dear expert,

I would like to know if the above procedures are correct when the promotion screws up.

Thank you for your kind assistance.

I can not represent a positive response to this procedure. When you join a computer to the domain, the computer establish a live connection with the domain controller which is called Secure Channel. Imaging and cloning is one of the things which break the secure channel. Since you are using 2008 R2, the imaging/cloning procedure will be problematic for you now or near future. So I do not recommend it.

If you have 10 computers or so in your whole domain it may be possible to do so because troubleshooting 10 computers in a domain is not a difficult task.

One thing to keep in mind is that promoting a domain controller is enough important which you should not do things like that about it. If everything goes bad during the promotion you may just need a metadata cleanup (rarely), so what is the point of cloning? :)

At worst you do a re-install of Windows. I prefer it this way.

Thanks for your prompt reply.

Do you mean that I have to do a re-install of windows instead of restoring the snapshot when the promotion screws up?

The snapshot is to make it easier to fall back if the promotion screws up.  Therefore, I don't need to re-install windows, re-configure server configuration and performing windows update which consume a lot of time actually.

Remarks: I have only around eight hours downtime to execute the promotion.

Thank you for your help.

As I will promote the member server to domain controller.  Therefore, I have taken the snapshot for the member server before running dcpromo.  The aim of the snapshot is to make it easier to fall back if the promotion screws up.

Never do that as it usually results in problems and USN rollbacks. Instead, I would recommend taking a backup using a system state backup solution that is AD-Aware. Windows Server Backup is a way to go too. Of course, test the restore procedure before restoring the production server.

Hello,

Actually if you are doing DCPROMO and pre requistis are met 99 % no issues will happen. If soem thing happens, Why dont you keep a system state backup of your Domain controller and keep clone of your existing Domain controller.

If something happens to your Memebr server, there is no issue.I am sure you can restor all the way server back in 3-4 hours max.

Regards

Biju Kurup

Thanks for your prompt reply.

Do you mean that I have to do a re-install of windows instead of restoring the snapshot when the promotion screws up?

Yes. No snapshots and no images. Go with re-install or System State backup as Ahmed mentioned.