Question on virtualizing WSE 2012r2

[ncarty97]

Hello, I wanted to see if someone could either clarify a couple things on virtualizing WSE 2012r2 or point me towards some resources so I can figure it out.

I have a small home office with 3 users. We currently have WSE 2012r2 running for the primary purposes of backing up client computers, file sharing, and remote access. It has been working great, but I have run into a problem, I believe caused by some corruption in Active Directory, and I need to do a restore of the server to an earlier state.

In trying to fix my problem, I remembered reading a lot of people stating that the WSE 2012r2 license allows for 2 installations (one real, one virtual) and that this was in fact best practice since if you are using the virtual server as your 'main server' and the real one just as a host, its very easy to restore the virtual server to a previous state.

I've been using Hyper-V on my home server for a while (windows 10 as a host with WHS 2011 and some other VMs) so I get the basic concepts of setting up Hyper-V and virtual machines.

So my questions are:
1) Is that in fact best practice?
2) In a setup like that, is the host server really just running Hyper-V and nothing else?
3) Is the virtual server the domain controller?
4) If so, does the host server join the domain of the virtual server?
5) When you set up the host, do you just skip the whole domain setup portion?

Thank you for your help

 

[cesmith9999]

1) it depends. I prefer it now. but if you have a larger system I prefer a few smaller physical boxes
2) yes
3) yes
4) it can. it would be easier to do that to manage the physical server that way.
5) yes

Chris

 

[scobar]

I do a WSE VM at home with a hyper-v host joined to the domain.

 

[ncarty97]

Thanks for the replies. So here's a question that has me a bit stumped. I just reinstalled WSE 2012r2 on the physical machine. I'm going to just use this as a Hyper-V host then do a virtual installation. In the 'Configure Windows Server Essentials, it wants me to set up the Internal Domain Name and I can't move forward until I fill that in. Since the domain controller is going to be the virtual installation, which doesn't exist yet, what do I do? Set it up and then disable it later or something? Thanks!

 

[kboxvegas]

Thanks for the replies. So here's a question that has me a bit stumped. I just reinstalled WSE 2012r2 on the physical machine. I'm going to just use this as a Hyper-V host then do a virtual installation. In the 'Configure Windows Server Essentials, it wants me to set up the Internal Domain Name and I can't move forward until I fill that in. Since the domain controller is going to be the virtual installation, which doesn't exist yet, what do I do? Set it up and then disable it later or something? Thanks!

You will need to prep a seperate ISO to install WSE without the essentials experience. It was really easy, I followed this guide:

http://techie-blog.blogspot.com/2014/02/windows-server-2012-r2-essentials.html?m=1

 

[ncarty97]

Thanks. I also found this which seems to have worked pretty well:

How to configure Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials Hyper-V Role as HOST.

 

[ncarty97]

Well, ran into a new bump, so any advice this would be appreciated.

I installed the host as my link above said, worked great. I then set up my WSE 2012r2 VM and set it as the domain controller. The VM can get to the internet. It can see the two other PC's on my network (haven't joined them to the domain yet) and it sees my print as a device.

The host sees the two other PC's, the printer as both a device and a Computer (Its one of those multi-functional ones that has some storage and such) and my router.

The host and the VM though cannot see each other. I can ping between them by ipaddress just fine. I tried joining the host to the domain, but it can't find the domain.

I'm thinking I didn't set the virtual switch up correctly.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

 

[ColPanic]

Check your DNS settings. Both host and client (and all other domain joined machines) should have the WSE VM as the only DNS entry.

 

[ncarty97]

Thanks. Strangely enough, within a day or so, all the PCs and servers can now see each other, including the host. The host still can't access the shared folders from the WSE VM though (Not a huge deal, but I thought noteworthy). I'll check the DNS