Search Results for: VM-generationID

Active Directory Virtualization Safeguards with VM-GenerationID on VMware vSphere

Arriving at the fifth part of this series on Virtualizing Domain Controllers on vSphere, I managed to gather some feedback on these blogposts. One question that emerged after writing the last blogpost on Replication considerations for Domain Controllers running on VMware vSphere was: Isn’t Windows Server 2012 supposed to solve all these challenges with virtualizing … Continue reading "Active Directory Virtualization Safeguards with VM-GenerationID on VMware vSphere"

Cases where VM-GenerationID doesn’t help make Active Directory virtualization-safe, Part 2

Yesterday, I talked about the new Active Directory virtualization safeguards in Windows Server 2012 (and beyond) and how Joe Richards triggered me to think about cases where the Active Directory virtualization safeguards (powered by the new VM-GenerationID) don’t help make Active Directory virtualization-safe(r). In the first post, I talked about how the Active Directory virtualization … Continue reading "Cases where VM-GenerationID doesn’t help make Active Directory virtualization-safe, Part 2"

Cases where VM-GenerationID doesn’t help make Active Directory virtualization-safe, Part 1

Joe Richards posted an interesting blogpost a while ago on why Active Directory VM-GenerationID functionality is not an alias for Active Directory anti-USN Rollback functionality. In it, he makes some valid claims: You are only protected in very limited set of very certain very specific circumstances. The VM-GenerationID "triggers" are dependent upon the virtualization platform.  … Continue reading "Cases where VM-GenerationID doesn’t help make Active Directory virtualization-safe, Part 1"

List of Hypervisors supporting VM-GenerationID

Microsoft introduced the VM-GenerationID in Windows Server 2012, to enable Virtual Machines (VMs) to notice when they’re snapshotted, restored and/or cloned. Active Directory is the first technology to put the VM-GenerationID to good use. The following Hypervisors support VM-GenerationID: Windows Server 2012 Standard Edition (Hyper-V) Windows Server 2012 Enterprise Edition (Hyper-V) Hyper-V Server 2012  (Hyper-V) … Continue reading "List of Hypervisors supporting VM-GenerationID"

KnowledgeBase: VMware Tools Quiescence corrupts Active Directory backups

Sometimes, IT issues are not what they seem to be. A strange issue reared its ugly head last week regarding something I hold dearly: Active Directory backups. The situation An organization runs Active Directory Domain Controllers virtually on top of VMware vSphere. The VMware Tools are installed on the virtual machine. The organization creates backups … Continue reading "KnowledgeBase: VMware Tools Quiescence corrupts Active Directory backups"

Keeping virtual Domain Controllers apart on trusted VMware vSphere hosts

Virtualizing Domain Controllers introduces risks that are not present when running non-virtualized Domain Controllers. Two of these problems –running Domain Controllers on hosts with the wrong time and running all Domain Controllers on the same host –can be addressed with one VMware vSphere feature: VM/Host Rules.   Additional challenges when running virtualized Domain Controllers We’ve … Continue reading "Keeping virtual Domain Controllers apart on trusted VMware vSphere hosts"

Pictures of VMworld Europe 2019

Deji Akomolafe invited me over to Barcelona last week, to present two sessions with him at VMware’s VMworld Europe 2019 event. After I had spend Tuesday November 5th at one of my favorite customers, I drove to the airport to take my first flight to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. I had a short layover, … Continue reading "Pictures of VMworld Europe 2019"

Domain Controller Cloning on VMware vSphere

After detailing Active Directory Virtualization Safeguards with VM-GenerationID in part 5 of this series on Virtualizing Domain Controllers on vSphere, it’s time to talk about the second Active Directory Domain Services feature that is enabled through the VM-GenerationID technology: Domain Controller cloning.   About Domain Controller cloning Microsoft recommends not re-using Domain Controllers for other … Continue reading "Domain Controller Cloning on VMware vSphere"