I'm working with Virtual Labs at the moment, and have come across a restriction regarding allowing only a single DC within an Application Group. Can anyone expand on why the Veeam B&R User Guide states:
> 'Important! Do not add more than 1 domain controller to the application group. Otherwise, VMs in the virtual lab will not work in a proper way.'
...as there's no further explanation as to why this is should be the case. What's the reason for this restriction?
Many thanks
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kacsp
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Vitaliy S.
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Re: Single DC only allowed in Application Group?
Hello,
It is not a hard-code restriction, but rather important note to keep in mind, because when you add 1 DC, it is recovered in authoritative mode automatically. In order to publish multiple DCs in fully functional mode a bit different logic is required. Usually singe fully functional DC is more than enough to verify other VMs that require AD services up and running.
Can you please tell us why do you want to add multiple DCs into application group or this is was just a question you wanted to be clarified?
Thank you!
It is not a hard-code restriction, but rather important note to keep in mind, because when you add 1 DC, it is recovered in authoritative mode automatically. In order to publish multiple DCs in fully functional mode a bit different logic is required. Usually singe fully functional DC is more than enough to verify other VMs that require AD services up and running.
Can you please tell us why do you want to add multiple DCs into application group or this is was just a question you wanted to be clarified?
Thank you!
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kacsp
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Re: Single DC only allowed in Application Group?
Hi,
It's a bit of both...there's no reason for this restriction given in the User Guide, so it's good to know why this was stated. But, more importantly, we're not using Veeam in it's primary role but evaluating Virtual Labs for our developers to use for apps testing, though from development to pre-production. In certain scenarios emulating the production environment as closely as possible is a requirement. Whilst a single DC can be made to work OK, spinning up all the domain's DCs in an Application Group would ensure we had a closer emulation of production (and might negate the need for much of the metadata clean-up work needed when drawing down to a single DC).
I can see the logic of Veeam's approach to a DC being being recovered in authoritative mode automatically, but I'm just wondering if you could simply allow for the addition of as many DC VMs as needed by, say, a tick box for recovery in authoritative mode if a VM is identified as a DC when placed in an Application Group (a tick against a DC would automatically exclude any others from they're being subject to authoritative restore)?
Out of curiosity, can you tell me what would happen if further DCs were added to an Application Group later on? I guess Veeam would attempt to authoritatively restore each subsequently added DC?
As an aside, I acknowledge we're not intending using Veeam B&R for it's primary B&R purpose, but it's actually very, very close to what we need in terms of being able to provide developers with a series of on-demand, isolated domain environments, each quickly configurable as an accurate emulation, or not, of production networks. With just a few tweaks here & there to accommodate our intended use, it would be ideal. Is this a role you could consider expanding Veeam into with future developments perhaps?
It's a bit of both...there's no reason for this restriction given in the User Guide, so it's good to know why this was stated. But, more importantly, we're not using Veeam in it's primary role but evaluating Virtual Labs for our developers to use for apps testing, though from development to pre-production. In certain scenarios emulating the production environment as closely as possible is a requirement. Whilst a single DC can be made to work OK, spinning up all the domain's DCs in an Application Group would ensure we had a closer emulation of production (and might negate the need for much of the metadata clean-up work needed when drawing down to a single DC).
I can see the logic of Veeam's approach to a DC being being recovered in authoritative mode automatically, but I'm just wondering if you could simply allow for the addition of as many DC VMs as needed by, say, a tick box for recovery in authoritative mode if a VM is identified as a DC when placed in an Application Group (a tick against a DC would automatically exclude any others from they're being subject to authoritative restore)?
Out of curiosity, can you tell me what would happen if further DCs were added to an Application Group later on? I guess Veeam would attempt to authoritatively restore each subsequently added DC?
As an aside, I acknowledge we're not intending using Veeam B&R for it's primary B&R purpose, but it's actually very, very close to what we need in terms of being able to provide developers with a series of on-demand, isolated domain environments, each quickly configurable as an accurate emulation, or not, of production networks. With just a few tweaks here & there to accommodate our intended use, it would be ideal. Is this a role you could consider expanding Veeam into with future developments perhaps?
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Vitaliy S.
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Re: Single DC only allowed in Application Group?
It is stated because other DCs that are added to the SureBackup job will be brought online in non-authoritative mode and the should start the sync up process with the first DC automatically. You can surely add all DCs into the same application group and mark them as DCs. In this case every DC will be published in authoritative mode and I'm not quite sure how the sync up process will work after that.
If you want to emulate your production VMs, then go ahead and these VMs as a linked backup job, do not see any issues with that.
If you want to emulate your production VMs, then go ahead and these VMs as a linked backup job, do not see any issues with that.
I'm not sure that I follow you on what should be implemented, since you can add other DCs and do not tick DC role. This will make other DCs restore in non-authoritative mode and synchronize with the first DC.kacsp wrote:As an aside, I acknowledge we're not intending using Veeam B&R for it's primary B&R purpose, but it's actually very, very close to what we need in terms of being able to provide developers with a series of on-demand, isolated domain environments, each quickly configurable as an accurate emulation, or not, of production networks. With just a few tweaks here & there to accommodate our intended use, it would be ideal. Is this a role you could consider expanding Veeam into with future developments perhaps?
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kacsp
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Re: Single DC only allowed in Application Group?
This didn't occur to me, so thanks for suggesting it...Vitaliy S. wrote: I'm not sure that I follow you on what should be implemented, since you can add other DCs and do not tick DC role. This will make other DCs restore in non-authoritative mode and synchronize with the first DC.
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