AD full restore in a VMWare private network not working

[Spear_]

VEEAM Essentials Version : 9.5.0.823
VMWare ESXi 6.0 4600944

Hi,

I'll give you the story so that you get the idea . Two brand new servers arrived to replace our two existing servers, one hosting VMs, the other hosting the replicas. The two old servers are still very good machines with loads of space and memory, excellent for benchmarking environment modifications.

I decided to create a new vswitch on one of the old servers with no interface, as a private internal VM Network. I decided to do a Full Restore of a 2012 AD server to make migration tests. It took me a day and a half to find out where the problem came from ... Once restored, the AD wasn't working at all, domain couldn't be contacted, and so on ... I was puzzled and a little scared in case I needed a disaster recovery from backups (by the way applications stuff is activated). Spent some time on my own AD stuff, checking, tinkering ...

Finally, the thing is simple :
- If I restore a VM with AD in the " internal-no-nic Vswitch2 ", it won't work.
- If I restore a VM with AD in the " internal-no-nic Vswitch2 " without activating the VM NIC, it works, AD opens.
- If I restore a VM with AD in the " basic " Vswitch1 connected to the server nics, it works, AD opens.

What's wrong with the creation of an internal vswitch that makes restored VMs do not work ?

Thanks in advance !

[foggy]

Hi, this could be related to DNS issues, so could you please clarify a few things:

- do you mean you're seeing the "domain couldn't be contacted" message while trying to log in to the restored DC?
- what do you mean by "AD opens"?
- how many DC's do you have in this domain?
- are some (all) of them also serve as DNS servers holding DNS zone of this domain?

Also, I strongly recommend opening a support case for a closer look at the log files.

Thanks.

[Spear_]

Hi Foggy,

- do you mean you're seeing the "domain couldn't be contacted" message while trying to log in to the restored DC?
I restore the VM, the server starts until the login page, then does its " VEEAM AD restoration stuff ", and restarts. Then, I login. If I try to open the Users & Computers in example, I get " Naming information cannot be located because:
The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted. "

- what do you mean by "AD opens"?
Sorry if I wasn't clear, I meant " AD Sites & Services ", " Users & Computers " ...

- how many DC's do you have in this domain?
I have 3 DC's, I only restored a single VM " alone ", the AD VM holding the FSMO roles. The others weren't restored, I was just trying this VM.

- are some (all) of them also serve as DNS servers holding DNS zone of this domain?
2 are DNS servers, this one, and another one. This server has the other DNS server as its primary DNS, and its own IP address as secondary DNS.

Also, I strongly recommend opening a support case for a closer look at the log files.
I'll do this right now, thanks foggy

I found some similar case ( vmware-vsphere-f24/restored-dc-fails-to ... 65-15.html ), but out of manipulating the registry (Tried, but it was a pain at many other levels to get the domain back on rails, I guess things should go on without such manipulations ?

PS : To avoid a VMware mistake or something specific out of VEEAM, I've just cloned this AD server from the production esxi, and copied it on the old esxi, in the private vlan, everything works fine.

[Spear_]

Case #02083381