Issue with Win2003 DC and Replicaiton

[samuk]

I had the same issue with restoring the DC from a VSS enabled backup.

When i replicate our two DC's to another ESX host and power these on in an isolated environment the following occurs:

The server initially boots into Safe Mode
The server then reboots
I am then able to login to Windows, but the logon screen takes some time to appear.

After all this the DC is not functioning correctly.

I found this article which i followed to reset the Blue Flags and after that all worked ok. (Setting them to D2 and D4 in the regirtry)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... S.85).aspx (you will need to copy this and paste into the browser)

The reason for me poiting this out is that i have been told this is not normal, and i should not be required to do this...

Once i log in and run DCDIAG i get a hole load of errors..


Any thoughts....?

[TrevorBell]

Hi ,

Im my enviroment i have 2 Dc which are Vm and 1 physical still in a DR room for safe keeping. So when i replicate the two Dc`s they do boot up and restart but then im able to log in. Where are the FSMO roles held in your enviroment on both Dc`s you are replicating or maybe elsewhere on another Vm ?

[samuk]

Hi,

We have two DC's, of which one holds the roles. Both Servers are GC's.

Also maybe worth mentioning that when the boot back into windows i get the promt to fill in - Windows was shut down unexpecdidly and i need to enter a reason.

I have just replicated again, DCDIAG gives a wole load of errors including ALL GC's are down.

I will try stoping the FRS serivice on both DC's and resetting the Blur Flags to D4 and D2 - restsrt the service wait a while and everything should be ok..

When i was trouble shooting this a while back, i was in conversastin with Veeam, Vmware and Microsoft - and the end conclusion was the Backup was inconsistant (MS and Vmware) - however nothing from Veeam..

All other servers, such as SQL, Exchange etc are ok.

[TrevorBell]

Yes i have to enter an error report for mine which i just dismiss, i have tried this 30 miles away at our DR site and we got both Dc`s working and 20 other vm`s... so the method does work.

are you using VSS to make the copy of the Vm`s as this is needed, also make sure you untick the continue if unsucessful box as you do not wish to use this as it defeats the point of making the VSS consistant snapshot.

[samuk]

VSS is being used, and the continue without is unchecked.

I have emailed this thread to Veeam support - hopefully they may assist...

Not sure what else i could try..?

[TrevorBell]

http://veeammeup.com/2008/08/vss-and-vm ... g-you.html

check out this link for some more info...

Trev

[TrevorBell]

Hi,

I have just started my 2 DC`s i replicate every 4 hours on their own network ..

Vm is windows 2008 32bit 2vcpu 4 gig ram.

1. power on Vm`s and when prompted with msg.uuid has altered select " i just copied it"
2. after a few minutes the Dc`s boot to logon prompt.
3. log on to both Dc`s and after a short time both will reboot automatically i can only assume doing updates ?
4. when rebooted log back into Dc`s and then delete a user account from dc1 then check on dc 2 its been deleted - whicj it has

I have just performed this test and works fine for me, also make sure VSS enabled as you need consistant backups.
I have tested this in our offsite DR partners site and it worked well with SQL , Oracle and around 20 other VM`s it was a little slow but thats down to having a single Dell r710 with 2 Quad x 2.226ghz and 38 gig ram. I should in hindsight have a few more esx servers on our DR plan to spread the load. But as a test im totally confident in Veeam to provide me with replicated DC`s to get our company up and running in a Major Site Disaster

Thanks

Trev

[TrevorBell]

i ran dcdiag and got some errors as i still have 1 physical DC but the other two replicate between each other and dns is fully working...