Surebackup-Testing a DC backup/replica

[DavidWerner]

Hi VEEAM,

I would like to test our backup/replica of a Domain Controller in a virtual lab. Having read a lot of your documentation, I am not sure on how to deal with the following situation:

In our Productive environment, we have DNS appliances. From the readings, I understand that I need to add my DC to an Application Group. Will testing my DC backup/replica fail if it cannot find its DNS server?

Do I need to add a stand-alone DNS server to my Application Group in order that the DC backup/replica will be successful?
. . . and suppose I want to create a Virtual Lab to testing MS patching. If I add several member servers, they will need to be able to find a DC to logon.

So how does one configure a Virtual Lab if our Productive environment uses DNS appliances.

David

[Egor Yakovlev]

Hi David.
- If your DC is not a DNS server itself, than yes, you should add DNS Server to application group and run it ahead of DC - testing DC without DNS does not make much sense in terms of achieved result.
- If your member servers do not have DNS\DC-dependent services(say, Exchange is DNS and DC dependent, common standalone SQL Server or common File Server might not be) you are safe to run them in the labs without DNS\DC(logon could be served by cached credentials, depending on your domain configuration), however it is a good practice to have vLAB close to production environment in terms of services. Usually DNS\DC Servers are lightweight and would not be of trouble to add in respectful Application Group. You can also tune DNS\DC Server settings under Application Group to skip all tests and "just run" in the vLAB.
/Cheers!

[DavidWerner]

Thanks Egor!

I will configure a stand-alone DNS server and configure it with the same Forward and Reverse Lookup Zones as our Productive environment. The DC which I want to test, of course, still has the DNS appliance IP registered. Do I give the stand-alone DNS server the same IP as the DNS appliance? I assume I cannot give it the same IP as the DNS appliance until it is in the Virtual Lab.

david

[Egor Yakovlev]

Identical IPs will surely lead to problems. You can register stand-alone DNS server as secondary DNS on your DC.
/Thanks!

[DavidWerner]

What I am concerned about is when I place my DC replica and the stand-alone DNS server in a virtual lab (isolated virtual environment), the DC needs to be able to register its records in DNS and since it has DNS configured already, to give the stand-alone DNS the same IP.