Virtual Domain Controller Cloning in Windows Server 2012

Another great feature of Windows Server 2012 is Virtual Domain Controller Cloning, it doesn’t quite solve all our needs as there are still restrictions on having PDCs around, which is understandable:

Requirements

There are a few base infrastructure requirements to take advantage of DC cloning.

The hypervisor must support VM-GenerationID. Hyper-V running on Windows Server 2012 supports this feature. Other virtualization vendors will have the ability to implement this as well, so check with your vendor to see if it’s supported.

The source virtual DC must be running Windows Server 2012.

The PDC emulator role holder must be online and available to the cloned DC and must be running Windows Server 2012.”

We’ll be having a play to see how this helps SMBs to do DR cost-effectively.

More details can be found at Virtual Domain Controller Cloning in Windows Server 2012.