Windows Domain Controller: Create a test environment from a production environment

Posted by Robert Coggins on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Robert Coggins
Published on 2009-10-07T15:50:12Z Indexed on 2010/04/01 17:53 UTC
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Windows

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domain

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dc

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active-directory

I need to create a working test environment of a domain we have. I need to have all the data from the production environment in the test environment. What is the best way to go about doing this?

Here are some ideas I have but I am not sure if there is a better/recommended way of doing this.

Use Vmware converter to create a VM of one of the production DCs
create a VM and promo it on the real domain and move the vm to my test environment.
use some kind of backup utility to backup the domain info and restore it to my vm I created.

Thanks in advance for any help!

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