# VM server question



## sportsaholic (Apr 15, 2008)

Can active directory be installed on a virtual machine running windows server 2008?

thx


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## Colossus610 (Jun 15, 2005)

Yes it can.
I have several VMWare host servers running virtual Server 2008 DC's with full AD domains in addition to virtual Server 2008 Terminal Server farms.
As long as you watch how you setup your networking between the virtual host server(s) and the virtual machine(s). Best practice in larger, more complex environments is to use different subnets or VLANs(or hardware altogether) to seperate your production virtual servers and virtual host servers. This usually is accomplished with multiple NICs per virtual host server.(4 or more sometimes for complex setups)
2 for example for production LAN traffic and 2 for iSCSI SAN traffic.
If you're just looking to study/mess with Server 2008, you shouldn't have any major issues. If you're looking to roll it out for actual business use, find some material and make sure you know a bit more about what you're getting into.


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