Question : AD in a virtual environment

Dear Experts,

AD in a virtual environment

I am looking to create a virtualised environment that is a "copy" of out production environment. We use Windows 2003 R2. The VM will be Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 and will be completely isolated from the production network.

How can I get a copy of the production AD into VM, what about FSMO roles?
Is there a way of "refreshing" the copy of AD in the VM environment once it's there?
Is there a better way altogether?


Thanks in advance.

Answer : AD in a virtual environment

Dhruvarajp said correctly,i would add few extra things to his comment.

Create a VM,machine with DNS services installed.
Add this VM as an ADC.
If dns is AD-integrated its better.
Give time for replication
Remove the VM directly means without demoting.
Shutdown the VM & change the DNS setting prior to shutting it down to point to its own IP address for dns.
Perform metadata cleanup of ADC means VM from production.
Start the VM into different VLan which should not communicate with production domain else there will be loads of error.
If required change the IP of domain controller.
After changing the IP restart the domain controller & then run ipconfig /flushdns & ipconfig /registerdns.

This is the simple way to get production data on virtual environment.