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I have two old HP ProLiant servers and I’d like to run Hyper-V Server 2016 on them, using Replica for disaster recovery. I actually have Hyper-V installed on one of them at the moment for testing purposes.

I have a Windows Server 2012 Essentials VM that I’d like to run on Server 1, replicating to Server 2. As you’ll no doubt know, Essentials only allows a single DC on the network, so a secondary DC on a physical box “outside the loop” isn’t possible.

Am I correct in thinking that I do not want to join either of the Hyper-V servers to the domain? I don’t want a situation where Server 1 fails, or the DC VM corrupts somehow, and I cannot then log on to fix things. I could have the DC VM start automatically, but I still wouldn’t feel safe.

I understand that Failover Clustering requires a DC online, but I think Replica would suit my needs.

@Microsoft

9 Spice ups
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From it sounds like you’re asking you literally just want a backup of your DC, correct? To answer your question directly, yes you could use Hyper-V Replica for this, but this could also be accomplished with a backup product that really should already be a part of your systems. Regardless, neither Hosts need to be joined to a domain for Hyper-V Replica.

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I like the ease of just being able to fire up the VM on the other host if something happens to the first. Plus, it should be easier for somebody else to handle if I’m not here, rather than having to restore from backups. I’ll experiment with it a little first to make sure it’s something that will work for me.

I’m glad to hear that neither have to be part of a domain to use Replica, but I’m having difficulty connecting Hyper-V Manager to the host when it’s not part of a domain. I’ve tried adding the host to the manager via IP and hostname, using the local credentials for that machine.

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Ideally you should have 2 domain controllers. One on each host.

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Yeah, honestly that’s what it comes down to with DR, what can actually be executed, not just theory. As far as the issues with connection Hyper-V manager, is this to each Host from a management PC or from the Primary Host to the Secondary? What error messages are you getting? Do you have PSRemoting enabled? Is the VMMS running on whichever Host you’re having issues connecting to?

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Yeah, I’m having difficulty connecting the Hyper-V host to the manager on my PC. My PC is part of a domain, and the host isn’t.

When I try to connect, either by IP or hostname, I get the following error:

“The computer ‘ / hostname’ could not be resolved. Make sure you typed the machine name correctly and that you have network access”.

I’m going to guess that this has something to do with DNS and the fact that the host is not part of AD. I’d expect a problem trying to connect by hostname, but not IP.

VMMS is running on the host, not sure about PSRemoting. I can also RDP into the host using the IP address.

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Keep in mind that Replica isn’t a substitute for backups. Replica makes an identical copy, which is great for a quick failover type recovery. It’s not so good, though, for when you discover something missing / corrupt a few days after the fact. Of course, on a DC, there really shouldn’t be much that you’d need to go back a few days for, but personally I like to have the ability to restore older files just in case.

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You can have more than one DC. The one running essentials just has to be the domain root and the FSMO role holder.

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This is a bit of a long-shot, but what OS is your PC running? Hyper-V Manager on Windows 7 won’t talk to Hyper-V 2016, or at least it won’t on my work PC. No problem connecting from Windows 10 though.

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Yeah, I’ve read about other versions of Windows not talking to Hyper-V. Unfortunately, this PC is running Windows 10.

I’ve manually added the host to the forward lookup zone on my DC which did get rid of that particular error and the host can now be pinged by the hostname. The DNS entry has the domain suffix now, though, and I don’t know enough about DNS to know if that’s okay!

Anyway, the error message has now changed to the following:

You do not have the required permission to complete this task. Contact the administrator of the authorization policy for the computer 'HYPER-V-2'.

I’ve tried logging in with ‘HYPER-V-2\Administrator’, as well as a new local administrator account I created on the host.

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Interesting. It’s slow, but I can log in and view VMs on the host using 5nine Manager. It concerns me just how slow it is to connect, though, and I’d like to get Hyper-V Manager working with it too.

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Well, despite me being able to connect via 5nine Manager, I cannot get it to access local drives remotely in order to add virtual disks to VMs.

I suspect all these problems relate to domain vs workgroup credentials, and I’m probably missing something fundamental.

Has anybody here managed to set up and access a non-domain Hyper-V Server from a domain-connected client?

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This is not true of 2016. 2008R2/2012/2012R2 required the host to be in a domain, but 2016 negated this and allows for Workgroups. Additionally, since 2012R2 you have been able to bring a cluster online even when the DC is down. My experience, it doesn’t work right on its own and requires a few powershell commands.

Ideally do the following (assuming you want to stick to the single DC your allowed):

  1. Get a free license of StarWind vSAN and install on it on each host and then create a redundant iSCSI volume. This is where you want your VM to live. Doing this ensures your VM data lives in 2 places and sets you up for your cluster (StarWind has some good tutorials on setting this up). Keep your cluster OUT of the domain.
  2. Put your VM into this iSCSI area and make it a role within the cluster.

You now have data duplication as well as HA.

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That sounds ideal. I do still have the problem of reliably connecting to the Hyper-V hosts in order to manage them, though (clients inside the domain, host outside). As an advocate of keeping the cluster outside of a domain yourself, I’m guessing you’ve had experience with this?

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I fired up a Windows 10 VM and didn’t join it to the domain, then installed Hyper-V Manager. It connected to the Hyper-V host straight away without fuss, so workgroup/local credentials must be the issue here.

How can I get an AD client to connect in the same manner?

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Get Veeam Replication because a) replica isn’t a backup b) Veeam doesn’t steal IOPS from your production server while Hyper-V replica DOES (at least in 2012(R2) with no CBT) c) you get rid of all the DC-like dependencies.

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Ah, I think the free version of Starwind vSAN only supports installation on Windows Server. I’m running Hyper-V Server and so I’d need the full version.

I believe that Spiceworks users at Jalapeno level or higher can apply to get the full features for free, but alas, I’m not quite there yet.

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Thanks gentlemen for references.

Hi OP,

You actually can install StarWind Virtual SAN on the host running Hyper-V Server. However, it will be a violation of Microsoft license agreement. You can find more information via link provided below:

StarWind Virtual SAN Free is fully functional, the only thing is that Free version provides access to StarWind Management Console for a period of 30 days after installation. So you can easily use StarWind Virtual SAN free for your needs.

Speaking about Failover Cluster on Workgroups, it is a Supported configuration, but not recommended. I will leave link for the reference: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/clustering/2015/08/17/workgroup-and-multi-domain-clusters-in-windows-server-2016/

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That’s interesting, thank you.

I have a couple of questions, though:

  1. If the Management Console is disabled after 30 days, how would one continue to manage the cluster?
  2. In what way is the Microsoft Licence Agreement violated by using software like this on Hyper-V Server?

Thanks

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Can’t answer number 1 (although I’d assume you need to buy the software or destroy the cluster), but for number 2, it doesn’t. If you’re going to be implementing a HA cluster, you need to be licensed for it regardless of the solution. It violates the MLA the same way using the builtin tools for Hyper-V’s HA clustering does, in that it has no bearing on how you license your VMs. Your end goal (HA cluster in general) is what dictates your licensing.