Duplication of active directory environment?

I have something kind of... different, that I would love to accomplish but
not sure if it's possible.

I have a single forest, single domain AD production environment
(ionaglobal.com). I also have a test AD environment(single forest/domain)
called istest.com. I went ahead and modified a script I found to create all
sorts of users in my istest.com domain, to test replication etc.. which is
all wonderful... but too generic for me.

What I would really like to do, is somehow, someway.. take a replica of my
ionaglobal.com domain, and import it into my istest.com domain.. so I have
copies of all of my user accounts, security groups etc..

If it's a one time shot to replicate, and I can't have constant
replication... then I can live with that.. but in a perfect world, I'd have
weekly replication, or daily.. something that when my production changes..
my test env will change.

Most of my reasoning for this is I'd really like to set up an exact replica
of my MS environment in a development setting.. so I can have a development
AD/Exchange/Office Communicator environment that IT can play around with..
test new things.. break.. fix.. and not have to really worry too much
about doing anything new in production until it's all been tested, verified
and we get warm and fuzzies because it's with our replica production data.

Now... It sounds like a big order what I want to accomplish... so I don't
have high hopes for someone replying back saying sure! just use this vb
script.. so I suspect there may be commercial products that could allow
something similar... but I just wanted to get peoples thoughts.

Cheers,
-Derek

S
Thu Jun 19 01:38:36 PDT 2008

You can create a snapshot of your prod environment (same domain, accounts,
etc) in an isolated virtual environment and use it for development. The only
requirement will be absense of IP routing between the two.

--
Svyatoslav Pidgorny, MS MVP - Security, MCSE
-= F1 is the key =-

* http://sl.mvps.org * http://msmvps.com/blogs/sp *

"infinitiguy" <derek@iona.com> wrote in message
news:14F5FC4C-68F8-4FD0-9BF3-7DAE93B12A8C@microsoft.com...
>I have something kind of... different, that I would love to accomplish but
>not sure if it's possible.
>
> I have a single forest, single domain AD production environment
> (ionaglobal.com). I also have a test AD environment(single forest/domain)
> called istest.com. I went ahead and modified a script I found to create
> all sorts of users in my istest.com domain, to test replication etc..
> which is all wonderful... but too generic for me.
>
> What I would really like to do, is somehow, someway.. take a replica of
> my ionaglobal.com domain, and import it into my istest.com domain.. so I
> have copies of all of my user accounts, security groups etc..
>
> If it's a one time shot to replicate, and I can't have constant
> replication... then I can live with that.. but in a perfect world, I'd
> have weekly replication, or daily.. something that when my production
> changes.. my test env will change.
>
> Most of my reasoning for this is I'd really like to set up an exact
> replica of my MS environment in a development setting.. so I can have a
> development AD/Exchange/Office Communicator environment that IT can play
> around with.. test new things.. break.. fix.. and not have to really
> worry too much about doing anything new in production until it's all been
> tested, verified and we get warm and fuzzies because it's with our replica
> production data.
>
> Now... It sounds like a big order what I want to accomplish... so I don't
> have high hopes for someone replying back saying sure! just use this vb
> script.. so I suspect there may be commercial products that could allow
> something similar... but I just wanted to get peoples thoughts.
>
> Cheers,
> -Derek

infinitiguy
Thu Jun 19 13:01:30 PDT 2008

are there any white papers that outline a basic process for doing this?

"S. Pidgorny <MVP>" <slavickp@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:esHhkfe0IHA.4416@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> You can create a snapshot of your prod environment (same domain, accounts,
> etc) in an isolated virtual environment and use it for development. The
> only requirement will be absense of IP routing between the two.
>
> --
> Svyatoslav Pidgorny, MS MVP - Security, MCSE
> -= F1 is the key =-
>
> * http://sl.mvps.org * http://msmvps.com/blogs/sp *
>
> "infinitiguy" <derek@iona.com> wrote in message
> news:14F5FC4C-68F8-4FD0-9BF3-7DAE93B12A8C@microsoft.com...
>>I have something kind of... different, that I would love to accomplish but
>>not sure if it's possible.
>>
>> I have a single forest, single domain AD production environment
>> (ionaglobal.com). I also have a test AD environment(single
>> forest/domain) called istest.com. I went ahead and modified a script I
>> found to create all sorts of users in my istest.com domain, to test
>> replication etc.. which is all wonderful... but too generic for me.
>>
>> What I would really like to do, is somehow, someway.. take a replica of
>> my ionaglobal.com domain, and import it into my istest.com domain.. so I
>> have copies of all of my user accounts, security groups etc..
>>
>> If it's a one time shot to replicate, and I can't have constant
>> replication... then I can live with that.. but in a perfect world, I'd
>> have weekly replication, or daily.. something that when my production
>> changes.. my test env will change.
>>
>> Most of my reasoning for this is I'd really like to set up an exact
>> replica of my MS environment in a development setting.. so I can have a
>> development AD/Exchange/Office Communicator environment that IT can play
>> around with.. test new things.. break.. fix.. and not have to really
>> worry too much about doing anything new in production until it's all been
>> tested, verified and we get warm and fuzzies because it's with our
>> replica production data.
>>
>> Now... It sounds like a big order what I want to accomplish... so I
>> don't have high hopes for someone replying back saying sure! just use
>> this vb script.. so I suspect there may be commercial products that
>> could allow something similar... but I just wanted to get peoples
>> thoughts.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> -Derek
>
>
>

S
Fri Jun 20 03:48:07 PDT 2008

Not consolidated view - it's pretty much straightforward. There are multiple
whitepapers on physical-to-virtual migrations and so on from all
virtualisation vendors. VMWare has a product - Lab Manager - that allows
quickly set and reset lab environments. But I think it's insufficient for
your purposes, as initian migration is manual.

--
Svyatoslav Pidgorny, MS MVP - Security, MCSE
-= F1 is the key =-

* http://sl.mvps.org * http://msmvps.com/blogs/sp *

"infinitiguy" <derek@iona.com> wrote in message
news:FE94F07D-6C7C-4E39-962D-FC1A0B503851@microsoft.com...
> are there any white papers that outline a basic process for doing this?
>
> "S. Pidgorny <MVP>" <slavickp@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:esHhkfe0IHA.4416@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> You can create a snapshot of your prod environment (same domain,
>> accounts, etc) in an isolated virtual environment and use it for
>> development. The only requirement will be absense of IP routing between
>> the two.
>>
>> --
>> Svyatoslav Pidgorny, MS MVP - Security, MCSE
>> -= F1 is the key =-
>>
>> * http://sl.mvps.org * http://msmvps.com/blogs/sp *
>>
>> "infinitiguy" <derek@iona.com> wrote in message
>> news:14F5FC4C-68F8-4FD0-9BF3-7DAE93B12A8C@microsoft.com...
>>>I have something kind of... different, that I would love to accomplish
>>>but not sure if it's possible.
>>>
>>> I have a single forest, single domain AD production environment
>>> (ionaglobal.com). I also have a test AD environment(single
>>> forest/domain) called istest.com. I went ahead and modified a script I
>>> found to create all sorts of users in my istest.com domain, to test
>>> replication etc.. which is all wonderful... but too generic for me.
>>>
>>> What I would really like to do, is somehow, someway.. take a replica of
>>> my ionaglobal.com domain, and import it into my istest.com domain.. so I
>>> have copies of all of my user accounts, security groups etc..
>>>
>>> If it's a one time shot to replicate, and I can't have constant
>>> replication... then I can live with that.. but in a perfect world, I'd
>>> have weekly replication, or daily.. something that when my production
>>> changes.. my test env will change.
>>>
>>> Most of my reasoning for this is I'd really like to set up an exact
>>> replica of my MS environment in a development setting.. so I can have a
>>> development AD/Exchange/Office Communicator environment that IT can play
>>> around with.. test new things.. break.. fix.. and not have to really
>>> worry too much about doing anything new in production until it's all
>>> been tested, verified and we get warm and fuzzies because it's with our
>>> replica production data.
>>>
>>> Now... It sounds like a big order what I want to accomplish... so I
>>> don't have high hopes for someone replying back saying sure! just use
>>> this vb script.. so I suspect there may be commercial products that
>>> could allow something similar... but I just wanted to get peoples
>>> thoughts.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> -Derek
>>
>>
>>
>