How To - Failover Domain Controller | Windows Server 2019

The purpose of this video is to show a step-by-step process on how to install and configure a second domain controller to act as a failover. A failover configuration will be used incase the primary DC fails.

[@LuneScar]

How many internet nodes are they connected to? Can you please reply with how many for each server, + are they both physical servers or is it possible to test them through a virtual machine like: VMware?, Appreciate your reply and this video was helpful!

[@_CyberMe]

Glad you found the video helpful! Not sure exactly what you are asking in regards to internet nodes. This particular example was done on my server at my house with no connection to the internet. Too answer your second question, yes this can all be done using a virtual machine. Both of these DC's were hosted virtual machines on ESXi. Hope that answers your question. Let me know if you need further clarification.

[@0x404Unknown]

Just a question for ya. I notice you didn’t install the failover cluster role for the secondary DC. Was that on purpose? Great video!

[@_CyberMe]

Hey! Yea, on purpose. That was not my intent for this video, although that is something we can highlight in the future. Glad you enjoyed the video!

[@0x404Unknown]

@@_CyberMe Just curious, what are the differences with not adding that feature vs adding it?

[@_CyberMe]

@@0x404Unknown I would not consider myself an expert, so please do not take only my word for it. The result would be the same regardless of implementation. Implementing a failover cluster will be based on if a fault occurs then the designated cluster will take control. In this example I provided, the two will replicate to one another and if one goes down the clients will still have access to a DC.

[@RebirthxKen]

Hope i can get an answer. What if DC1 or DC2 has 2 NIC's? What should the DNS setting would look like in connection properties?

[@ZeginMakesMusic]

That depends entirely on your setup. You could use nic teaming to double the bandwith using both ports, You could put one nic directly into the internet, and the other can be configured to go out to a wifi router. You can setup a vLan.....the list goes on and on. Whatever you do on DC1 will be duplicated on DC2 in software, but given a separate ip address that would need to be added into the "secondary dns" field within the windows client machines. Each nic has an ip address, regardless as to how many computers there are.

[@JessePazzi]

What about accessing data on a shared drive from either DC using DFS?

[@hlo512]

Thanks for sharing the video. I have a question for you. I setup exactly the same as you showed in the video. Hoverer, the users was not able to login when the primary dc turned off and the backup dc was not able to open the "computer and user domain service". It was looking for the primary dc and never able to launch the domain services successful. Do you have any ideas? Thank you.

[@_CyberMe]

Of course, thank you for watching! A few things I can think of, 1) Is the client able to communicate to DC2? Can you login and try to ping DC2 to verify connectivity? 2) If client is able to communicate with DC2, have you set the alternate DNS server to DC2's ip address? You can do this by logging into local admin account on client, updating network configuration (verify with ipconfig/nslookup), and then log out and try logging in with user in question. I am not sure exactly why you were unable to open user and computer on DC2. May be worth removing that role/feature and reinstalling and make sure you did everything correctly. Are you sure DC2 is connected to the same domain? I would check to see if there any errors, maybe in event viewer or even on dashboard. Let me know what you come up with.

[@hlo512]

@@_CyberMe Thanks for your answers. 1. Yes, the endpoint system was able to ping to DC2 and i was able to nslookup for dc 2 as well. Regarding to the alternate dns ip, i have to double check again. Don't recall now. 2. I did install exactly the same way as your video shown. DC2 was installed to the existing domain of dc1 and it was replicated perfectly. All accounts, computers, gpo and dns were replicated 100% as dc1. However, when dc1 was turned off, dc2 failed to open the domain services and it kept looking for dc1. I will try to reinstall it one more time as you recommended. If all settings correct as your lab, users should be able to login to the domain when the primary dc1 offline. Is it correct?

[@_CyberMe]

@@hlo512 Yes, but.. Towards the end of the video I briefly mentioned adding the alternate DNS server settings to client and did not show that in video. But other then that everything should work just fine. Let me know if you still can't figure it out I'll do some more digging

[@hlo512]

Sure, i will check the client system on the alternate dns server and will let you know how it works soon. Appreciate it. Thanks for your help.

[@_CyberMe]

@@hlo512 of course!

[@PsYVla]

what to do if primary DC is corrupt and need to reinstall and cant turn on? what is the right procedure to make secondary DC to be primary?

[@ZeginMakesMusic]

It is all automatic. There is a secondary dns server section on each client pc. There's also a feature that can be added called failover cluster manager with added services and features.

[@goeatsomesh1t]

Did you mention where the user profile got stored? Is it on one of the DC servers or on a storage node?

[@cgmoussalli]

There is NO Failover

[@_CyberMe]

You are correct. Poor choice of words at the time. Essentially just highlighting replication between dc1 and dc2 to act as a temporary back up to AD while dc1 is being brought back up.

[@dariencarter7875]

I can only see half of your screen