Simply have a nested environment for educational purposes. This process involves creating a virtual machine inside VMware that runs Hyper-V as the hypervisor.

Here’s how to deploy Hyper-V within a VMware environment, along with a detailed network diagram and workflow:

Steps to Deploy Hyper-V in VMware

1. Prepare VMware Environment:
   • Ensure your VMware platform (such as VMware vSphere) is fully set up and operational.
   • Verify BIOS settings on the physical host to ensure virtualization extensions (VT-x/AMD-V) are enabled.
2. Create a New Virtual Machine in VMware:
   • Open vSphere Client or VMware Workstation (depending on your setup).
   • Create a new virtual machine with the appropriate guest operating system (usually Windows Server for Hyper-V).
   • Allocate sufficient resources (CPU, Memory) for the Hyper-V role.
   • Enable Nested Virtualization:
     • In VMware Workstation or vSphere, access additional CPU settings.
     • Check “Expose hardware assisted virtualization to the guest OS” for VMs running Hyper-V.
3. Install Windows Server on the VM:
   • Deploy or install Windows Server within the newly created VM.
   • Complete initial configuration options, such as OS and network settings.
4. Add Hyper-V Role:
   • Go to Server Manager in Windows Server.
   • Navigate to Add Roles and Features and select Hyper-V.
   • Follow the wizard to complete Hyper-V setup.
5. Configure Virtual Networking for Hyper-V:
   • Open Hyper-V Manager to create and configure virtual switches connected to VMware’s virtual network interfaces.

Network Diagram

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                           VMware Platform (vSphere/Workstation)                     |
| +-------------------------------------+    +-------------------------------------+  |
| | Virtual Machine (VM) with Hyper-V   |    | Virtual Machine (VM) with Hyper-V   |  |
| | Guest OS: Windows Server 2016/2019  |    | Guest OS: Windows Server 2016/2019  |  |
| | +---------------------------------+ |    | +---------------------------------+ |  |
| | | Hyper-V Role Enabled            |------->| Hyper-V Role Enabled            | |  |
| | |                                 | |    | |                                 | |  |
| | | +-----------------------------+ | |    | | +-----------------------------+ | |  |
| | | | Hyper-V VM Guest OS 1      | | |    | | | Hyper-V VM Guest OS 2      | | | |  |
| | | +-----------------------------+ | |    | | +-----------------------------+ | |  |
| | +---------------------------------+ |    | +---------------------------------+ |  |
| +-------------------------------------+    +-------------------------------------+  |
|      |                                                                          |  |
|      +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+  |
|                                     vSwitch/Network                                |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Workflow

1. VMware Layer:
   • Create Host Environment: Deploy and configure your VMware environment.
   • Nested VM Support: Ensure nested virtualization is supported and enabled on the host machine for VM creation and Hyper-V operation.
2. VM Deployment:
   • Instantiate VMs for Hyper-V: Allocate enough resources for VMs that will act as your Hyper-V servers.
3. Install Hyper-V Role:
   • Enable Hyper-V: Use Windows Server’s Add Roles feature to set up Hyper-V capabilities.
   • Hypervisor Management: Use Hyper-V Manager to create and manage new VMs within this environment.
4. Networking:
   • Configure Virtual Networks: Set up virtual switches in Hyper-V that map to VMware’s virtual network infrastructure.
   • Network Bridging/VLANs: Potentially implement VLANs or bridge networks to handle separated traffic and conduct more intricate networking tasks.
5. Management and Monitoring:
   • Integrate Hyper-V and VMware management tools.
   • Use VMware tools to track resource usage and performance metrics, alongside Hyper-V Manager for specific VM operations.

Considerations

• Performance: Running Hyper-V nested on VMware introduces additional resource overhead. Ensure adequate hardware resources and consider the performance implications based on your workload requirements.
• Licensing and Compliance: Validate licensing and compliance needs around Windows Server and Hyper-V roles.
• Networking: Carefully consider network configuration on both hypervisor layers to avoid complexity and misconfiguration.

To create and distribute FSMO (Flexible Single Master Operations) roles in an Active Directory (AD) environment hosted on a Hyper-V platform (within VMware), you can use PowerShell commands. Here’s a detailed guide for managing FSMO roles:

Steps to Follow

1. Set up your environment:

• Ensure the VMs in Hyper-V (running on VMware) have AD DS (Active Directory Domain Services) installed.
• Verify DNS is properly configured and replication between domain controllers (DCs) is working.

2. Identify FSMO Roles:

The five FSMO roles in Active Directory are:

• Schema Master
• Domain Naming Master
• PDC Emulator
• RID Master
• Infrastructure Master

These roles can be distributed among multiple domain controllers for redundancy and performance optimization.

3. Check Current FSMO Role Holders:

Use the following PowerShell command on any DC to see which server holds each role:

Get-ADForest | Select-Object SchemaMaster, DomainNamingMaster
Get-ADDomain | Select-Object PDCEmulator, RIDMaster, InfrastructureMaster

4. Transfer FSMO Roles Using PowerShell:

To distribute roles across multiple DCs, use the Move-ADDirectoryServerOperationMasterRole cmdlet. You need to specify the target DC and the role to transfer.

Here’s how you can transfer roles:

# Define the target DCs for each role
$SchemaMaster = "DC1"
$DomainNamingMaster = "DC2"
$PDCEmulator = "DC3"
$RIDMaster = "DC4"
$InfrastructureMaster = "DC5"

# Transfer roles
Move-ADDirectoryServerOperationMasterRole -Identity $SchemaMaster -OperationMasterRole SchemaMaster
Move-ADDirectoryServerOperationMasterRole -Identity $DomainNamingMaster -OperationMasterRole DomainNamingMaster
Move-ADDirectoryServerOperationMasterRole -Identity $PDCEmulator -OperationMasterRole PDCEmulator
Move-ADDirectoryServerOperationMasterRole -Identity $RIDMaster -OperationMasterRole RIDMaster
Move-ADDirectoryServerOperationMasterRole -Identity $InfrastructureMaster -OperationMasterRole InfrastructureMaster

Replace DC1, DC2, etc., with the actual names of your domain controllers.

5. Verify Role Transfer:

After transferring the roles, verify the new role holders using the Get-ADForest and Get-ADDomain commands:

Get-ADForest | Select-Object SchemaMaster, DomainNamingMaster
Get-ADDomain | Select-Object PDCEmulator, RIDMaster, InfrastructureMaster

6. Automate the Process:

If you want to automate the distribution of roles, you can use a script like this:

$Roles = @{
    SchemaMaster          = "DC1"
    DomainNamingMaster    = "DC2"
    PDCEmulator           = "DC3"
    RIDMaster             = "DC4"
    InfrastructureMaster  = "DC5"
}

foreach ($Role in $Roles.GetEnumerator()) {
    Move-ADDirectoryServerOperationMasterRole -Identity $Role.Value -OperationMasterRole $Role.Key
    Write-Host "Transferred $($Role.Key) to $($Role.Value)"
}

7. Test AD Functionality:

After distributing FSMO roles, test AD functionality:

• Validate replication between domain controllers.
• Ensure DNS and authentication services are working.
• Use the dcdiag command to verify domain controller health.

dcdiag /c /v /e /f:"C:\dcdiag_results.txt"