I am trying to bring back an old sbs2003 server to the domain as there is some exchange data we need to recover. My plan is to rejoin the previously decommissioned machine to the domain, ensure AD replication has completed then isolate it from the network, seize all FSMO roles, etc and reinstall Exchange to access the EDBs. I am aware there are 3rd party tools available at cost to do this, however I want to acheive this without additional cost using ESXi Hypervisor.
I have taken a snapshot of the 2003 vm before joining the domain. I then join the 2003 VM to the domain and shutdown (instead of restart). I took another snapshot of the VM while turned off and then booted it. Everytime is gets to "Applying Computer Settings" the VM automatically reverts to my most recent snapshot and powers off.
In the "Recent Tasks" list I can see "Find entity by UUID" numerous times before the machine then reverts to the latest snapshot.
I have no idea why this would automatically occur, any thoughts?
While writing this I managed to get a successful boot but with the network set to an isolated vSwitch rather than the standard "VM Network" vSwitch. I then managed to modify the connected network to be the standard "VM Network". Everything now appears fine however if I restart this VM the same thing happens and I need to put in host only to get it to boot.
What could cause vSphere to make the machine revert to snapshot just because it is connected to the main LAN?