How to duplicate a Windows server that is attached to the Windows Domain

When a Windows server is attached to a Domain only one instance of it can run at a time. To be able to duplicate the server and start a second instance of it

Create an image of the server

1. Remote into the server
2. Make sure there is a local administrator account that you can log in with
3. Remove it from the domain
4. Reboot the server
5. In the AWS console create an image of it
6. Add the server back to the domain with the same username and password that was used to originally add it to the domain

Launch a new instance

1. In the AWS console launch a new instance with the saved image
2. Log into the new instance with the local administrator account
3. Change the server name (only one server can be added to the domain with the same name)
4. Add the server to the domain
5. Reboot the server

Bootstrap the new instance in the Chef server

If you configured the original server with Chef, attach the new instance to the Chef server with a new Node Name

1. Open a terminal window in the cookbooks directory (below the .kitchen directory, so the Chef kitchen command can find the Chef server configuration)
2. Execute the bootstrap command. See Bootstrap Chef nodes to connect them to the Chef server for the details on the bootstrapping process. Don’t forget to use a double backslash (\\) in front of the username.

knife bootstrap windows winrm MY_NODE_IP -x MY_USERNAME -P MY_PASSWORD --node-name THE_NODE_NAME --environment THE_ENVIRONMENT --run-list 'recipe[MY_COOKBOOK1::default],recipe[MY_COOKBOOK2::default]' --json-attributes '{"MY_ATTRIB1":"MY_VALUE1","MY_ATTRIB2":"MY_VALUE2"}' -V