Best way to deploy 2nd domain controller on cloud?

Question

I'm looking for my best way to prevent single point of failure on my hybrid environment. I work for a small 100 users company and looking for a best way to deploy my second domain controller on cloud (the main is on-prem so I want to replicate 2nd on cloud). Whats the best way on doing this with AWS? Should I setup EC2 instance with Windows server and add a domain controller to on-prem DC1 or use AWS Directory service? Can AWS Directory service act as domain controller?

Answer 1

I'm not an expert on AWS, but a similar setup in Azure would involve creating a virtual network, connecting it to your on-premises network using a VPN connection (or ExpressRoute if you are getting serious about it) and then deploying a Windows Server virtual machine to act as a Domain Controller. The basic idea is to treat your cloud network as a branch office.

AWS Directory Service (analogous to Azure Active Directory Domain Services) actually means creating a new Active Directory domain managed by AWS; you can build a trust relationship to it in order to simplify user access, but it will not provide Domain Controller services for your existing domain.