There is a Microsoft KB article that talks about best practices for running a DC on a VM. One of the notes is "Do not use the Export feature on a virtual machine that is running a domain controller". In order to export a VM, the VM needs to be turned off. If you turn off a DC VM, export it, import it on another server and then power the VM back on, there should be no risk as long as the original (exported) VM is never powered back on. Can someone explain to me why this isn't supported? After doing some searching on Google, the sites I found just regurgitated this line from the KB article, but didn't offer any explanation as to why this isn't supported.