Adding a 2003 R2 Standard DC to a 2003 Enterprise Domain 1

[grazer10]

Hi all,

We have a domain with one DC running 2003 Enterprise.

I have recently added 3 new servers running 2003 R2 Standard.

I am looking to promote 2 of these servers to be DCs and then to demote the 2003 Enterprise box for eventual removal.

Is is possible to :

a) run 2003 Enterprise DC and 2003 R2 Standard DCs together?

b) run the existing AD successfully on 2003 R2 Standard following removal of Enterprise?

Many thanks,

 

[FaiTHLeSS]

If you are going to be running R2 DC's then bring the schema level up to R2 before you implement the R2 DC's.

Bring the new DC's up then move the FSMO roles over from your old server to your new server.

You can run enterprise/standard DC's AD doesnt really care, the difference between standard and enterprise is really down to how much memory and processors you can use.

 

[grazer10]

Thank you for your response FaiTHLeSS.

It was at the point of updating our 2003 schema to R2 that I had the thought about the different versions.

Its good to know that DCs for Advanced and Standard can co-exist though and I can get on with the promotions.

Thanks again.....

 

[drummelhart]

Standard cannot run a DC Promo, only Enterprise I thought? Enterprise only carries Active Directory, or is my schooling incorrect?

 

[Davetoo]

You're schooling is incorrect.

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

There are no more PDC's! There are DC's with FSMO roles!

 

[drummelhart]

when did MS change their value system allowing Standard the same features as Enterprise?

 

[withanh]

I believe it was the same way with Win2k Standard/Enterprise, in that the major difference was how much ram & how many processors it supported and clustering. Of course there are others, but those are the biggies IMHO. TechNet article

 

[drummelhart]

Thanks a bundle for that article!!!!!

 

[Davetoo]

Why would Windows 2003 R2 server, standard edition, not be able to run dcpromo? It's a domain capable OS, it *has* to be able to create a domain.

That or you're not being clear in what you're trying to distinguish here.

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

There are no more PDC's! There are DC's with FSMO roles!

 

[drummelhart]

What we were told in school was the fact that only Enterprise Edition had the capabilities to run DCPromo.

Now I see that Standard can support DC Promo.

I swear only about one-tenth of what I learned in school, is plyable in the workforce, and less than 10 if you have to work with PIX firewalls

 

[Davetoo]

Wow...yeah, they were absolutely wrong.

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

There are no more PDC's! There are DC's with FSMO roles!

 

[drummelhart]

with that said, I will have no problem pulling an FSMO from the Enterprise Edition to the Standard Edition correct?

 

[Davetoo]

No problem at all.

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

There are no more PDC's! There are DC's with FSMO roles!