adding an additional domain controller 1

[bettelyoun]

Please help, I have a business that I'm bldg a website for they are running win 2k server with A.D. They have their server set up as a domain controller already with 6 computers networked to it for internet access. Besides hosting the webpage I built they want to host their own email, I downloaded & installed the neccessary program (EMWACS). However, when I run dcpromo.exe I don't get the GUI screen asking to add an additional domain controller, instead the screen asks if I want to uninstall Active Directory.

How do I set this email account up? If I can't add additional domain controllers? Any and all views are welcome.
Thanks for your help!

 

[Davetoo]

You run dcpromo on a machine that isn't already a DC. It sounds like you're trying to run dcpromo on their existing DC, which will remove the DC from the domain and it sounds like also remove the domain entirely if you only have one DC.

And the part about setting up the email account makes no sense.

You might want to try to rephrase your question entirely so that we can try to help.

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

 

[bettelyoun]

Ok they have their host address XYZ.server.com, They want to host their own email server.

Can I set up the original DC to operate the email services, the network they already have configured, and web site hosting for their one site?

Or do I need to add an additional server and have email access it at a host name like mail.XYZ.server.com?

Everything I've tried hasn't worked so please advise

 

[dholbrook]

What are you going to use for the mail software? If you use Exchange, then the building of the Exchange server requires it to be on a DC, and installing it will make schems changes to the active directory for the entire domain, which is not reversable, so plan it out carefully first. Build the server, add it to the domain, then promote it to a DC role before attempting to install Exchange on it.

If you use something other than Exchange, I suspect you also will want to have the server already a DC so the mail has direct access to AD for user account authentication, etc. If you use a third party mail software, research all its requirements carefully first, especially understand exactly what it does to your Domain structure, Active Directory, etc., BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT TO INSTALL IT!

In any event, PLAN, PLAN, CHECK, PLAN, etc., BEFORE you make any changes to you Domain configuration or your can relly botch things, and if you do, you get to rebuild your Domain from scratch to recover from it, and I do mean from scratch, as you will lose all the Active Driectory data if you mess it up.

By the way, yes you can use one server for all that, but is this a amart thing to do (NO!) is the question. Putting your web site on your one and only DC is really dangerous, and exposes it to the Internet directly for all the hackers to play with. Put your Web site and the mail on different systems (READ: three different systems, WEB, Mail, and the main DC!), be sure they sit behind a good firewall, etc., and have the firewall direct the web and mail traffic to the correct servers to reduce your system exposure and danger as much as possible.

Before your mail will work you will need to tell your ISP to add the DNS entries to push the mail toward your firewall on the correct IP address also. Same goes for the Web site.

HTH,

David

 

[bettelyoun]

Thanks I will continue to read, read, read