Adding Domain Controller question

[Mousejock]

Hi guys... love this site and all the helpful folks!

I am preparing to (shudder) move my SBS 2003 to new hardware and so I have set up a second Domain Controller (2003) to hopefully allow people to login and access network resource while the SBS server is down.

I have used DCPromo to upgrade the member server to a secondary domain controller. No errors... all seemed well (had to domain prep it for R2).

What else do I need to do? Should I be moving DHCP, DNS over to it? Ideas and thoughts appreciated.

 

[ShackDaddy]

How long do you plan to have the SBS box offline? Are you going to use some imaging software?

Dave Shackelford
Shackelford Consulting

 

[Mousejock]

Yes, my plan is to image it... but it is going to new hardware and in my experience, moving SBS is never pretty... so I am trying to have a fallback option while I get the new server up and running.

 

[ShackDaddy]

The best thing you could do is look into the Swing Kit at SBSMigration for a good plan for this situation. It's what I've used to move to new hardware, and the beauty of the plan is that you don't touch your old server until you are sure that the new server is ready for prime-time. The actual cutover time is very short, and you can do most of the work while your existing SBS server is online and your clients are connected.

The goal with a swing is to keep the same server name so that you don't have to touch the clients at all, and that makes this strategy really nice as far as both downtime and the amount of work that you have to do. Plus, when you're done you've learned a whole lot about AD that you didn't know before.

The kit is not free, but it's cheap when considering the time and hassle savings.

Dave Shackelford
Shackelford Consulting

 

[ShackDaddy]

BTW, it would actually simplify things a bit in a swing if you DCPromo'd your member server back down again... That way you only have to worry about a single copy of AD, and there's less danger of AD getting out of sync because of replication hassles.

Dave Shackelford
Shackelford Consulting

 

[Mousejock]

Thanks Dave, I will look into that... considering I just sunk $ 22k into a new Intel Modular server and a bunch of storage, if the swing kit is reasonably priced it sounds like the right way to go.

Love this Modular Server by the way... if anyone wants feedback on it...

 

[ShackDaddy]

I think I just saw that server at SMBNation last weekend. Does it have four blades and a local SAN built in to it? Very nice.

Dave Shackelford
Shackelford Consulting

 

[mofusjtf]

22 grand for a server to run SBS? WOW! I'd love some feedback about this server. Is it only available through Intel or does Dell or HP offer this device too?

Dave is right about the Swing Migration Kit. It is great.