First DC in a 2k3 domain

[snootalope]

I'm getting ready to introduce our first 2008 64bit domain controller in our 32 bit domain. Our entire domain consists of a few 2008 boxes but the rest are 2003 SP2 32 bit boxes, including the current DC's.

I've read quite a few articles on line, sounds pretty straight forward. On the to be 2008 64bit domain controller, I run the adprep /forest, and then use dcpromo as normal.

Is that all there is to it? I've already established the to be 2008 DC as a DNS server in the domain and of course it's already a member.

Anything I need to be careful of that I may be over looking?

 

[NetworkTek]

No gotcha's that I am aware of. I have introduced several 2008 64 bit dc's into a 2003 domain

Network+
Inet+
MCP
MCSA 2003
MCTS

 

[58sniper]

Do your normal health checks like dcdiag, netdiag, etc.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[snootalope]

Yep, been through all of that stuff sniper.. All looks well. And just to be clear, I run the adprep from the to be x64 bit DC right? I messed with it on one of the current 2003 DC's but of course it throws the message that the tool was made for a different version of Windows. Just asking cause I seen one post online that says the tool has to be run from the existing DC. Which in my case are all 32bit.

 

[58sniper]

schema updates never HAVE to be run from a DC. But they do have to be run by a member of the schema admins group. If you run them from a non DC, it just pipes that across the network to a DC. No worries.

If you have just the x64 media, then you have to run it from an x64 box. Otherwise you get the error you did.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/