How to handle old Win2k PDC

[sdotsen]

I'm in the process of installing a new PDC on a much better system with Windows 2003 Standard Server. The issue is, our current PDC has Windows 2000 on it. What makes the job kind of easy is the fact that the old admin never completed the project. No one is joined to a domain but at the same time, we want to move to the better hardware and we want to run Windows 2003.

Here's the issue, the Win2k environment consist of 3 member servers that are attached to it. One being Citrix and we can't afford to lose any settings. As for the other servers, I can just rejoin them when I'm ready. I don't want to screw up the Citrix config since users log in via a published app utilizing a user account through the Win2k domain controller.

 

[Davetoo]

There are no PDC/BDC's any more, they're DC's with FSMO roles.

What you do is prep your domain for 2003R2, then install and dcpromo a 2003R2 server into your domain, transfer all the roles over to it, the dcpromo the W2K server out of your domain. Don't forget to set DHCP, DNS, etc. on the new server as well. The other member servers won't be affected.

This is a quick synopsis, tons of posts here on how to go from a 2000 DC to a 2003 DC.

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

 

[sdotsen]

Ah thats right, no more PDC/BDC. Once I dcpromo the 2003 and transfer the FISMO roles over I can technically use it as a PDC and shutdown Win2k if I wanted to, correct? This is after I set up DHCP, etc, etc.. and all that good stuff. I forgot to mention that I still need the Win2k box up and running because it contains our SQL server (yea dont ask, PDC and SQL server on one server).

DCPROMOing the Win2k box WILL NOT have an affect on its membership to the current domain, correct? It just wont act as a PDC.