NT4 PDC working with a W2K DC

[woowil]

Hello everybody. I'm new here. I'm a hired consultant for a customer that's eventually(within 1-2 years) will migrate to Windows 2000 on all platforms.

I have a Windows NT network including a server acting as PDC, primary DNS etc. I also have another NT server acting as a NT BDC, secondary DNS, Exchange 5.5 and SMS 1.2. I'm about to upgrade the BDC server only, to a better hardware (DELL PowerEdge 2500). I'm awhere that there are different ways in accomplishing this task.

I decided to choose this way of doing it:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q155216

I have a big question regarding this article though. If I choose to upgrade to Windows 2000 and not NT on the new computer, how will that work in a NT PDC network environment? I will have AD domain controller on the new computer with 2000 secondary DNS, Exchange 5.5 and SMS 1.2 working with an NT PDC, NT primary DNS etc. I need to know is this is stable. Any advice, anyone?

 

[mullivan]

It won't work at all. You cannot have an NT 4.0 PDC with a Win2000 BDC. The first domain controller with Win2000 MUST be the PDC.

What I would recommend is:
1) Setup the new 2500 server with WinNT as a BDC.
2) Upgrade the PDC to Win2000
3) Upgrade the BDC from step 1 to Win2000

 

[woowil]

Thanx. "Deception is the greatest defeat"
From the book, Coffing Dancer by Jeffrey Deaver.

 

[darranagl]

You can have a NT4 PDC but the Win2k box can not be a BDC. In a Win2k domain there is no such thing as a BDC, all servers are peers.

We run a NT4 PCD with Win2k servers in the domain. The domain still controls the logon accounts. The only real problem is when a user only uses (maps a drive to) a Win2k server and they want to change there password, it gets technical as the Win2k server can't change the users domain password. New Zealand, a great place to live.

http://www.southland.org.nz

tokala@orcon.net.nz