Replacing Domain Controller?

[Isaacw1]

I am about to replace my current DC and was wondering if there is anything that I need to look out for. I'm a newbie so if there are any articles that I need to read before hand please advise.

Thanks,

Isaac

 

[svsawkar]

What plan are you going to use to remove the DC. The more information you give us, the better we can help you!

/Siddharth

 

[Isaacw1]

I was going to bring the new DC machine up on the network, then DCPROMO it and let it sync up with the old DC, then demote the old DC.

I really don't know if this is a good plan or not, like I said I'm new to this. I am open to all suggestions.

Thanks,

Isaac

 

[buddafish]

you will need to transfer all the FSMO roles to the new DC prior to demoting the original. as a test, GrnEyedLdy offered in a recent post, to take the 1st DC offline and verify that the new DC is working correctly prior to the demotion.

rebuild and rename your old box before putting back on the network.

oh yea, make the new DC a global catalog...

scottie

 

[Isaacw1]

1) What are FSMO roles?
2) Will it cause a problem if I can't rebuild and rename my old DC? Because the way that it is setup now, the DC is running on one of our application servers and I can't rebuild it or rename it. I know that it shouldn't be setup this way (that's why we are changing it, that's just the way it was setup by the original Network Admins.

Thanks,

Isaac

 

[buddafish]

my bad on the rename. only if you had to seize the FSMO roles. ~
if you transfer them without problem, then no problem leaving the box on as a member server.

scottie

 

[buddafish]

as per the FSMO roles, i would visit micorsoft knowledge base to get an understanding of them. transfering them is outlined quite well. pretty straight forward. but... this task must be done.

scottie

 

[buddafish]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;255690&Product=win2000

 

[Isaacw1]

Okay. Thanks for your help! I will check out the knowledge base for more info.

 

[svsawkar]

FYI, if you bring up the 2nd DC, and DCPROMO down the 1st DC, the roles will be transfered automatically. No intervention required.

/Siddharth

 

[CCFAdmin]

Siddharth...

Are you postive on this? Do you have any documentation on this? If so, why ever the need for seizing roles?

Thanks

 

[marcus1234]

One of the reasons to seize roles, is that if you have many DC's then your can allocate the FSMO roles across many servers.

I would change the operational master first before you demote the first DC, the rest will go on DCPROMO.

Read KB223346 for better understanding.