Shadow network in Win2K environment

[clair]

Hi everybody,

I would like to create a shadow network for our Win2K network, which would have the same SAM as the real one. When we were in NT 4 environment, we set up a BDC on the real network, sync it with PDC, then disconnected it from the real network. Then we created another network with that BDC as PDC. In that shadow network we could set up servers as duplicates of the real once, keep them updated restoring data from a backup of the real servers; so if a server on the real network dies, we could swap it with the one from a shadow network right away. It worked perfectly.

I would like to do the same on our Win2K network, but I'm not sure it will work the same way. More important, can you disconnect a DC without damage to the Active Directory?
Any input is very appreciated.

 

[GHeinonen]

Why not run two primary Active Directory controllers, get normal backups of the other servers everynight and restore one when necessary. If you need real time backup and restore, products exist that handle that by sending data to a cache drive where the backups run throughout the day. ...............................
Thanks, Gary

 

[clair]

Hi Gary, thank you for your reply.

This shadow network has several good points. First of all, you can experiment there (with building clusters and such), and if experiment works, you just take a server/servers from the shadow network, and put it on the real one without any reconfiguration. Secondly, it's a good place to restore the old e-mails when people needed them (and they did need them), and there's no interruption to the real Exchange. The new Veritas software provides the option to backup and restore individual mailboxes, but to backup individual mailboxes for the whole company takes forever, so we can't really use it exept for the mailboxes of the very few people.

Thank you

 

[GHeinonen]

About disconnecting a AD DC, if you haven't assigned it any role responsibilites (ie: global catalog), it just has the same copy of the directory that was syncronized via sessions that the other servers will have and I would think it should run fine on its own network. The active directory has a "last writer wins" approach for dealing with conflicts between servers. Read up on the FSMO, RID roles. What happens to the SIDs after you move it to its own network, I am guessing it could create duplicate IDs that overlap. Have you tried it yet?

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q197/1/32.ASP

...............................
Thanks, Gary

 

[clair]

Thanks again,
I'm going to try it.

Clair