Upgrade Parent Domain to 2003 Native - Still have mixed child domains?

[Kyle781]

Hi All,

I have a forest with Parent Domain and 3 Child Domains.

1 Child Domain is Windows 2000 Native, the Other 2 are Mixed (Work in Progress).

The Parent Domain is 2000 Mixed if we upgrade the Parent Domain to 2003 and set it to 2003 Native. Will this affect the child domains? When the Parent is in full 2003 mode can we still have mixed child domains with nt4 bdcs?

TIA

 

[Koonan]

Remember there are two types of Functional Levels, Domain and Forest. The Domain Functional Level only affects that domain. The Forest Functional Level affects the entire domain.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322692/en-us

 

[Kyle781]

Hello Koonan,

Thanks for your reply.

Initially until we have done a full 2003 roll out forest wide. We only intend making the Domain Function Level of the Parent Domain 2003 - I think the Forest Functional level has a safecheck that wont let this rise anyway until all DCs match the same level.

So if I only upgrade the domain level to 2003 on the parent domain, this will have no issues in terms of the child domains being on a 2000 mixed mode. No replication issues etc will happen?

TIA

 

[Kyle781]

Hello,

Can someone confirm that if I make the Parent Domain 2003 Native. That it wont have a effect on the child domains that are still 2000 Mixed with NT Bdcs?

TIA

 

[Kyle781]

Hi All,

Please can someone confirm the above - that if I make the Parent Domain 2003 Native it wont have any issues for the child domains which are a mixture of native and mixed?

TIA

 

[Smooth23]

Hi there,

Raising the domain and forest functional levels to Windows Server 2003 is a nonreversible task and prohibits the addition of Windows NT 4.0–based or Windows 2000–based domain controllers to the environment. Any existing Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000–based domain controllers in the environment will no longer function.

Before raising functional levels ensure that you will never need to install domain controllers running Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 in your environment.

 

[Koonan]

Changing the Domain Functional Level in the root domain doesn't have an affect on the other child domains.