Upgrading an NT Domain to a 2000 Domain 3

[lbrown13]

We are currently in the process of upgrading or Windows NT domain to Windows 2000 domain. We have an entirely new server we are wanting to use. Any suggestions on the path to take? Should we put NT on the new server and join the domain as a bdc and the promote, and the upgrade to server 2000. Should we upgrade our old NT server to 2000 and then add the new server to the domain? Just looking for Ideas before jumping in with both feet! Thanks in advance for
any help, ideas, or thoughts that you have. Also, if you have done this type of change yourself, could you post any problems that you had? Thanks again!!!!!


Larry Brown

 

[GlenJohnson]

I've seen a lot of people do the bdc, then upgrade the servers. If you have a brand new box though, I see no advatage. It might just be as easy to upgrade to W2K on the pdc, run dcpromo to make it a Domain Controller then once Active Directory is working, install W2K on the new machine, dcpromo it to another DC, then synch the two. Let's see if anybody else has a different idea. (I did it the second way and didn't have any problems.) Glen A. Johnson
Johnson Computer Consulting
MCP W2K
glen@johnsoncomputers.us

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Blaise Pascal

 

[ecafracs]

You should really be careful on the upgrade. Plan the upgrade properly. What you can do is Install NT 4 on the new machine, configure it as a BDC, synchronize with the PDC and promote it do a PDC (of course ,you should demote the old PDC to BDC - keep your BDC so you have a good backup of your domain,else if the upgrade fails, you lost your domain). Then upgrade the NT4 PDC to windows 2000, after the installation and reboot, the dcpromo utility automatically runs to promote your Server into an AD controller. Check the account if they are working. This will now be your PDC emulator and your BDCs can synchronize with the new Server. Install the necessary services on the new server.
note-if you will promote your old PDC directly into an AD controller and other services are running in the machine such as DNS,Wins, etc. Those services will be lost and you would have to reinstall those services.

 

[haveman]

Both solutions mentioned above work.

you could use a third alternative, which has the advantages of both mentioned above, but not the disadvantages;

take a tempory machine (relatively new desktop for example), install NT4 as BDC, promote to PDC, upgrade to W2K and AD.
Take the new server, install it with W2K and AD
Transfer the FSMO roles from temp machine to the new server, and delete the temp machine from AD (search for instructions at microsoft).

This way, you don't disrupt the services on the old PDC, and have a clean new server (no old NT install issues) with AD on it....

 

[Pav4o]

Hi guys!
I have almost the same problem and my question is for Haveman.I am no so advanced with domain cotrolers but anyway i have the same idea for my problem.I am not doing upgrade of OS just i will change the machine.On the old PDC i have wins,dhcp,dns.I understood whole your reply above,but just I didn't undersand these "FSMO roles" and how to transfer them.
Could you post the link with such information

 

[haveman]

Hi,

links with more info about transfering the fsmo roles are below;

http://is-it-true.org/nt/nt2000/atips/atips56.shtml

http://ldap-project.berkeley.edu/calnet-ad/design/v05/fsmo.htm

http://www.svrops.com/svrops/documents/fsmo.htm#place

you could also search on google.com or microsoft.com for more information.

Regards, Ferdinand

 

[Pav4o]

thanks a lot
I will check it out

P.S. If you want you can read my thread with title "How to get users database from Active Directory"

 

[haveman]

Hi,

Below another link to microsoft about transfering FSMO roles;

http://www.microsoft.com/windows200...chinfo/reskit/en-us/distrib/dsbl_fsm_cfyf.asp

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=255690

check this (in german ) step by step....

http://home.pages.at/msnews/FAQ2000.htm#12

after this, the only thing left is properly deleting the old server from Active Directory

regards, Ferdinand

 

[lbrown13]

Thanks for the information guys!

I will let you know how it goes!

Larry

 

[lbrown13]

Ok guys
Here is what's going on now.
We installed NT Server onto a desktop and promoted it to PDC. It synched up and everything is going good at this point. We then upgraded it to Win2k Server. Installed active directory, DNS(still unsure of the DNS naming).
Still going good at this point! People are able to validate on the win2k server and all is well. When we try to setup active directory on our new server it gets to the point of asking for the dns name. We click browse and it shows up our DNS server name and we choose it. It then pops up an error unable to contact domain. It says either no controller with active directory is there.
Anybody seen this problem? Anybody have any suggestions?
Thanks in advance for the help guys!!!!


Larry

 

[master77]

hello

 

[wb5vrd]

I am having the exact same situation that lbrown describes. I have one domain controller doing the job. users are successfully authentication and group policies are running without a hitch. But when I try and add the second domain controller. I get the same result larry does. I can add the second box as a member server but cant get it to load AD. I am sure it is a dns issue. I have pointed the second box at the domain controller for dns and have used nslookup to see that the domain controller reports the second box. This ones got me scratching my head.

 

[160473]

Is the W2k server properly registered in the DNS? The AD must have a properly configurated DNS to work!