OK, this is it. I am upgrading this weekend. I have made a new, clean NT PDC - let's call it the "Compaq" - (OK, I salvaged an old PC - P933/384M/4G C drive(3.3G free)/100BaseT NIC, etc. to do it), syncronized my domain - OK so far. I have a couple of BDC's and an EX5.5 server. Except for changing the DNS on their TCP setups I expect these to remain untouched. I have backed up everything and plan on taking my old PDC (now a BDC) off line. I have another brand new server waiting to have W2K installed - let's call it the "Dell". BTW I have a single domain, about 65 users. We''ll be running in mixed mode for the forseeable future. One of my BDCs is currently configured as a WINS server, and I have no plans to change this anytime soon.
Last minute questions:
1. Since the Compaq is not the most powerful beast in the world, I plan on it having a short life as a DC. What I would like to do is just do a bare-bones AD setup on this machine but just do what it takes to get AD up and running and then set up the nice new Dell as a DC. Since I have been told that DNS is a resource hog I would like to set up the Dell as the main DNS machine and relegate the Compaq to a backup role. How do I go about doing this? Also, in my existing NT servers, when I re-do the DNS do I set the Hostname to be the same as whichever DC ends up being the main DNS box?
2. Do I have to put DHCP on my first server (the Compaq) or can that wait until I get the Dell up and running?
3. After my domain is set up and stable with both DCs up and running, I plan on adding yet another new box and making it a DC (this will eventually become our new EX2000 server). At this time I plan on decomissioning the Compaq per the steps I read in the FAQ. Is this weekend work or can I get away with doing it during normal working hours?
Thanks for all your help, everyone!
Last minute questions:
1. Since the Compaq is not the most powerful beast in the world, I plan on it having a short life as a DC. What I would like to do is just do a bare-bones AD setup on this machine but just do what it takes to get AD up and running and then set up the nice new Dell as a DC. Since I have been told that DNS is a resource hog I would like to set up the Dell as the main DNS machine and relegate the Compaq to a backup role. How do I go about doing this? Also, in my existing NT servers, when I re-do the DNS do I set the Hostname to be the same as whichever DC ends up being the main DNS box?
2. Do I have to put DHCP on my first server (the Compaq) or can that wait until I get the Dell up and running?
3. After my domain is set up and stable with both DCs up and running, I plan on adding yet another new box and making it a DC (this will eventually become our new EX2000 server). At this time I plan on decomissioning the Compaq per the steps I read in the FAQ. Is this weekend work or can I get away with doing it during normal working hours?
Thanks for all your help, everyone!