W2K -> W2K3 DC migration

[PJamesD]

We have four domain controllers in our production environment, 2 on each of the 2 sites.

One DC is the Operations Master for all roles. All machines are Global Cat server.

We would like to have fresh installations, so we're planning on building a fresh W2K3 member server, DCPROMO'ing it, then demoting the old W2K server.. - four times.

Does this sound wise?

Should we migrate all four at once or only 2 for example, run them for a while then upgrade the others (will W2K & W2K3 DC's work happily alongside each other?).

Also, is it wise to transfer all the Master Roles, - or is it recommended that we perform an 'Upgrade' on the Master Roles DC instead of a fresh install?

Thanks for any help / advice

 

[BenChristian]

Fresh installations sound wise. Here's a quick overview of a common way to upgrade:

1. You first need to prepare the forest for the 2003 installation. In order to do this, you will need to apply Service Pack 2 onto the 2000 DCs if not already applied. You'll then need to run ADPrep on the schema master (the DC that holds all of the roles as you described.) Before running ADPrep, its recommended to isolate the schema master from the network so that if the ADPrep goes pear-shaped it won't replicate to the other DCs and screw the entire forest. For this reason, it's often recommended to build a temporary DC (windows 2000), transfer schema master role to it, perform the ADPrep, then transfer the role back and un-dcpromo the server.

2. Once you extended the schema (adprep) you then just need to build your new 2003 servers and run through DCPromo as normal. If doesn't really matter what order you do them, you could build a new 2003 box, dcpromo it, then un-dcpromo a 2000 DC and continue with the next one. Just make sure that you make sure that the changes have replicated to all DCs in the forest before adding/removing the next DC. Replmon is good for this as you can force replications to all DCs in the domain.






Ben Christian
MCSE, MCSA:Messaging

http://www.benchristian.com