What to do with an NT4 BDC...

[PMCDad]

I have two win2k DC's and one NT4 BDC in my domain I would like to remove the NT4 box as a DC and run just the two 2k servers.

Currently the NT 4.0 box hosts nothing and no users obtain resources from this machine.

Should I just upgrade the NT4 box to 2k and demote thru dcpromo? OR Remove the NT server from the domain thru Server Manager and preform a clean istall of 2k?

I am asking because I do not want to have any replication errors with the other dc's trying to reach the old server.

Thanks,
PMC

 

[chronos1]

Hi PMCDad -

i assume you're running these servers in a Windows 2000 active directory environment? If so, you should run DCPROMO and demote the NT DC's to member servers - it would then be removed from the DC OU and also clean up their entries from the AD. If you still see the BDC's in the AD - check this out

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=216498

If however you're still running an NT4 domain environment - you can just power off the server and use Server Manager on the PDC to remove it from the domain. Then you can start rebuilding it.

Good luck

 

[PMCDad]

Hi chronos thanks,

Yes it is a 2000 AD enviroment. I do not think its possible to run DCPROMO to remove an NT4 BDC. DCPROMO will only work for the server it is being run on. (correct?)What about using the "remove server from domain" option in Server Manager? Not sure if this is what I want to do either.

I do know that if I shut down the NT server I can delete it as a DC in AD users and computers, what I am not sure of is if this will properly remove it from AD which will cause replication errors.

On the second option you give, I only have the 1 NT server that I am trying to remove as a domain controller. So shutting it down and removing it with server manager does not apply

If I were to upgrade the server to 2k will the upgrade carry over the DC operations? I can then demote the server using DCPROMO.


thanks for the help.

 

[chronos1]

DUH! sorry you're right, DCPROMO doesn't work on NT4.

Hmm... well done some checking - and it actually seems to be a simple case of just deleting the servers off the AD.

All the best!

**************************
I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.
**************************

 

[PMCDad]

Chronos where did you get this info? I am not able to locae much on this topic.

 

[chronos1]

Hi PMCDad - just searching for it one various sites, googling and other search engines - they're pretty good for showing you other forums that have discussed the topic previously.

Good luck

 

[AndrewTait]

I was not aware that you could have an NT4 domain controller in an AD scenario. If the NT4 server is a BDC, there must also be a NT4 PDC somewhere, and the 2000 boxes will be running as BDC compatable.

I will stand corrected if this is incorrect.

Andy

He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy (Monty Python's The Life of Brian)

 

[PMCDad]

Yes you can, it is just not a true AD enviroment.

The NT4 BDC is a leftover from an old domain that was migrated to the current domain. It is still replicating as a DC with my two 2K DC's. I am leaning towards, removing the server and deleting the object from the Domain Controllers Group. (The problem is that I tried this once before with an old DC (2K) that had died and was removed without demoting it. Which is causing errors because the other servers are still looking for it, even though it was deleted. I think this may be different with removing an NT4 BDC and I may get the desired result.

Thanks

 

[bofhrevenge2]

By default the first server in your 2k domain is the PDC emulator any NT4 BDC's will connect to this and grab a list of user accounts to allow it to authenticate users. The NT4 BDC's do not hold a copy of Active Directory and are not involved in Directory replication so removing it from the domain should be as easy as turning it off and deleting it's computer account.
The best approach would be to turn it off for a couple of hours and look for errors in the event logs, any problems will show up fairly quickly.

 

[PMCDad]

I was about to upgrade the server to 2k this week and when I got here on Monday morning the RAID controller died!! I replaced with a new controller which was not seeing the drive in ID 0 (I knew the OS was going to get reloaded once the controller crapped out.) so now I also have a bad hard drive, no problem, I have spares! Server has been rebuilt with 2k as a member server.

So basically shutting down the server and deleting it from AD works.

Thank you all for the help.



GO PATRIOTS!!