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NT4 PDC Change to 2000

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7 replies

by foz

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Ok well heres another one just begging for some tips! I have just purchased some new servers to replace our existing ones, now all our existing ones are NT4, im looking to upgrade to server 2000 with the new ones. The one im thinking may be a littletricky is our PDC, the way our network is set up is as follows: we have a link to our parents company domain which has a trust in place with our smaller domain, we control our domain. We also have a BDC so i dont have any trouble in promoting that to the PDC while i set the new one up (there shouldnt be any problems with that should there?) but what im not so sure about is will server 2000 be ok in this situation? and what pitfalls or tips i need to know of before i start, and if at all its viable, many thanks again for any input at all everyone!

7 replies

by jose_12650

If you upgrade your NT4 Server to WIN 2000 Server, every configuration in the NT4 is carried over in the upgraded W2k Server. But to play safe, image first the machine before upgrading it, this way, you can restore your NT4 in case something goes wrong with the upgrade.

by foz

Well i need to do a fresh install onto one of the new servers, the servers are completely different hardware in them compared to the current ones so an image is out of the question. What i need to do is effectively create the same environment but with completely different servers, a bit of a tricky one for me but a challenege nonetheless! If i was to do an image of a server what would you recommend? bearing in mind these servers have a RAID5 storage solution too! I know this may be pretty vaguebut im just after ideas at the moment, thanks for your reply! muchly appreciated!

by olisao55

If you image then upgrade the old dc, then put the fresh install server in, then you can promote it to a primary domain controller, thus transferring all trusts and domain info to the new controller.

by timwalsh

There are some rules relating to Win2K and Active Directory (AD) that CANNOT be broken:

1. A Win2K Domain Controller (DC) CANNOT exist in an NT4 domain (but member servers can).

2. An NT4 PDC CANNOT exist in a Win2K AD domain (but NT4 BDCs can.

3. Installing AD on any Win2K server automatically creates a DC (and an AD domain if it didn't previously exist).

4. To migrate an NT4 domain to a Win2K AD domain, Win2K and AD MUST be installed on the NT4 PDC.

Given these rules, you have a couple of choices here:

If you wish to migrate, your easiest path would be to install NT4 on one of the new servers as a BDC. Synchronize with the current PDC and then promote the new server to PDC. Then follow the standard NT4 - Win2K migration.

If you want an absolutely clean install of Win2K server, you can install Win2K on your current PDC to conduct the migration. Install Win2K fresh on one of the new servers and promote it to DC once your AD domain is created. Transfer all FSMO roles from your old PDC to the new server. Demote the old server.

If you have a small organization and either have issues with the current domain organization, or just don't want to play the musical OS game, you create your AD domain from scratch (not relying on any of the current settings/accounts).

NOTE: If you go any route other than the fresh install/create domain from scratch route, if possible, take a synchronize one of your BDCs (or create one for this purpose) and take it completely offline. This BDC will be used as your fallback in case something goes very wrong with your migration (as it sometimes does). If this happens, you can take this BDC and quickly put it online and promote it to PDC to get your domain operational again.

Good luck

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