Replacing a PDC

Reuilding the pdc and putting the same box back in place ???? WHOAAAAA
Lets get this straight. Machine accounts, like user accounts, have a unique number assigned when they are created. rebuilding any machine, even with exactly the same name, causes a new account to be created or the original account to be overwritten with the new security ID. In essence, they are two DIFFERENT machines. You cannot rebuild a machine and put it straight on an existing domain as a pdc, even if it was the pdc before you flattened it - no way, nada, nicht. in order to even put the rebuilt machine back in the domain, there must be a pdc in place already - or where is it going to create the new account ?? to rebuild a pdc, you must take it offline, PROMOTE AN EXISTING BDC TO BE THE PDC, and then rebuild it. Then add it as a BDC, take the machine you promoted earlier offline, and promote your rebuilt machine to be the pdc. From that point on the machine you promoted temporarily must NEVER be put back on the network, as YOU CANNOT DEMOTE A PDC - it is a one way operation (in fact theres a registry hack that gets around this, but I wouldn't even think of trying it on a live environment - that would be a very strange way of handing in your notice). In order to replace the pdc with a new machine, simply build the new machine as a bdc, take the pdc offline, and promote the new machine via server manager, again - the old pdc must NEVER be put back on the network !!!

I assume you have BDC(s) in place. If so, no problem. Just promote your BDC to PDC as usual, add in your new box, and then promote it. Done it a few times w/no problems; as far as the rest of the servers are concerned, it's just a new DC.

I guess you didn't make it clear and , quite frankly, you still aren't. If all you want to do is take one pdc off, and put another on, and you know how to do it already, then what exactly is it you are asking about ??

This what you have to do. I have done this one time also. I syncronized the domain with the BDC and then turned off the PDC. Once the BDC allowed, I promoted it to PDC and then configured my new machine. I deleted the old PDC from the server managerlist and then added it as a BDC in the server manager. Once the machine was up and running, I turned off my PDC (once my BDC) and then promoted the new machine that I wanted my PDC to be. This whole process really took very little time but it depends on the size of your domain. You really should have some kind of BDC in place just in case of emergencies. Use anything...just make sure you keep a BDC.

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