Windows

You can only have one PDC on a domain.

You need to remove PDC from network before promoting BDC by dcpromo

You can promote the BDC to PDC even when the Old PDC is online. In this case the Old PDC will be automatically demoted to BDC. In a network domain you should have atleast 1 BDC. So the converted BDC (Olod PDC) will serve the purpose. Actually you should have only one PDC and atleast one BDC for backup of your all domain settings like user names, user rights, shares, privileges, etc. You can have more than 1 BDC but that depends on your network and no of systems you have on your network. You canhave more details from the Microsoft site.
Best of Lick.

In an NT4 domain, the proper way to do this is as follows:

From Server Manager on the PDC:
1. Highlight the BDC you wish to promote.
2. From the Computer menu, choose "Synchronize with the Primary Domain Controller"
3. Once sunchronization has completed, from, the Computer menu, choose "Promote to Primary Domain Controller"

This action will automatically demote the current PDC to a BDC.

If the current PDC is non-functional, or has already been removed from the domain (taken offline), the BDC can "seize" the PDC function by following the above steps (minus synchronization with the PDC) from the Server Manager on the BDC.

Hope this helps.

Hi Tim,

Thanks for your help. I suppose if I perform the steps 1-3 to Demote the PDC, I can always promote the now BDC back to where its status was before by doing the few steps again?

Thanks
Ed

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