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Replacing Primary Domain Controller

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by techintern

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I am planning to replace our Primary Domain Controller, possibly with the same name.
Anybody know of best practices to do that. I will be retiring the old server.

4 replies

by cmiller5400

NT4, W2K, W2K3? I am going to assume that since you said PDC not DC that it is NT4... Build up a new server as a BDC, once everything is synced up, down the PDC and use DCPROMO on the BDC to promote it to PDC.

by techintern

It is a pure 2003 domain. Our PDC is acting up so we just want to replace it with new hardware. My question is how can I keep the same name and also how do I make it the primary DNS server etc..

by mjfera

IMHO, I wouldn't even attempt to keep the name the same. That could put you in a world of hurt, and I'm not sure what you gain by keeping the name the same.

Build up a new DC. Move the 5 FSMO roles to the new DC. You can find plenty of articles on how to do this using google.

Once the new DC has the roles, use DCPROMO to demote the old DC.

Worth noting: Microsoft Best Practice states that the PDC role holder should not be a Global Catalog. For this reason (and many, many others) you should always have more than one DC.

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