Upgrading AD from Windows 2000 to Windows 2003

[Corbin O'Reilly]

Hi everyone. Here is my situation. We have a very simple single forest
single domain Windows 2000 infrastructure. We have 3 Windows domain
controllers. Two of the domain controllers are very old machines, the third
one is a modern box. One of the old domain controllers holds 4 FSMO roles,
the third modern DC holds the schema master role. In December we are finally
going to migrate from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003. The first thing we want
to do is upgrade the domain to Windows 2003. Do you think it would be a good
idea to transfer all FSMO roles to the third modern DC and then upgrade it
directly to Windows 2003? If I do that I DO NOT want this DC to also be a
Global Catalog Server too, right? Can I upgrade this Windows 2000 DC
directly to Windows 2003 or do I have to perform additional steps beforehand
to my Windows 2000 AD? Thank for the advice and help.

 

[Paul Bergson]

Since you have a simple single domain in your forest the Infrastructure
Master role can be on the same dc as the GC. So no need to worry about
that. Since you network is so small leaving them all on one machine
shouldn't be a worry for you. I would place them on the machine that is the
most reliable.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223346/en-us

Yes you can upgrade directly from 2000 to 2003.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;325379

--


Paul Bergson MCT, MCSE, MCSA, CNE, CNA, CCA

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Jorge_de_Almeida_Pinto]

Hi everyone. Here is my situation. We have a very simple
single forest
single domain Windows 2000 infrastructure. We have 3 Windows
domain
controllers. Two of the domain controllers are very old
machines, the third
one is a modern box. One of the old domain controllers holds 4
FSMO roles,
the third modern DC holds the schema master role. In December
we are finally
going to migrate from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003. The first
thing we want
to do is upgrade the domain to Windows 2003. Do you think it
would be a good
idea to transfer all FSMO roles to the third modern DC and
then upgrade it
directly to Windows 2003? If I do that I DO NOT want this DC
to also be a
Global Catalog Server too, right? Can I upgrade this Windows
2000 DC
directly to Windows 2003 or do I have to perform additional
steps beforehand
to my Windows 2000 AD? Thank for the advice and help.

The following contains tons of info to go from 2000 AD to 2003 AD:
See:
MS-KBQ314649_W2K3 ADPREP Command Causes Mangled Attributes in W2K
Forests That Contain E2K Servers
MS-KBQ325379_How to Upgrade Windows 2000 Domain Controllers to Windows
Server 2003
MS-KBQ555040_Common Mistakes When Upgrade Windows 2000 Domain To
Windows 2003
MS-KBQ324392_Enhancements to Adprep.exe in Windows Server 2003 Service
Pack 1 and in hotfix 324392
Also see:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pr...elp/bc5ebbdb-a8d7-4761-b38a-e207baa73419.mspx)
http://www.petri.co.il/windows_2003_adprep.htm
MS-KBQ555038_How to enable Windows 98-ME-NT clients to logon to
Windows 2003 based Domains
MS-KBQ887426_Incorrect Schema extension for OS X prevents ForestPrep
from completing in Windows 2000
MS-KBQ555262_Common Mistakes When Upgrading Exchange 5.5-2000 To a
Exchange 2003
MS-KBQ822942_Considerations When You Upgrade to Exchange Server 2003

Another possibility is to do the swing upgrade..

I don’t know how reliable the old machines are but you could
transfer ALL functions to the other DCs...Reinstall the modern DC with
W2k3 and add it to the domain as a fresh installed DC instead of a
upgraded DC. Reason for me to say this is that I hate OS upgrades as,
although possible, you always keep some kind of crap