Copy AD Objects to Trusted Forest

[Aguila]

I am looking for a method to copy an existing AD forest's Domain information
to a test Forest.

Specifically I want to copy OUs, All Groups, and user Accounts, from the
production forest to the test forest.
the objective is to have a test environment that is as similar as possible
to the production environment to test for upgrade to Sever 2003 and Exchange
2003. I would like to use a Microsoft tool if possible, something similar
to AD migration wizard for 2003.

 

[Matjaz Ladava [MVP]]

One way to duplicate your production environment to your test lab is to use
backup/restore operation to restore your AD to a isolated networks.
Use http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263532 to recover AD to a different
server. Next use
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;216498 to remove
any Dc's that wont be part of test lab. Finally seize any FSMO roles
(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;255504), that were
hosted on other servers than the one you are restoring. This would give you
a perfect duplicate test lab.

If you don't like this aproach, then you could use ldifde utility to export
data in your domain and import it to your test domain. There is also ADMT
tool for copying objects from one trusted domain to another.

--

Regards
Matjaz Ladava, MCSA, MCSE, MCT, MVP
Microsoft MVP Windows Server - Active Directory
(e-mail address removed), (e-mail address removed)