Follow-up question for AD2K - 2K3/2K8 Migration

[Bill Clark]

This is a follow-up question to the original posting on 2/4/09. Once I
upgrade the main AD from 2K to 2K8 and have shut the old one down, I'll
still have a second 2K AD. Will this function as is with Windows 2K and
still act as a backup DC to the newly updated main? Or do I have to take
this one out of the mix also and immediately replace with a backup DC
running 2K8? I have found that this secondary DC also is running some
applications that will still be needed so I can't take the server down
completely, but maybe just shut off replication of AD and remove any roles
it has? Suggestions?

Bill

 

[Meinolf Weber [MVP-DS]]

Hello Bill,

2000 and 2008 DC's work together as long as you like. Disadvantage is that
you can not raise the functional levels and use the new features like fine
grained password policy or domain rename, to point out some of them.

Just make sure the FSMO roles are on the 2008 DC's.

Best regards

Meinolf Weber
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[Florian Frommherz [MVP]]

Bill,

This is a follow-up question to the original posting on 2/4/09. Once I
upgrade the main AD from 2K to 2K8 and have shut the old one down, I'll
still have a second 2K AD. Will this function as is with Windows 2K and
still act as a backup DC to the newly updated main? Or do I have to take
this one out of the mix also and immediately replace with a backup DC
running 2K8? I have found that this secondary DC also is running some
applications that will still be needed so I can't take the server down
completely, but maybe just shut off replication of AD and remove any roles
it has? Suggestions?

Assuming that you have successfully removed the first 2000-DC and have moved
all FSMO roles to the new Server 2008-DC and have updated references of it
from the second 2000-DC (DNS settings), Server 2008 and 2000 will play
nicely together. There's no need to rush the old DC's replacement. Just
check replication and eventlogs to make sure there are no issues left.

I know this might only be a terminology thing, but please try to get away
from the "backup DC" thinking. From Active Directory on (as opposed to
Windows NT), there's no "backup DC" any more. All DCs in the domain are
equal - there is no "master" (except for special FSMO roles that are needed
for opration). Regarding client requests and handling DNS and stuff, all DCs
are equal and should be treated so.

Cheers,
Florian