WinNT 4.0 And Win2000/2003 Domain Mix

[Tørres K. Brøvig]

Hi.

I have the following setup at work:

1. WinNT 4.0 Server (Domain Controller)
2. WinNT 4.0 Server (Backup Domain Controller)
3. Win2000 Server (Member Server)
4. Win2000 Server (Member Server)

My first question is: Can I upgrade one of the Win2000 Servers to Win2003
Server and promote it to a Domain Controller? And can my second Win2000
Server act as a Backup Domain controller for the Win2003 Server?

If this works will I have all the new features/improvements on my network
when i mix Win2000 and Win2003? Or do I have to run a "clean" Win2003 Server
environment to achive this?

Will my WinNT 4.0 Server (one of these will be taken down) be functional in
the domain (I will demote it to a normal server). What I mean is; can the
clients still reach it for file/print when I run the WinNT 4.0 Server in a
Win2000/Win2003 domain?

I would be happy if anyone have some whitepapers regarding this.

Regards

Tørres
Norway

 

[Danny Sanders]

My first question is: Can I upgrade one of the Win2000 Servers to Win2003

Server and promote it to a Domain Controller?

Yes.
You should be aware that you will be creating a new domain since you did not
upgrade your NT 4.0 PDC which is the only DC in your NT 4.0 domain that
holds the writeable copy of the SAM. You will be creating a new SAM. New SAM
= new domain.
You will have to use ADMT to move users from one domain to the other. You
will have to join your users to the new domain and work out moving/resetting
their profiles etc..


Another way would be to remove Win 2k from one of your Win 2k member server
and install NT 4.0 on it as a BDC while connected to your existing network,
promote to PDC (your original PDC is demoted to BDC) then upgrade to Win 2k.
In this case you are upgrading the NT 4.0 PDC and bringing the NT 4.0 SAM
into the Win 2k domain.

hth
DDS W 2k MVP MCSE