I am trying to set up a BDC for our PDC. Our PDC is set up on Win NT server and I am trying to set up a BDC on Win 2K advance. I can see the BDC on the PDC but I can't connect to the PDC from the BDC. And a more pressing problem is that when I am configuring Active Directory I get an error ("The domain is not an active directory domain,or an Active directory domain controller for the domain could not be contacted.) Our domain uses underscores which is no longer supported by win 2K active directory. How do I resolve this situation. The outcome is that we will promote this BDC to the PDC but only after we have everything in place. I have read some of the material on migration to server 2003 but the migration plan is to stay with win 2000 advance. PLEASE HELP.

You do know that mainstream support for Windows 2000 terminated in June of last year?

Yes I do but that is what the company wants go with

I love how these people who don't live in the real world go straight to the "Its not supported" card when they don't know the answer.  Not all companies have budgets to update to the latest and greatest, and sometimes software requirements keep you from updating to the latest stuff as well.


Anyways, you're coming at this from the wrong angle.  
You need to migrate your NT Domain to an AD Domain.  You can't join your 2000 server to your PDC and magically sync data.  You have to migrate your NT stuff over to AD.

Here's some links to help get started.

http://www.petri.co.il/active_directory_migration_tool_usage_nt_w2k.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/downloads/w2kadmt.mspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/260871/en-us
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/profwin/pw0402.mspx

Matt

Please always take the time to backup important data and verify that backup, before making any changes suggested.

And I love how smug, patronising individuals immediately read into a simple question more than was said.

Many smaller businesses, particularly those without dedicated, trained IT staff, are not always aware of issues such as the termination of mainstream support (heck, the continued easy availability of Windows 2000 Server might indicate to many that it was still a mainstream product), or the ramifications of such termination.  All I was trying to find out was whether MaeMae was from one of those companies, or from one that has made an informed decision.


> Not all companies have budgets to update to the latest and greatest

Current costs of retail W2K3 and retail W2K are about the same

>sometimes software requirements keep you from updating to the latest stuff as well.

Yep. And hardware.

MaeMae, given what you have described, I think your easiest route is a domain upgrade rather than a migration (for a start, it avoids you having to use the Active Directory Migration Tool): http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/deploy/cookbook/cookchp2.mspx

Thank you Matt for the info. We are a small company that already have the licenses for Windows 2000 Advance Server with very limited budget to work with in the first place. Although I know of very few companies that run out and purchase the newest Microsoft technology, the usual case scenario is that they purchase the old one that all the bugs have been worked out first and leave governmental agencies to test out the new software and Microsoft to work out the bugs first. Everything Microsoft is not perfect or more efficient and definitely not bug free. But back to the problem at hand presently it is a concern that we would lose our information and files that presently are on our PDC with no way to recover them since We currently don't have a BDC. It evidently went out and was never reconfigured. Note: This situation was bm (Before Maemae). I am now having to deal with this situation. These systems are supposed to be backwards compatable is there not way to transfer any of the information to the new server before making any alterations to the PDC? Also the PDC is old and it is fear if it even was restarted or received updates and had to restart it would not come back on. Because of this information I was fearful of altering the PDC or updating the windows nt with the updates for the possibility of losing everything. With this new information at your disposal do you still recommend these tools?
Thank you for your help.

How many users/computers on your network?

Matt

Please always take the time to backup important data and verify that backup, before making any changes suggested.

There are about 50-60 users and I have not more than 10 other servers that connect to my domain. Accounting and billing servers included.
Maemae

I would first install a single NT BDC and immediately promote it to PDC. I would than perform an upgrade of your new PDC to Windows 2000, this begins the domain upgrade process and moves your PDC to Active Directory. You also have to keep the domain in Mixed Mode in order to support your BDC.

I agree. That's more or less exactly what I suggested

No No No. Dont do all the installing bdc promoting it to a pdc then updating to windows 2000. This is what you do. Install windows 2000 onto a server and install ad. When installing ad join it into your domain lets says domain1. Then do a sync of data between NT PDC and new windows 2000 AD server. When this is finished demote the NT PDC and now your windows 2000 AD server is Primary. In windows 2000 by the way there is no pdc\bdc they are all domain controllers. Now that your windows 2000 machine is primary you can either keep the windows nt as a backup or get rid of it. If you keep it and your windows 2000 server ever crashes the windows 2000 server and NT will already be synced you could just premote the nt server back to PDC. I would personally get rid of the NT and install another windows 2000 server so that you have 2 Windows 2000 machines.

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Fine but whe you run dcpromo.exe on your new Win2K server you will get the following error: "Naming information cannot be located because: The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted". Also, when you try to connect to the domain you will get this error: "The domain is not an Active Directory domain or an Active Directory domain controller for the domain could not be contacted".

Arsbargains, your solution will fail.

Thank you all for your suggestions but I had already decided to go with the creating a new nt server and then promoting the new one and then updating the system. As for promoting what I have you are right NOktar that is the error I got but right now I have a Domain cannot be contacted on my new nt server that I was trying to replicate my pdc with. But using a Win 2K server with AD to contact a NT server doesn't work because it tries to connect through the AD.

Too late I think but I would use VMWare (now free) install a new BDC. Shutdown your original PDC then promote the BDC on vmware to a PDC. Upgrade this to Win2000, if you have problems at this stage you can shut this server down and power up your original PDC. After the upgrade has completed successfully remove your original PDC (now a BDC) from the domain and do a clean install of Win2000 on it promote it to a DC and transfer the FSMO roles to it. You now have 2 Win2000 DC's one being your original PDC the other running on VMWare. Now you can install a new Win2000 server and promote that to a DC and finally demote the VMWare server to a standalone server and remove it from the domain. You are then left with 2 Win2000 DC's both clean installs not upgrades.

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If it doesn't leak oil it must be empty!!

Im in the exact same spot, I'm the new Admin for a small business. Around 120+/- people, most are on XP, have a few 2000 machines and about 10 Win 98 machines.

I'd LOVE to get away from the NT4 DC, no BDC, to make matters worse, the DC serves as the Print Server as well.

I DO NOT have a backup mechanisim in place, belive it or not the tape drive had Mountain Dew spilled on it and quit working, this occured before I got here   

I NEED to upgrade but quite simply I'm scared of what may happen, I'm a one man show so if it all goes bad my users will be calling me ONLY ME.

Can a 98 machine authenticate against a W2K AD domain?

My domain is also business_domain which I understand it not compatible in an AD environment.  

Suggestions?

Pull your hair out. I just about have. I found a machine that used to be our tape drive but it was taken out of circulation and no one knows the password. I tried Win 2K Advance Server and it couldn't connect to the PDC because the PDC is a NT machine and doesn't have AD. I tried Win NT to a new server but doesn't work because it could get the upgrades needed to connect to my present pdc and it was not able to read the SCSI drives. No drives for it and unable to load some on. I then tried to configure a Win 2003 Server but unable to even see the Win NT PDC or ping it nothing in Network Neighborhood. It is presently on the back burner and in the think tank while I am upside down lost as to what to do.

Hi All,

You all need to read the white papers on how to upgrade from NT4 to Windows2000. You need to go through a checklist to make sure you have compatible hardware, enough disk space, memory etc.  You just can't do this upgrade without carefully reading through everything.  Matt provided some links.  Here is another link: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/whyupgrade/nt4/nt4domtoad.mspx



Once you read through this you should have a great idea on what is involved.

Regards,
Zoey

Correction===Upgrading from NT4 to Windows2003

Update on progress.............
I have server 2003 installed on my new server and I am to connect to the old win nt 4 pdc and I can see it. but I can't see the rest of the network. And I can't see the new server from the pdc. But I can connect into the pdc's files where I have downloaded the admt too for migration.

Once I migrate all of my files I have some questions:
Will the users be able to access their accounts and all information will be available to them with their same passwords and logons? Am I able to undo the migration if I have a problem?

The situation you have at present, is as follows:

You have an NT4 domain, running a single PDC, and no BDC's. You also have a member server which is running 2003.

You are suggesting that you are going to move all the users data from the NT4 server to the 2003 server, and recreate all the necessary shares, and access rights, plus any printers set up on the PDC.

If I have got the above senario correct, then yea, your users will be able to access their files, and still log on with the same passwords and user names.

However, once you switch off the NT4 server, the only copy of the user accounts will no longer be available, and there will no longer be a domain.

If the NT4 server is then returned to the network, once again the domain will be available, and users will still be able to log on.

If you are intending doing this, consider the following.

1. Schedule some down time

2. Copy the files over from the NT4 Server to the 2003 server overnight, possibly with only these two machines on the network (seperate switch) in order to ensure no one accesses the NT4 server

3. Use DCPROMO tool to upgrade the 2003 to an AD domain controller

4. Recreate all user names, shares, and access rights

5. notify users of what their new passwords are.

So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains
And we never even know we have the key