DNS Installation

[madlm]

Here's my current scenario -
-[1] DC w/DNS, Primary (this was an inplace upgrade of NT PDC to 2003 DC)
-[1] DC w/DNS, Secondary

DNS is active directory integrated as we speak. I just added a third DC w/DNS but as a Primary [or at least that's how it's listed].

My goal is to take the in place upgraded PDC off line and rebuild it and in the interim use the 2nd and 3rd freshly built 2003 DCs to handle services.

Questions:
- Is there any relevance to the primary or secondary 'role' in AD integrated DNS? I didn't think so but was not sure.
- Has anyone had any problems with removing a DC from a domain and trying to re-add it with the same name at a later date?
- What pitfalls am I potentially looking at with this scenario?

thanks!

 

[wdoellefeld]

- Is there any relevance to the primary or secondary 'role' in AD integrated DNS? I didn't think so but was not sure.
Only to clients

- Has anyone had any problems with removing a DC from a domain and trying to re-add it with the same name at a later date?
Shouldn't have an issue if you demote it first.

- What pitfalls am I potentially looking at with this scenario?
Utter hell if it goes bad, lol. Nothing much that good planning can't overcome.

FRCP

http://www.frcp.net

 

[pmf71]

I believe the PDC has all the master operations roles by default. You need to transfer these roles to another server before you take the PDC with master operations roles offline. Best way to do this is indeed by demoting the PDC. I made that mistake recently, i hadn't demoted my DC (i have another DC on the other end of a VPN tunnel) and took it offline to freshly install 2k3. i had a hell of a time getting the RID master back, it wreaked havoc with several functions.

 

[madlm]

>>I believe the PDC has all the master operations roles by default. You need to transfer these roles to another server before you take the PDC with master operations roles offline. Best way to do this is indeed by demoting the PDC. I made that mistake recently, i hadn't demoted my DC (i have another DC on the other end of a VPN tunnel) and took it offline to freshly install 2k3. i had a hell of a time getting the RID master back, it wreaked havoc with several functions.>>

- Thanks but one additional question... you said to demote the current DC that is acting as the PDC emulator. Do I just go into NT server manager and make another one of the DCs the PDC but prior to doing that transfer the PDC emulator role to that new DC???

Steps
- Transfer role of PDC emulator from DC1 to DC2 [and all other roles]
- From NT BDC promote DC2 to PDC while demoting DC1
- Shut down DC1
- Rebuild DC1
- Add DC1 back into network as a DC

thanks in advance!

 

[wdoellefeld]

On a AD domain things such as PDC and BDC no longer exist all there really are role holders. The first DC in the domain holding al of them

I would transfer all 5 FSMO roles to another DC or find out who is doing what to make sure they are all on DCs that will be kept online. Give it some replication time and then demote and rebuild

FRCP

http://www.frcp.net

 

[technome]

I second wdoellefield, I would manual transfer them.. the the roles transferred can be verified before you demote the server.
run nslookup, dcdiag, and netdiag to verify all is well before you demote the server and after.

Fdisk the demoted server before you rebuild it. Only once have I used the original name for a rebuilt FSMO, after a raid failure. I received some pretty scary errors until the replication took place, after which I had no problems.

Cruise down the thread for pcmeiners, this was my adventure with rebuilding a crushed FSMO, with the same name.

http://206.246.253.6/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6636&SearchTerms=authorative,restore

 

[NickFerrar]

I'm going through a similar upgrade at the moment (Windows 2000 to 2003). Some things on my checklist are:
-Transfer all FSMO roles
-If PDCe is getting time from an external source make sure the new PDCe is configured for this
-Check for things like DHCP and WINS running on the DC to and move these off first
-Make sure the server you're demoting isn't the only GC
-If you manually configured it as a site preferred bridgehead server then either revert to default or make another server the preferred bridgehead

Also do it in baby steps, don't migrate everything off at once, allow a couple of days between major changes to make sure it's all working.