Forest Prep - Time it takes to Propigate to all DCs? 4

[dpazuk]

Hello All,

We are attempting to add a 2003 DC into an existing native 2000 AD environment that consists of three (3) 2000 Server DC's all running under 2000 Server native mode. One of the DC's is also a 2000 Exchange server.

To begin with we ran both /forestprep and /adprep without any issues whatsoever on our existing PDC/Operations/Infrastructure master.

We then attempted to DC promo the 2003 server, but we keep getting the error message that the forest has not been prepped, even though /forestprep ran and completed without any problems.

I was told that it can take sometime for the /forestprep to propigate to the existing DC's. In general, how long should this take before I can sucessfully run DC promo on the new 2003 server?

One problem which may be causing this to occur: We had at one time a 4th DC in our domain, but it has since been removed. However, it was not demoted prior to it's removal, and our exising AD still believes it is acting as a DC. Could this be an issue? If so, how can I demote and remove this old DC from our AD after the fact?

 

[jimthecanadian]

Depends on your replication schedule, but if you go into Sites and services and force the replication then it shouldn't take too long.

You may also want to check your event log on all dc's to make sure oyu don't have any replication errors

 

[NJForensics]

Is this new 2003 server a R2 server? If it is then you need to pop disk 2 of the Windows Server 2003 R2 disks into one of the currently active domain controllers.

open command prompt and browse to the r2 > cmpnents > adprep folder on the cd.

type adprep /forestprep
then
adprep /domainprep

Even though you may have extended the schema to include 2003 already... the R2 forestprep/domainprep has additional schema updates that are required to promote a R2 server to a DC.

Chris Clancy, EnCE
Miles Technologies
clancy@4miles.com

 

[dpazuk]

Chris,

I think you hit the ball out of the park on this one!

It is indeed an R2 server and I will definately do as you have suggested.

Much appreciated!

 

[NJForensics]

Not a problem ... glad i could be of assistance.

One more thing, regarding the DC that you removed from the network. You might want to check the FSMO roles. You may have roles still associated with this old DC.

Chris Clancy, EnCE
Miles Technologies
clancy@4miles.com

 

[Markus0815]

To remove the old DC from your domain, you have to edit the Active Directory manually with ADSIEdit Tool. The follwing might help:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216498

 

[58sniper]

Also take a look at

How can I delete a failed Domain Controller object from Active Directory?

http://www.petri.co.il/delete_failed_dcs_from_ad.htm

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[Roadki11]

Also note adding a 2003 controller to an existing 2000 domain with an exchange 2000 server mangles a few attributes in the exchange schema that need to be fixed. see the following link for details on how to fix it.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=314649

Hope this helps,

Roadki11

 

[dpazuk]

Thanks to all of you for the informative answers!