Is this possible

[ashleym]

I have a single small business server 2000 server and I want to replace it with a new server running windows server 2003 R2. What I want to do is this:

Join the new server to the domain.
Extend the schema and make the new server a BDC.
Once AD has replicated to the new server, shut the old SBS server down and seize the roles and make the new server the PDC.

What do you guys think? Will it work?

Thanks

AM

 

[Daire]

There are no PDCs or BDCs in server 2003.
As long as the SBS server is the first DC in the forest its happy so you can add the second 2003 server as a DC in the existing forest, let it replicate and then remove the SBS from the network.

 

[ashleym]

Actually there are PDC's and BDC's.
If you go to a command prompt and type 'net accounts' you will see that a PDC will say PDC and a BDC will say BDC.

Do you think I would be able to transfer the FSMO roles from the SBS server to the 2003 server?

Thank you for you answer.

 

[BenChristian]

It's probably not a bad idea to set up a lap and give it a try. I've never integrated SBS and 2K3 together so I'm not sure if it's possible.

Technically, there is no PDC/BDC roles in AD, because it uses multimaster replication - all DCs contain writable copies of the database. I wonder if a 'PDC' is considered the DC that holds the PDC Emulator role. net accounts may show this for backwards compatibility with NT4 machines as these can only be authenticated by the PDC emulator.

http://www.benchristian.com