No, NT 4.0 domain controllers cannot be DC's in an Active Directory
Sorry Jesse but this is incorrect. I wrote the migration docs from NT4 to 2003 for Microsoft's Small to Medium IT prescriptive guidance. This happens all the time.
Teknikl,
The correct answer here is that the PDC must be upgraded to Windows 2003 before any other 2003 machines may be introduced as a DC. Your NT4 BDC will continue to authenticate, however they will not hold AD and cannot host AD Integrated DNS.
What most people do in your situation is what is called a Swing Server Upgrade.
Install a fresh machine as an NT4 BDC. Install SP6a. Promote it to PDC. Then perform the upgrade to Windows 2003. The install will create the basic AD structure for you. The domain will be running in Mixed Mode which allows for NT4 domain controllers.
Next you should install a fresh WIndows 2003 server on new hardware. THis time, unlike the NT4 which had limitations for the OS partition, you will now be able to set a decent size partition. I suggest between 12-24GB. Install SP2. Run DCPROMO to make this new server a DC. Wait 15 minutes for AD to fully replicate. Make the server a Global Catalog.
Next you need to transfer all of the FSMO roles from the swing server. After you verify all 5 roles have successfully transfered, you can run DCPROMO on the swing server to uninstall AD from it. After that gracefully remove the server from the domain by joining it to a workgroup. Verify there are no records for it in DNS, if there are delete them.
You now have a clean install of Windows Server 2003 running as PDC emulator, as the main DC for AD while still having NT4 domain controllers servicing logon requests.
I suggest fully upgrading servers to 2003 after that and when all NT4 domain controllers are removed you can elevate the domain functional level to Windows 2003. Note that you can elevate to 2003 mode while still having NT4 member servers. You just can't have DCs that would be NT4 at that point.
As was suggested, visit the Microsoft.com website and download a copy of the upgrade docs which go over all of the individual steps. What I have posted above is just an overview of what needs to be done.
Specifically refer to the pilot program implementation in the following:
I hope you find this post helpful.
Regards,
Mark
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