NT PDC & 2000 SA needs to be 2000 PDC & 2000 BDC

[SkippyDolittle]

I'm looking for the steps needed (point me to any online resources/articles on how-to), and the risks involded in taking the following setup and changing it to the following:

Current setup:
1 - Existing NT 4 PDC Domain Server (houses logins and many files)
1 - Win2000 standalone server that logs into PDC (housing accounting files)

Setup wanted:
1 - NT 4 PDC upgraded to a Win2000 PDC
1 - Win2000 standalone upgraded to a Wiin2000 BDC

Any advise on how to safely go about this and the risks involved would be greatly appreciated. I'd really like to get this company away from using NT 4, but don't want to bring down their network in the process. They need to still be able to work very quickly after the upgrade.

Also, would I be better off setting up all the security for their horribly unsecure network prior to the ugrade or after?

Thanks in advance.

 

[pytchley]

I have recently resolved a similar situation but took the precation of using a spare machine to first make a NT4 BDC.
I then promoted the BDC to PDC and coverted it to Windows 2000 Server with active directory. I then rebuilt the original machine as a Windows 2000 server on the same domain as the converted machine. DNS was then added. Next the FMSO roles were changed to the rebuilt machine.
On the question of the standalone server - you can either convert this direct as a Windows 2000 Server or if you want another DC you will need to run dcpromo and add this to your domain.
Hope this helps

 

[frl]

I have a similar situation in my company. We have a NT 4 domain controller and Windows 2000 Stand alone server. All clients are Win2000 or XP.
My plan is to add another machine (to have a backup), install WinNT server as a BDC. Then promote it to PDC and later upgrade it to Win2000 Server.
I am also interested about the risks involved in this procedure and possible complications.