Promoting a Backup DC to a Primary

[vsmoly]

TRYING TO PROMOTE A SECONDARY BACKUP SERVER TO BEING THE PRIMARY, ONCE I TRY TO DO THAT IT GIVES ME THIS ERROR MESSAGE IN THE SERVER MANAGER IN NT SERVER:

error starting the net logon service on SERVER. Error 3097 occured: A primary domain controller is already running in this Doamin.

Please HELP,

Already tried to start Net Logon in services. Unsuccessful.

 

[ashleym]

Try demoting the primary, see if that works.

AM

 

[vsmoly]

Tried to do that but when I go to server manager, click on computer, I have no options for demoting.

 

[bierhunter]

There isn't a demote capability for domain controllers. Promoting the BDC should automatically demote the PDC, but the PDC can't be demoted manually.

You may want to try turning off the PDC first and then promote the BDC.

 

[vsmoly]

Tried to turn off PDC and promote BDC to primary, Goes through the process almost, when the BDC tries to start the Net logon gives of an error code which reverts back to the original question.

 

[Guest_imported]

A Backup Domain Controller (BDC) can only be promoted to a Primary Domain Controller (PDC) if the Server Manager is focused on a domain. The focus is displayed on the title bar of the Server Manager window. The text on the title bar can have the following forms:
Server Manager - <domain name>
Server Manager - <nt workgroup name>
Server Manager - \\<computer name>
If the Server Manager is focused on a workgroup or a particular server, the Promote To Domain Controller as well as the Synchronize With Domain Controller, Add To Domain and Remove From Domain options on the Computer menu are unavailable (grayed). To use any of the domain functions, the focus must be on a domain.

To change the focus of the Server Manager, choose Select Domain from the Computer menu and enter the appropriate domain name, workgroup name, or computer name

 

[vsmoly]

Thanks for your help, I got it now, the promotion was sucessful, the netlogon works, all is well, thanks again.