Test and consequences for adding and deleting W2K8 DC in 2003 domain

Hello,

I have a forest and a domain with 3 Windows 2003 Server DCs. In order to
make a test during 2 weeks, I have to install and promote a Windows 2008
Server R2 into DC (without particulary role).
I know I will have to do an ADPREP with the W2K8 R2 DVD but forest and
domain will not change their level.

2 weeks after I will retrograde the server as member and suppress it from
the network (It will leave only W2K3 severs).
Do you know if there could be a problem for the AD architecture ?

Thanks in advance.

Christophe

Howdie!

Am 13.04.2010 20:22, schrieb Christophe CHESNEAU:
> I have a forest and a domain with 3 Windows 2003 Server DCs. In order to
> make a test during 2 weeks, I have to install and promote a Windows 2008
> Server R2 into DC (without particulary role).
> I know I will have to do an ADPREP with the W2K8 R2 DVD but forest and
> domain will not change their level.

Okay, you can do that. You just need to run ADPrep, no raisure of the
forest or domain level, that's okay.


> 2 weeks after I will retrograde the server as member and suppress it
> from the network (It will leave only W2K3 severs).
> Do you know if there could be a problem for the AD architecture ?

Err... you want to do that in a live environment? What's that for? Does
it serve any purpose or just "testing"? Don't you have a lab environment
you do these kind of things in?

Other than that, there shouldn't be any harm if you gracefully demote it
to a member server.

Cheers,
Florian

Hello Christophe,

There is no problem to add a higher OS DC to the domain and leave the functional
levels unchanged. Before starting the upgrade or adding new OS DCs run support
tools dcdiag /v, netdiag and repadmin /showrepl to check for errors. Use
the tools also after adding new DCs or changing important settings.

If you like to test in the production domain if everything works with the
new DCs, don't forget to move the FSMO roles and make the new ones also DNS/GC,
then disconnect the older OS DCs for one day, best at weekend and test for
yourself if all(logon, network services, mail, share access , GPOs etc.)
is running as expected. Then reconnect the older OS DCs and start demoting
them.

Best regards

Meinolf Weber
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> Hello,
>
> I have a forest and a domain with 3 Windows 2003 Server DCs. In order
> to
> make a test during 2 weeks, I have to install and promote a Windows
> 2008
> Server R2 into DC (without particulary role).
> I know I will have to do an ADPREP with the W2K8 R2 DVD but forest
> and
> domain will not change their level.
> 2 weeks after I will retrograde the server as member and suppress it
> from
> the network (It will leave only W2K3 severs).
> Do you know if there could be a problem for the AD architecture ?
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Christophe
>

Just make a proper backup of all your DCs before of that. Just in case
you'll want to revert to the initial schema (before ADPREP).

I haven't seen any issues with this, but as Florian suggested, this kind of
tests are made in a test environment. On live environments, you do it just
once - after you've test it.

Regards,
Andrei Ungureanu
www.winadmins.net

"Florian Frommherz" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Howdie!
>
> Am 13.04.2010 20:22, schrieb Christophe CHESNEAU:
>> I have a forest and a domain with 3 Windows 2003 Server DCs. In order to
>> make a test during 2 weeks, I have to install and promote a Windows 2008
>> Server R2 into DC (without particulary role).
>> I know I will have to do an ADPREP with the W2K8 R2 DVD but forest and
>> domain will not change their level.
>
> Okay, you can do that. You just need to run ADPrep, no raisure of the
> forest or domain level, that's okay.
>
>
>> 2 weeks after I will retrograde the server as member and suppress it
>> from the network (It will leave only W2K3 severs).
>> Do you know if there could be a problem for the AD architecture ?
>
> Err... you want to do that in a live environment? What's that for? Does it
> serve any purpose or just "testing"? Don't you have a lab environment you
> do these kind of things in?
>
> Other than that, there shouldn't be any harm if you gracefully demote it
> to a member server.
>
> Cheers,
> Florian
>