Removing 2003 DC after bringing up 2008 R2 DC

[xendrome]

So a few months ago I brought online a new 2008 R2 DC, which runs AD/DNS/DHCP my topic for some help on that was here - https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1032905-adding-server-2008-r2-to-2003-domain/

The old 2003 DC was also running Exchange 2003, (not my doing) and my topic for help on migrating it to Exchange 2010 is here - https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1081645-exchange-2003-standard-to-exchange-2010-enterprise-need-input/

Now on to my next task.

I need to remove the Server 2003 DC, so that I can reload it with 2008 R2 and make it a secondary DC/DNS server.

Currently the 2008 R2 DC is running great, 0 problems what-so-ever and if I do a "netdom query fsmo" all of the roles are pointing to the new server.

The 2003 DC is currently running AD and DNS. I have already uninstalled Exchange and IIS.

So I'm looking for some advice from someone who has done this before. I believe my next steps are

1: Shut down or disconnect 2003 DC for a bit, make sure everything is still working with only the 2008 R2 DC (restart clients, logons, test dns, etc)

2: Hook system back up to network. Run DCPromo and demote the old DC which should move it from "Domain Controllers" OU to "Domain Computers" OU, I saw a tip that if it errors out during demoting go and uncheck "Global Catalog" on the 2003 DC and try again. Shut down old DC.

3: Go into DNS on 2008 R2 DC and verify entries for old 2003 DC are gone, if not manually remove

4: Go into AD Sites and Services and delete old 2003 DC from Site.

Does that look complete? Any thoughts or input from the experience you guys have had?

Thanks in advance as usual.

[sc302 Veteran]

You need to move the fsmo roles over to the new domain controller....there are 5 roles

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324801

You will need to enable the new server for global catalog, you can disable it off the old one

http://technet.micro...v=ws.10%29.aspx

At this point you can run dcpromo on the old one to remove the rest of AD off of it and cleanly remove it out of AD all together. Doing it this way will remove it from sites and services, and from DNS and other hooks in the AD metabase cleanly.

[xendrome]

5 roles, check, already done.

global catalog, go into ADU&C on new DC, go to properties for old DC, click NTDS settings, uncheck "Global Catalog" and OK out? Does that look right? And can I do that right away then DC promo any time later?

You need to move the fsmo roles over to the new domain controller....there are 5 roles

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324801

You will need to enable the new server for global catalog, you can disable it off the old one

http://technet.micro...v=ws.10%29.aspx

At this point you can run dcpromo on the old one to remove the rest of AD off of it and cleanly remove it out of AD all together. Doing it this way will remove it from sites and services, and from DNS and other hooks in the AD metabase cleanly.

[sc302 Veteran]

yessir.

[Roger H. Veteran]

Thanks for these threads xendrome as I want to eventually kill all the SBS2003R2 servers and setup some Windows 2012 servers running Hyper-V with Exchange 2010/12 in there and another for SQL :D We have like 4 servers at work for god knows why. LOL My boss being rich and whatever just bought high performance servers and he could do with a simple server and some HDDs for storage.

So i've already read up all that needs to be done but definitely good info here that'll be going over once that time comes. I kinda would rather start a brand new setup to avoid some of the old cruft and any mixed mode left overs that their might be. I upgraded ALL clients to Windows 7 at least so good there too!

Anyways, seems like you are all ready to go though based on what I've already read on other sites.

[sc302 Veteran]

Anyways, seems like you are all ready to go though based on what I've already read on other sites.

based of the many hundreds of times that I have done it, he is ready to go. no need to go to other sites. :p

[xendrome]

Thanks for these threads xendrome as I want to eventually kill all the SBS2003R2 servers and setup some Windows 2012 servers running Hyper-V with Exchange 2010/12 in there and another for SQL :D We have like 4 servers at work for god knows why. LOL My boss being rich and whatever just bought high performance servers and he could do with a simple server and some HDDs for storage.

So i've already read up all that needs to be done but definitely good info here that'll be going over once that time comes. I kinda would rather start a brand new setup to avoid some of the old cruft and any mixed mode left overs that their might be. I upgraded ALL clients to Windows 7 at least so good there too!

Anyways, seems like you are all ready to go though based on what I've already read on other sites.

Yeah there were a few gotcha's with the Exchange 2010 migration, but I worked through those using basic Google searching and other people going from 2003 to 2010 ran into the same stuff helped out...

I am pretty confident in my own research but I always like to find out what others have to say, especially on here there are some really knowledgeable people doing this stuff all the time. I work for a local government agency and once we go stable and put something into production it stays there for many years. The Exchange 2003 server was in place since 2004 and had been migrated to new hardware 3 times, so it was due.

When you get ready to do it, start posting here and everyone will help you out :)

I'll end up doing this part in the next 1-2 weeks, I have to move an old Pervasive DB app off of the server first.

[xendrome]

Ok so 2003 DC is totally out of the loop now, have a second DC setup

SRV-DC01 - DNS/DHCP/AD (GC)

SRV-DC02 - DNS/AD (GC)

My domain functional level is still Windows Server 2003, can I go ahead and raise it up to 2008 R2 now?

Exchange is 2010 SP2...

I do have (1) 2003 R2 Server left on the network, but it doesn't run anything except a couple of SQL databases. But if my understanding is correct, functional level only has to do with Domain Controllers.. right?

[sc302 Veteran]

I see no problem with raising the function level now.