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Published
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September 05, 2009 |
Last Updated |
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September 05, 2009 |
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Introduction |
Most people are running their
Active Directory Domains now on Windows Server 2003 or
Windows Server 2003 R2, and want to upgrade their domain
controllers to Windows Server 2008 to benefit from the
new features that Windows 2008 AD offers. In a previous
article, I have shown you how to perform an
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In my lab, I have the following:
MACHINE NAME |
DESCRIPTION |
SERVICE PACK LEVEL |
IP Address |
Architecture |
ELMAJ-DC |
A Windows Server 2003
Standard Edition with Service Pack 2.
This is the domain controller in my lab that I
intend to migrate.
|
SP2 |
192.168.1.2 |
X86 |
ELMAJ-DC2k8 |
A Windows Server 2008
Enterprise Edition. This is the machine I intend
to setup as my new domain controller that will
replace
ELMAJ-DC
|
SP1 |
192.168.1.3 |
X64 |
In a nutshell, we will perform the
following:
- Raise Domain Functional Level
- Prepare your current Windows
2003 Active Directory
for Windows Server 2008 domain controllers.
- Then, we will need to setup the
server ELMAJ-DC2K8 as an additional domain
controller, read my previous article
to know the steps required to setup an additional
domain controller.
-
Transfer FSMO roles
to the Windows Server 2008 Domain Controller
So lets starts :
-
Raise Domain Functional Level
We need to configure the domain to run in native
mode, this is done by:
- On the Windows Server 2003 Domain
Controller, run Active Directory User
and Computers snap-in by clicking on
Start > Administrative
Tools >
Active Directory User and Computers
- Right Click the Domain Name node,
then click on Raise Domain Functional Level

If you have Windows 2000 Active Directory domain
controllers then choose Windows 2000 native,
if you do not have any
Windows 2000 Active Directory domain controllers and
all of your domain controllers are Windows Server
2003, then choose Windows Server 20003.
I don't have any
Windows 2000 Active Directory domain controllers, so
using the drop down list, I will select
Windows Server 2003 and then click the
Raise button.

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A warning message will be displayed, informing you
that the changes cannot be reversed. Click
OK

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A confirmation message will be displayed stating
that the functional level was raised successfully.
Click OK

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Close
Active Directory User and Computers
snap-in
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Prepare current Windows
2003 Active Directory
-
Before
you can have a 2008 server domain controller in your
existing 2003 domain, we will need to prepare both
the Forest Level and the Domain level, this is done
by running the following commands on the Windows
Server 2003 Domain Controller.
-
Insert the Windows Server 2008 DVD inside the
Windows Server 2003 DVD Drive
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Open
Command Prompt, this is done by Clicking on
Start > Run > type
CMD > click OK

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Type D:\sources\adprep\adprep /forestprep
(Where D: is the drive of your Windows 2008
DVD)

Click Enter

Read the warning message, in my lab I don't have any
Windows 2000 Active Directory Domain Controllers, so
I can simply skip this by typing C
and then press Enter, else quite
the Forest Preparation step and upgrade Windows 2000
Active Directory Domain Controller(s) to SP4, then run forestperp again.


-
After Forest preparation is completed successfully,
run the Domain preparation command
Inside CMD, type
D:\sources\adprep\adprep /domainprep
(Where
D: is the drive of your Windows 2008 DVD)
If you have not Raised the Domain Functional Level
from Windows 2000 Mixed to Windows 2000 Native or
Windows 2003 as was illustrated earlier in step # 1,
then you will receive the following error message
after you run domainprep command:

If you did raise the domain functional level, adprep
will successfully update the domain-wide information

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Although adprep
/domainprep will update the domain-wide
information, you can still run the last command
adprep /domainprep /gpprep
Inside CMD, type
D:\sources\adprep\adprep /domainprep
/gpprep
(Where
D: is the drive of your Windows 2008 DVD)

As you can see, Domain-wide information has already
been updated when we ran the domainprep
command,
as no Group Policy Object (GPO) updates needed, or
GPO information has already been updated.
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Setting Up an Additional Domain Controller with
Windows Server 2008
Now that Windows Server 2003 Active Directory has
been prepared for Windows Server 2008 Domain
Controllers, its time to
Set Up an
Additional Domain Controller With Windows Server
2008
a nd set it as a Global Catalog. If you already have
an additional Windows Server 2008 domain controller and you want to check if it is a
Global Catalog or not, then check my article
Transfer FSMO roles
to the Windows Server 2008 Domain Controller
The last step in migrating a domain controller, is
transferring the FSMO roles to the new domain
controller.
I have covered this part in a detailed step by step
article, check it here :
With all the previous four major steps, you will
successfully be able to migrate your old Windows Server
2003 Domain controller to Windows Server 2008.
Summary
Upgrading Windows Server 2003 domain controller
to a Windows Server 2008 domain controller is an easy
process if you follow the required steps carefully. The
process consist of four major steps and they are : raising
the domain level, preparing active directory for Windows
Server 2008 domain controllers, setting a Windows Server
2008 as an additional global catalog domain controller and then
transferring the FSMO Roles.
Now, you can
simply demote the Windows Server 2003 domain controller,
if you no longer need it.
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