Re: W2003 as NT4 BDC?
From: tvtim (timmy_at_timmytimtim.timtim)
Date: 03/25/05
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Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 17:54:46 -0600
I just upgraded our domain a few hours ago. Like you, I had a lot of
trepidation.
My new 2003 domain controller is a Compaq ML350. Unlike you, this was a
spare machine I had lying around, so I had a bit of a safety net since I had
another BDC I could take offline in case something went wrong. The ML350 is
a 1 GHz processor with 4 drives and 512MB ram, so I figured it was a good
machine to make my new domain controller.
I had some difficulty loading NT onto it, but I finally got it to work. It
has a Smart Array controller, and during NT setup, NT would not see the
drives. I had to go into the BIOS and specifically tell it to use the Smart
Array controller as the primary boot controller.
I also had to hit f6 at the very beginning of setup and install the
controller drivers BEFORE the setup copied all the other files. If I waited
until the end to "add additional storage devices" it would not see the
drives.
Then I ran into trouble with the network card, and during setup when I said
I wanted to make it a BDC it would not communicate with the PDC, so the
setup stopped right there. I finally downloaded the NIC drivers, but it was
a 4MB package, much too big for a floppy disk. However, the package had a
makedsks.cmd utility that allowed me to make two NIC driver disks. These
worked.
After loading NT onto the ML350, I installed IE6 and downloaded NT SP6a.
After installing the service pack, I promoted it to PDC, and took one of my
BDCs offline.
I then put in the Win2k3 CD and took the plunge.
I wanted to keep our old domain name, FUNGO. During Win2k3 setup, I
selected to "create a new domain in a new forest", which is a little
ambiguous. I could argue that since I am upgrading an existing domain it
really isn't "new." But whatever. This seemed to be the right choice. I
made the full DNS name of my new domain FUNGO.LOCAL.
I also chose "interim" mode, since I still have some NT machines on the
network. Eventually I will upgrade these to 2003 and at that time I guess I
can upgrade from interim mode to full-blown AD mode, or whatever they call
it.
By default, the DNS installed itself on my new machine, and in the IP
properties it pointed to itself as DNS server. As noted in a previous
thread, this works because W2k3 DNS on the DC automatically forwards to
Internet root servers. A squirrely setup that is bound to cause trouble
eventually, but there's not much you can do about it. I guess microsoft has
given up on WINS, which in a way was supposed to be their own implementation
of DNS but it never worked worth a damn. So now they are forcing you to use
their implementation of DNS. Anyway, enough ranting.
The DNS does seem to work okay. I noticed that after a reboot of my new
server, some clients could not resolve names for up to 5 minutes, and the
event log on the server had a critical DNS error and said to "make sure AD
is working", but it eventually kicked in and everything started working on
its own.
I also installed DHCP and set the DNS assignment to point to my new server.
My last step of the day was to run Windows update on my new server. I was
only mildly shocked to see that there were 38 critical updates that needed
to be installed.
On Monday I will reboot all the client machines in the office so they will
get new leases and new DNS assignments.
I guess the point of all this is that I suspect that a Compaq 370 will run
NT, but you may have to stick with it a while and get creative. I am
thankful this machine had a floppy drive, or I couldn't have done it. Many
servers these days don't have floppies, which worries me a bit.
Good luck. And thanks to all in this forum who took time to answer my
questions. Next up: Exchange 5.5 -> Exchange 2003.
"jan" <jan@nospamplease.com> wrote in message
news:20050325035624.353$Ig@news.newsreader.com...
>> Either upgrade the current (NT4) PDC or you must install
>> a copy of NT4 as the BDC, promote it to PDC, and then
>> upgrade that machine to Win2003.
>
> Thanks for your information.
>
> I have a NT4 domain now with just one PDC (running on an old Compaq
> ML370). We have a new HP DL380 now with a Windows 2003 licence - but it
> seems that this new hardware doesn't support NT4 anymore... So what can I
> do in that case?
>
> I really don't want to upgrade the PDC directly to Windows 2003 (not only
> because I don't have a Windows 2003 licence for it, but mostly because I
> want to have a fall-back route in case the upgrade fails!)
>
>
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