Question about 2003 / Nt interopability

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CryptiniteDemon

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Okay, yet another question from me.

Say I have an NT PDC and an NT BDC. I upgrade the PDC to 2003, and the BDC
still serves as a Domain Controller in the domain.

Now, hypothetically, say something goes horribly wrong after a few weeks and
we decide we can no longer be on 2003. Also, most of the network computers
have logged into the upgraded domain since then, adopting the new DNS
structure.

Can I remove the 2003 box, then promote the NT BDC to a PDC and have the
network act as if I had never done the upgrade? Or will I have to write a
script to get all the computers to rename themselves to the old domain name?
 
Re: Question about 2003 / Nt interopability

> Now, hypothetically, say something goes horribly wrong after a few weeks
> and
> we decide we can no longer be on 2003.

What *usually* goes horribly wrong when moving from NT 4.0 to AD is DNS. The
administrator usually treats an AD domain the same as a NT 4.0 domain. Get
DNS right and AD works as expected.

> Can I remove the 2003 box, then promote the NT BDC to a PDC and have the
> network act as if I had never done the upgrade?


Yes you can. But most of the problems that would cause you to revert back
are usually DNS related. Get DNS right and you will have no problem.

See:
Setting Up the Domain Name System for Active Directory

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;237675



Best Practices for DNS Client settings in Windows 2000 server and in Windows
Server 2003

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;825036



How to configure DNS for Internet access in Windows Server 2003

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;323380





hth
DDS

"CryptiniteDemon" <CryptiniteDemon@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:327199B2-1CE6-4950-86C1-7599267897EC@microsoft.com...
> Okay, yet another question from me.
>
> Say I have an NT PDC and an NT BDC. I upgrade the PDC to 2003, and the
> BDC
> still serves as a Domain Controller in the domain.
>
> Now, hypothetically, say something goes horribly wrong after a few weeks
> and
> we decide we can no longer be on 2003. Also, most of the network
> computers
> have logged into the upgraded domain since then, adopting the new DNS
> structure.
>
> Can I remove the 2003 box, then promote the NT BDC to a PDC and have the
> network act as if I had never done the upgrade? Or will I have to write a
> script to get all the computers to rename themselves to the old domain
> name?
 
Re: Question about 2003 / Nt interopability

Thanks. I have no problems with DNS. It's just one of the many
possibilities that I am required to take into consideration by my boss. Any
screw-ups could cost us quite a bit of money, so I have to do exhaustive
tests of every scenario I can think of.
 
Re: Question about 2003 / Nt interopability

> Thanks. I have no problems with DNS.

Just be aware that it is set up totally different from DNS in NT 4.0 and AD
totally relies on DNS being setup properly. AD troubleshooting begins with
DNS.

hth
DDS

"CryptiniteDemon" <CryptiniteDemon@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:41E25DA1-E939-42D7-A93D-93AD6D15B5B7@microsoft.com...
> Thanks. I have no problems with DNS. It's just one of the many
> possibilities that I am required to take into consideration by my boss.
> Any
> screw-ups could cost us quite a bit of money, so I have to do exhaustive
> tests of every scenario I can think of.
>
 
Re: Question about 2003 / Nt interopability

CryptiniteDemon wrote:
> Thanks. I have no problems with DNS. It's just one of the many
> possibilities that I am required to take into consideration by my boss. Any
> screw-ups could cost us quite a bit of money, so I have to do exhaustive
> tests of every scenario I can think of.
>

If that's the case, then I would strongly advise you to setup a test
environment (Virtual PC works great for this) and see what happens in a
true test.

I agree though, misconfigured/misunderstood DNS is the most frequent
cause of problems.

And frankly, before ever upgrading a network, you really should be doing
tests in specifically setup test environments.
 
Re: Question about 2003 / Nt interopability

I've already set up a good-sized test network for all of it along with about
15 virtual machines.

However, I could not get this to work properly when going back to the BDC.

Basically, I upgraded the PDC to 2003 and the network worked just fine. The
BDC was left as an NT 4.0 controller.

I then logged in on several of the PCs after the upgrade to make sure the
2003 DC worked. All was good.

Now, after that I took the 2003 box offline, then promoted the NT BDC to
primary. However, the workstations that I had logged on to would no longer
authenticate with the NT box.

So how do I set things up to where the computers would work with this
scenario as per the first post in the thread?
 
Re: Question about 2003 / Nt interopability

Do you have WINS setup?


hth
DDS

"CryptiniteDemon" <CryptiniteDemon@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:6F78AC82-B63A-44A6-8A8E-63AC7969875D@microsoft.com...
> I've already set up a good-sized test network for all of it along with
> about
> 15 virtual machines.
>
> However, I could not get this to work properly when going back to the BDC.
>
> Basically, I upgraded the PDC to 2003 and the network worked just fine.
> The
> BDC was left as an NT 4.0 controller.
>
> I then logged in on several of the PCs after the upgrade to make sure the
> 2003 DC worked. All was good.
>
> Now, after that I took the 2003 box offline, then promoted the NT BDC to
> primary. However, the workstations that I had logged on to would no
> longer
> authenticate with the NT box.
>
> So how do I set things up to where the computers would work with this
> scenario as per the first post in the thread?
 
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