I have a really stupid question. I am replacing a PDC NT 4. sp 6a machine with a different machine that is Win2K server sp2. My question is how do I upgrade the new machine to PDC? I understand how to create active directory and everything, I have gone through numerous books but they all state different scenarios than mine. I want to take the older machine off the network and simply replace it with the new one? Has anyone done this before?

Hey Mike ...first of all , tell me if u have any NT Server BDC machine workin or not..??

Yes I have a NT4 BDC.

The way this is accomplished is to upgrade the OS of the PDC machine. It is recommended that you perform a sync of the PDC and BDC and take it (the BDC) offline. The reason for this is that if something goes wrong with the upgrade you can then still go back to the NT domain by promoting the BDC.

Once the BDC is offline, upgrade the OS on the PDC to w2k and you now have a W2k domain. You can not install a windows 2000 DC into an NT domain. In other words, if you want a w2k DC, then you you have to have a w2k Active Directory domain. If you want to install a new computer as a DC, you can do so after you have ugraded the PDC. Once the active directory domain in established, you can install another computer as a domain controller in an existing domain. There really is no such thing as a PDC in an active directory (AD) domain. There is a PDC emulator which will be the first domain controller installed in the domain. You can change this role (operation master role) to another machine fairly easily if you need to. We can get into that too if you need help with that.

Once you have this all in place and working correctly you can then bring the offline BDC back online. An NT BDC will function just fine in a w2k domain in mixed mode, which is the default.
Hope this clears it up for you a bit.

That is pretty much thie info I have gotten from books. My issue is that the NT 4 PDC is a really old machine and does not meet the necessary hardware requirements to upgrade to 2K. So I gues there is no easy way to do this then right?

This is not rite...u can do it easily Mike. Glen is right to to synchronization with PDC and BDC. Then remove the NT PDC from Server and Place the 2000 Server machine on the server and then again synchronize it with the NT BDC as u said that u have a different ready machine acting as a 2000 server. And ur 2000 server will start working easily. :)

Hang on. What I described is certainly correct if I understand what you are trying to do. Sufian is hard to understand.

If you currently have an all NT domain and want to install a Windows 2000 server as a domain controller into and existing NT domain, YOU CAN'T. Period. You will have to make the NT domain and Active Directory domain first by converting the NT PDC to Windows 2000.

Mike, clarify a bit exactly what you want to do. Thanks.

Glen , you have misundrstood what i said. I said that you were rite. But what Mike said was that he already have a machine on which 2000 server is installed.

But again as Glen said plz clarify what you want to do ...

I have three machines. 1. NT PDC NT4 named: Nixon 2. I have a NT BDC nt4 named; clinton. 3. I have a 2K server named Bush. I want to eliminate nixon and replace it with Bush. I understand that I can "upgrade" Nixon to 2k, but the machine CANNOT be upgraded to 2k. It is a really old machine. So my question is is it possible to do this "hot". I don't want to disrupt our users here. The new Bush machine is a really powerful machine and I want to replace the clinton machine.

First of all, the LAST thing in the world I would want is a computer (or anything else for that matter, named after Clinton).

Then what I stated in my first email is correct. You can not just install the w2k server as a domain controller in an existing NT domain. Trust me on this, this is absolutely the case. The other option would be to upgrade Clinton to the PDC, thus making the current Nixon a BDC, and then upgrade the OS on Clinton to w2k. Then install Bush as an additional DC in an existing domain.

It comes down to this. An NT domain requires a PDC and only 1 PDC. There are no BDCs in Windows 2000. Therefore you need to bring in the new w2k DC as something other than the PDC (emulator). You may have noticed when you ran DCPROMO to create your w2k domain if you've done that yet. You are given two choices - create a new domain or install to an existing w2k domain. You need to make your NT domain a w2k domain before you can do what you are looking for. Sorry if that's bad news. You may think you could just create a w2k domain with the same name as your current NT4 domain and just 'stick it in there'. You can't. A third even uglier option would be to install NT on your new machine first as a BDC in your exist NT domain, promote it to a PDC, then upgrade the OS. I would personally avoid that.

Another option - Create a new w2k domain on the w2k server and recreate the users and then just copy their data over. I larger project but probably cleaner in the long run. How many users do you have ?

Good luck.

HAHA Actually I used made up names for the example, but upon realizing it Clinton is the perfect name for this machine. It sucks and I want to get rid of it!

Thanks, For all of your help.

BTW I have about 90 users

LOL, good for you about getting rid of Clinton. If we had done that years ago we all would be better off but I guess that's a different forum.

Good luck and if you need more help, just yell.

wow, flies all over

Just a thought.

1. If your computer is to slow as a pdc on NT domain to upgrade to 2k server, "Nixon" Treat it as if it werejust another workstation. using "ghost" or whatever you prefer, clone your hd so you have a backup. 2. take the clone of the hd and put it in the new computer.
3. Use "Pqmagic 4-7" to resize the cloned partition to fill the HD of the new computer.
4. While doing this start up and transfer the S.A.M. to the bdc from the original pdc.
5. Go back to the "new" computer and try to start it up with NT server, with a little luck it will start up.
A. If not place your "NT" server cd in the drive and boot from cd. Choose Repair. Restart. and set your new drivers do not get on network.
B. If it does work Congrats Set Your drivers.
Do Not Get On the Net
6. Now shut the pdc down and replace with the "new" computer.
7. Restart and upgrade to Windows 2k Server