How to replace Active Directory with new server?

[Gryan_1]

I have DL320 G3 with Windows 2003 Std installed which acts as single domain controller for our office. We plan to use a new DL320 G5 to replace it but we do not want to re-configure our AD server, I wonder whether there is a way to backup the current AD configuration and recovery it on our new DL320 G5 server.Any ideas?

[Johan Guldmyr]

Hey,

googled a bit about this and found that it looks a little tricky =)

http://serverfault.com/questions/122250/migrate-active-directory-to-new-server

[Rune J. Winje]

The description you found is correct and usually the best way forward.

1) Join a new installed server as Domain Controller to your existing domain

This is also the method if you join a Windows 2008 server as additional DC to upgrade your Domain Controllers to 2008.

2) Transfer unique FSMO roles from the old the new
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324801

3) Demote the old DC by running dcpromo
this correctly removes it from the AD

Optional:
4) Give the old DC a new IP-address and rename it.

5) Reboot it.

6) You can now give the new DC the original DC's IP address and name - which can be a point if the old DC hosted shares or services that your clients referred to (and you do not want to do any reconfigure of the clients).


With all said, running a Windows domain with only one DC is not recommended. You should consider having at least one more DC as that gives redundancy in the AD.

Additional DC's in an environment where the Domain Controllers average 2-3% cpu usage can of course be implemented as Hyper-V machines (note that 2008 R2 has considerably improved virtual machine (Hyper-V) features and functionality compared to 2008... however the DL320 G5 seems to have drivers listed only for 2008 and not 2008 R2)

Windows Vista and Windows 2008 has the same core.
Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 has the same core.


Cheers,
Rune