win2k8 DC on a win2k forest

[Ftherland]

Greetings. i have a problem with a win2k8 server cause i want to join to a win2k forest domain but when i want to install active directory on win2k8 it says that i should run adprep/domainprep on the master schema which is win2k server.when i run the command on win2k server it says that server is in mixed mode and it should switch to native mode to work but if i turn it to native mode then it will cause problems with my other wi2k server that i have in the network. Any solution please???? Looking forward for an advice. thank you

[Rune J. Winje]

If you upgrade your domain to "Native mode" that change will also automatically upgrade your other (Win2K) domain controllers.

It is a one-way street however, so before doing it you need to inventory the applications and clients you have to see if this is problematic for any of them.

There should be no NT 4.0 DC's in the domain prior to upgrading to Native.

It's best to test this in a test-environment if you are uncertain.
Virtual Server or Vmware Server could be used to setup a low-cost test environment.


Cheers,
Rune

[Gfuss]

fati,
As mentioned before, there is no need to be in mixed mode unless you are still supporting NT domain controllers. If all of your DCs are Windows 2K SP4, you can go to native mode. Native mode is a domain/forest wide setting and not an individual setting on the domain controllers. Once you change the mode, it is changed throughout the domain.

Please make sure you have a recent backup of your Active Directory in case you need to do a restore.

[Ronald Postma]

HI,
just to add, if you put the domain in native mode you can put your forest to native mode.
(If there are not any other mixed domains in the forest)

Putting domain and forest in native mode will give you more options in the AD. W2k8 probably need some of those options.

Regards, Ronald