BDC setup w/o a PDC??

[CBuxton]

I am offsite and want to do the setup on a new BDC. Is there a way to do this without having the PDC available? If I set it up as a BDC and boot it to finish software installs, will it see there is no PDC and promote itself to a PDC. If so, what kind of problems will this cause when I plug it in to the production network? Will the current PDC demote to a BDC? Thanks!

 

[CTR]

I had to do something similar to that once with NT4. According to Microsoft, when there are apparently 2 PDC's, they hold an election and one gets demoted. Of course, this did not happen. There were suddenly 2 domains with the same name and they could not see each other. I eventually promoted a third server to PDC, which allowed all of the servers to see the domain again. I then removed the remote BDC from the domain, re-promoted the original PDC, then added the remote server back to the domain as a BDC.

Somehow it worked. This was a small WAN with some pretty slow links, so I imagine there was a corrupted domain database on the remote BDC due to communications problems.

I hope you have better luck.

 

[CBuxton]

I should have worded my first post more carefully. What I meant by remotely is that I will be disconnected from the network. I would like to do the NT, Exchange, IIS, etc installs in a different physical location that the LAN, so the server will not be connected to the network. This will be a big time saver because I only have a weekend to install the server once I get it. Will NT even let me setup the system as a BDC without having access to the PDC? Thanks.

 

[Vegito]

I don't think you could, in order to be a BDC, you need the registry of the PDC & SAMs to be imported when you bring up the BDC. But I could be wrong. I'm pretty sure it's not possible.

 

[JackBurton]

You can't have a BDC without a PDC.

 

[CBuxton]

I understand that I can't have a BDC without a PDC. That's not my question. My question is: can I load Winnt on a computer, do the setup as a BDC, while the computer is NOT plugged into the network. Then once the software is done, plug it in, and have it work correctly. Dell will ship a server preconfigured as a BDC, so it must be possible somehow.

 

[SufferinSuccotash]

You install it as a PDC for the Domain, then demote it to a BDC once it is connected to the network. Should be simple as that.

 

[Vegito]

well, try it and let us know cuz I"m pretty sure it won't work, unless dell is selling you a PDC & BDC with the same registry then it's possible, otherwise, I can't see how you can sync up PIDs from two difference machines.

 

[Wizkid]

I don't think that is something you should *expiriment* with on a production network I also don't think it will work... but I don't really know...

 

[CBuxton]

I don't like the idea of experimenting on a production network either. I guess I'll try to do the install "unplugged" and see where it lets me go. Just trying to save myself some time and be prepared ahead of time. I've got another source to ask...I'll let you know what I find out!

 

[Skippy]

"I understand that I can't have a BDC without a PDC. That's not my question. My question is: can I load Winnt on a computer, do the setup as a BDC, while the computer is NOT plugged into the network."

No you cant. The BDC needs to sync its domain database with the PDC during install, otherwise setup will fail.

"You install it as a PDC for the Domain, then demote it to a BDC once it is connected to the network. Should be simple as that"

If you want to avoid massive headaches do not do that.

 

[stash]

The last post is right...a bdc needs to be verified by the pdc. If the domain controller is not found, setup will not continue.

If you were to make it a PDC then demote it when you got back on the network, your whole network would puke. You cannot have two pdc's so you have to create a second domain, then try to connect to the real domain as a bdc when you get on the actual network.

Like he said, dont do it, unless you are a sadomasichist