Question about creating a subdomain and migrating an entire network.

sicsicsic

Member
Jul 28, 2005
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Our building is currently under ABC.local. This includes a primary and secondary domain controller, some servers with databases attached, an email server, a couple file servers, and some Citrix boxes.

I have two servers setup as XYC.ABC.local with Server 2003, I will be wiping the OS partition and installing Server 2008 and will need to reestablish them as XYC.ABC.local. Is this as simple as following a guide such as this?

http://www.elmajdal.net/win2k8/sett...main_controller_with_windows_server_2008.aspx

... and then joining the rest of our servers to the new domain?

Is it pretty simple at the point to migrate all of the previous domain's users to the new subdomain?

I'm afraid to take too aggressive of an approach or that I may be making it sound simpler than it seems.

Lastly, what would be the easiest way to migrate all of our PC's to the new domain instead of manually joining each one?

Greatly appreciate the help, I feel as if I've done my homework on this but also feel like I could be missing something major.
 

imagoon

Diamond Member
Feb 19, 2003
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Typically you just install 2008(r2) on another server (doesnt even need to be permanent really) join it to the domain,
promote it to a DC,
xfer the FSMO roles to it,
demote another DC,
migrate the services away from it,
wipe it,
install 2008(r2) on it,
promote it in to AD,
xfer services and the FSMO rolls back to it,
repeat on the other DC,
demote the temp server and remove it from the domain.
Then upgrade the AD schema.

By wiping out the DC's and starting over, you are doing just that, starting over. You would have to walk around and rejoin all the servers, machines and create all new user accounts. You would also need to reestablish the forest trusts, security etc.