Hi you can do this my seizing the FSMO roles; briefly you make the new server a member of the AD and then transfer all roles and the DSN zones to the new one. For more information read this article and the next one. ------------------------------------ Not much to it. All you need to do is promote the new server to a domain controller. It replicates all data and you can also setup DNS zone transfers to replicate that as well. Then do as stated above to seize all FSMO roles. It is recommended that you have at least two domain controllers in any Active Directory deployment, so it would be a good idea to keep the second around as a backup DC. ------------------------------------- Let’s assume that your new server is already member of the domain and DNS is working properly. Promote the new server to a domain controller using DCPROMO. Just open the command prompt and type DCPROMO, and then follow the prompt. After the DCPROMO process is completed, you can then proceed to gracefully transfer the FSMO roles from the old DC to the new DC. Contrary to what has been advised above as (“seize all FSMO” which mean brute force) which is not recommended unless you have to, there is NO NEED to use brute force to transfer a FSMO role in this case since both domain controllers are operational. Google “How to transfer FSMO roles”. The best solution is to have Active Directory integrated DNS. It means that Active Directory will also host the DNS database, instead of a flat file based DNS. To convert to AD Integrated DNS, follow this article. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816101 Remember, Active Directory is very dependent of DNS. That said, please ensure that DNS server services are successfully transferred to the new Domain Controller before you decommission the old domain controller. Furthermore, a DNS server shall be available and properly functioning before you initiate any changes to the Active Directory configuration.

Hi you can do this my seizing the FSMO roles; briefly you make the new server a member of the AD and then transfer all roles and the DSN zones to the new one. For more information <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/255504">read this article</a> and <a href="http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5081138.html">the next one</a>. ------------------------------------ Not much to it. All you need to do is promote the new server to a domain controller. It replicates all data and you can also setup DNS zone transfers to replicate that as well. Then do as stated above to seize all FSMO roles. It is recommended that you have at least two domain controllers in any Active Directory deployment, so it would be a good idea to keep the second around as a backup DC. ------------------------------------- Let’s assume that your new server is already member of the domain and DNS is working properly. Promote the new server to a domain controller using DCPROMO. Just open the command prompt and type DCPROMO, and then follow the prompt. After the DCPROMO process is completed, you can then proceed to gracefully transfer the FSMO roles from the old DC to the new DC. Contrary to what has been advised above as (“seize all FSMO” which mean brute force) which is not recommended unless you have to, there is NO NEED to use brute force to transfer a FSMO role in this case since both domain controllers are operational. Google “How to transfer FSMO roles”. The best solution is to have Active Directory integrated DNS. It means that Active Directory will also host the DNS database, instead of a flat file based DNS. To convert to AD Integrated DNS, follow this article. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816101 Remember, Active Directory is very dependent of DNS. That said, please ensure that DNS server services are successfully transferred to the new Domain Controller before you decommission the old domain controller. Furthermore, a DNS server shall be available and properly functioning before you initiate any changes to the Active Directory configuration.