Is there a way to stage this before making this live on the network. I just need to make sure that the new dc is operational before going live. Then I want to demote the old dc to application server only. Eventually the old server will be replaced with a new application server but, I am more concerned on the application software running prpoerly then the domain controller.

I would dcpromo and then let it run for a time with both servers in place. having a second dc won’t cause harm and may help things a little. I did this for a 50+ user system and actually left the old server in place as a DC for a month before doing a dcpromo to remove it as a dc and let it revert to a file server. That way I could verify all replication of the sys partitions was done and all other functions (dns, dhcp, etc worked. I manually transferred all roles to the new server after 1 week and then waited another week before pulling the plug on the old dc

OK

I ran adprep( forestprep, domain prep, domainprep\ gpprep) on the 2000 Server DC. Then I added the new 2003 server to the domain, then ran dcpromo. Everything was fine until it examined the forest and came back with an error telling me that I need to run adprep on the DC because the AD was not compatible with 2003 Server.

Can anyone help? Suggestions?

Is your new 2003 server by any chance a R2? If so, you have additional requirements in the prep stages.

dmw

OK

I finally got the Server 2003 added to the domain and it is now a secondary Domain Controller to my Server 2000 Domain Controller. I am now installing Exchange 2003 32bit, since Exchange 2007 requires a 64bit OS. I really wanted to install 2007; if someone can make it work on 2003 32bit OS, let me know. I am downloading the Exchange 03 Software from eOpen and there are 3 options, the last is for mac so that option is out. Which one is the right one? Tried to perform forestprep and domain prep from the setup files, and it couldn’t find it. So what do I do now?

copy AD domain to new domain