Migrating GPO / Dcpromo domain controllers

[Get2theChoppa]

Hi,

 

We have 2 win 2003 r2 enterprise servers (dns/dhcp)

 

Aim is to change these to win server 2008 r2 enterprise

 

Could someone point out any issues I might encounter with GPO migration?

 

Or will eveything work as is?

 

Also do I dcpromo to introduce the new servers into the environment? or DO I DCPROMO to downgrade one server before introducing the new one.

 

Why I ask above is because I WANT to keep the ip address of the new servers same as the old as well as the names of the servers?

 

Any Ideas?

[Boredguy]

When we upgraded our servers, I demoted our second 2003 DC to a normal server via DCPromo, then removed it from the domain, reinstalled the OS and ran DCPromo to get it back to being a Domain Controller.

I then moved the FSMO roles across to that server, then repeated the process with our primary 2003 DC the following day.

[Duke5A]

Why I ask above is because I WANT to keep the ip address of the new servers same as the old as well as the names of the servers?

 

I've been told explicitly not to reuse names and addresses when migrating domain controllers; too much old cruft left behind for the old DC. Not to say it wouldn't work though, it is just what I was told from a couple of engineers. That being said, if you only have two domain controllers I wouldn't blow one off for a reload; only having a single domain controller, even for a short time, would make me a nervous wreck. You'd be just one minor failure from losing the entire domain.