DC Advice

[dastrix]

Hi

 

I have 2 DC's in my environment both physical and a hyper-v cluster, however the 2 physical servers are 5 years old and we need to refresh. How would you recommend i go about it. This is the first time I have ever needed to migrate a DC due to using Novell until 2 years ago.

 

Cheers

[FragglePete]

Easier that you think really.

 

Get new hardware and install Server, then install Active Directory Roles, etc. Promote server(s) to be DC and then move any FSMO roles over to the new physical machine(s) - leave a while for everything to settle down and then you can start demoting the older hardware and remove from the domain.

 

The only other thing you will need to think about is if any DNS servers installed on these DCs as these will have to be setup on the new DCs, you then obviously need to then update DHCP with new DNS server IP addresses, etc. Issue here may then be if you have any static devices that are using the old DNS IP addresses. Either change these, or move IP address to be the same as the old servers, which will need tweaking of DNS entries, etc. Do one server at a time, take you time but it really is a simple case of build new server > install AD roles > move FSMO roles > have cup of tea or two > demote old server > remove old servers from Domain > turn off older server.

 

Pete

[dastrix]

Thanks that really helps, and secondly when I set it up a while ago i chose to have just the 2 dc's for 1500 users is this still acceptable or would you go for more?

[twin--turbo]

Good old Netware/OES.. Still miss it and many of it's great features...

 

2 DC is fine.

 

Always good to run a DCDIAG in conjunction with BPA before any DC work to resolve any underlying issues.

 

Do you have any vlans with DHCP helpers? these will need updating.

 

Also play close attention to TIME once you have removed the physical DC's

 

And get the forrest and domain Functional levels to 2K8R2 if they are not already there.

 

TT

[dastrix]

1 Last question if i add a new dc and then rename it, is that ok?

[snagrat]

1 Last question if i add a new dc and then rename it, is that ok?

 

Not advised but I do it lots.

 

I use the net Dom computer name command to do this

[dastrix]

Virtualised or Physical?

[snagrat]

I would go virtual

[LytchettNM]

Just a thought if all your servers including the DC's were virtual and its time to replace a physical server all you need to do is add the new Physical server to your fail over cluster and your all done and as a bonus you can run the host until they die.

Just one caveat don't do this unless your running 2012r2 as the DC's have to be up first before a 2008 cluster will start.

I'm still a little nervous about having everything within a cluster so I run our PDC as a virtual machine on a low end new physical server as if we were to have a problem all I need to do is copy the PDC's virtual ha d drive to something else and its up and running again no drivers to worry about.

[dastrix]

Do your DC's have dhcp and dns on the virtual server too?

[LytchettNM]

Yes with have 3 DC's with DHCP on 2 and DNS on all 3.