Real life Srv 2003 question...

So my company decided to hire a consultant to upgrade a server (DC) at one of our 5 sites. the upgrade consists of simply installing the new server(server 2k3) and removing the old one (Server 2k).

We're currently having a problem where the new server doesn't recognize itself as a DC. The consultant says it's a metadata problem w/ our AD. Personally, I think they just made the mistake of dcpromo'ing up the new DC before demoting the old one. could that be the case? I thought you couldn't have two DC's at one location w/o causing massive issues?

As it stands right now, our main DC in our HQ office is seeing both servers at the site in question as DC's. That can't be right. Two DC's on the same subnet? We do want to keep the old server as a member server for historical purposes.

Thoughts?

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meadIT

You can definitely have two DC's in one subnet. This is how you create redundancy. And he is probably right about the metadata. Let me find you a link.

Edit: Here you go... http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc736378.aspx

Edit #2: I originally read it as upgrading the server that was in place. Yes, he should have demoted the previous DC before removing it from the network. That is why the metadata for the old one is still there. Does the new server have the same IP address and hostname as the old one?

94jedi

meadIT wrote: »

You can definitely have two DC's in one subnet. This is how you create redundancy. And he is probably right about the metadata. Let me find you a link.

Edit: Here you go... Clean up server metadata: Active Directory

Edit #2: I originally read it as upgrading the server that was in place. Yes, he should have demoted the previous DC before removing it from the network. That is why the metadata for the old one is still there. Does the new server have the same IP address and hostname as the old one?

Thanks for the link.

The new server has a different IP and Host name.

94jedi

is there any reason then that the new DC wouldn't recognize itself as a DC?

NetAdmin2436

I agree with MeadIT. Windows server 2003 are multimasters, so you could have 100 DC's on one subnet if you really wanted.

It sounds like he or whoever might not have demoted the old DC correctly. Is that DC still around? Maybe he just powered it down. I would check first and ask the consultant what excatly he did. Did the DC have any FSMO roles on it? Did he transfer any of the roles?

NetAdmin2436

94jedi wrote: »

is there any reason then that the new DC wouldn't recognize itself as a DC?

I would run netdiag and dcdiag on the new DC, see if any errors appear.

Also, take a looky-do at this log file.
%SystemRoot%\Debug\Dcpromo.log

Check in DNS that the correct SVR records were created for the new domain controller.

Also Check event viewer.

JBrown

NetAdmin2436 wrote: »

I agree with MeadIT. Windows server 2003 are multimasters, so you could have 100 DC's on one subnet if you really wanted.

It sounds like he or whoever might not have demoted the old DC correctly. Is that DC still around? Maybe he just powered it down. I would check first and ask the consultant what excatly he did. Did the DC have any FSMO roles on it? Did he transfer any of the roles?

First: confirm what NetAdmin23456 said.

Here is step-by-step how to clean metadata for and old inactive DC from AD

Delete Failed DCs from Active Directory

94jedi

NetAdmin2436 wrote: »

Also, take a looky-do at this log file.
%SystemRoot%\Debug\Dcpromo.log

is that on the new DC or the old one that I should check?

NetAdmin2436

94jedi wrote: »

is that on the new DC or the old one that I should check?

For the new DC, check this.
%SystemRoot%\Debug\Dcpromo.log

For the demoted DC, check this.
%SystemRoot%\Debug\Dcpromoui.log

Did the netdiag and dcdiag tell you anything?

chrisknight

...and the outcome? (Just Curious)