I only have one 2008 (non R2) server license (we were using it for Hyper-V, but we are migrating to XenServer and I want to do something with it). I doubt I’m going to get my company to spring for more. Is it worth the effort to expand the schema and make the 2008 server the AD DS with a 2003 dc as a “backup” or should I wait till they’ll spring for a few R2 licenses (which might be never). I know I’m going to have to use 2003 native forest and domain functional levels.

If it might be never, I would give a shoot to install DS on Win 2008 With kind regards Krystian Zieja http://www.projectnenvision.com Follow me on twitter My Blog

Since you are aware that you will not take advantage of the new features in AD 2008, I would normally say don't bother. However, it appears based on your description that you only have one DC in the domain. If that is the case, then I would not wait one more minute and introduce that server as another DC. You really need to have at least two DCs per domain. Beleive me, if you remain on one DC and it fails, you are going to have a tough time recovering, even if you have backups. With two DCs, you dont have to worry about the loosing a server as the domain will continue to function.Visit my blog: anITKB.com, an IT Knowledge Base.

No we do have two 2003 dc's. It's just right now one of them is on hardware that is almost 10 years old and needs to be moved. I'm going to have the availability to use a server that quite a bit newer. I just thought that if they're not going to move to 2008 any time soon than at least I can get some experience with doing a migration.

Yes, you can move forward. There will be no harm to what you are proposing. However, there is no "migration". Once you update the schema by preparing the forest and domain, you will simply just run DCPROMO on the new 2008 Server. It will join the domain and begin to replicate the AD db.Visit my blog: anITKB.com, an IT Knowledge Base.