Good resource to learn basics/best practices for simple domain controller
I need to replace a couple of domain controllers, which are a Windows 2000 Server, PowerEdge 4600, Xeon machine and a Windows 2003 Server, PowerEdge 4300, Pentium III machine. These machines, along with being DCs, have all sorts of other software installed on them. I'm going to get the company to buy a new HP DL120 G7 server to become the main domain controller, or, from what I've read, the FSMO holder (or however it is designated.) Hopefully, I can get them to fund a second one as well. These will have Windows Server 2008 R2. I have some basic server/active directory knowledge, but so basic that I hadn't heard of FSMO until just recently. Anyway, I'm looking for some direct training materials to help me get this done. I mean, I'm not currently looking for certification stuff, just like task based stuff to make this transition in the next couple of months. I'm looking for something like a step-by-step and don't-forget-to and make-sure-to... type of instruction. I know there's a lot stuff out there that can be googled, but maybe someone here can get me straight to a resource that will work for this. It's basic AD, DNS, DHCP. Less than 40 users. Thanks... I thought I was wrong once, but, of course, I was wrong.
May 2nd, 2012 2:48pm

Here are some articles which you can start with Active Directory http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc782657(v=ws.10).aspx DNS best practices http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc778439(v=ws.10).aspx DHCP Best Practices http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc780311(v=ws.10).aspx Replacing Old Domain controller, but keeping same name and IP http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverDS/thread/72d5eda0-7185-4f97-a1cf-7952c12dc786/ Active Directory Domain Services and DNS Server Migration Guide http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd379558(v=ws.10).aspx How to move a DHCP database from a computer that is running Windows NT Server 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows Server 2003 to a computer that is running Windows Server 2003 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325473 Steps to move a DHCP database from a Windows Server 2003 or 2008 to another Windows Server 2008 machine http://blogs.technet.com/b/networking/archive/2008/06/27/steps-to-move-a-dhcp-database-from-a-windows-server-2003-or-2008-to-another-windows-server-2008-machine.aspx migration from 2000 domain to 2003 domain http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverMigration/thread/5b313d7e-a919-4673-bf06-4ba413a4a360A UNIVERSE without WINDOWS is CHAOS ! This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights. About Me ?
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May 2nd, 2012 2:58pm

Wow, that was quick. But now my brain is about to explode! ;-) j/k Thanks for the links. I'll have a look! I thought I was wrong once, but, of course, I was wrong.
May 2nd, 2012 3:05pm

Wow, that was quick. But now my brain is about to explode! ;-) j/k Thanks for the links. I'll have a look! I thought I was wrong once, but, of course, I was wrong.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 2nd, 2012 3:05pm

Youtube will also come in handy if you need video tutorials ;-) few samples Search results for active directory 2003 tutorial http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=active+directory+2003+tutorial&oq=active+directory+2003+tu&aq=0&aqi=g1&aql=&gs_l=youtube.3.0.0.147.7594.0.10081.23.22.0.6.6.3.443.3918.1j6j2j6j1.16.0. Search results for windows dns tutorial http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=windows+dns+tutorial&oq=windows+dns+tutorial&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_l=youtube.3...5768.6941.0.7259.8.8.0.0.0.0.181.767.3j4.7.0. Search results for windows dhcp tutorial http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=windows+dhcp+tutorial&oq=windows+dhcp+tutorial&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_l=youtube.3...25692.26348.0.27180.4.4.0.0.0.0.342.575.2j1j0j1.4.0. Search results for domain migration from 2000 to 2003 http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=domain+migration+from+2000+to+2003&oq=domain+migration+from+2000+to+2003&aq=f&aqi=q-w2&aql=&gs_l=youtube.3..33i21l2.2487.9805.0.9973.20.20.0.0.0.0.388.3968.6j4j1j8.19.0.A UNIVERSE without WINDOWS is CHAOS ! This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights. About Me ?
May 2nd, 2012 3:06pm

Note that the new domain controller(s) will have Windows Server 2008 R2. I omitted that in my initial post, but have since added it into the text. Thanks...I thought I was wrong once, but, of course, I was wrong.
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May 2nd, 2012 3:13pm

Note that the new domain controller(s) will have Windows Server 2008 R2. I omitted that in my initial post, but have since added it into the text. Thanks...I thought I was wrong once, but, of course, I was wrong.
May 2nd, 2012 3:13pm

Note that the new domain controller(s) will have Windows Server 2008 R2. I omitted that in my initial post, but have since added it into the text. Thanks... I thought I was wrong once, but, of course, I was wrong. Active Directory concepts are more or less same for 2000, 2003, 2008/R2. Here are some more references specific to 2008/R2 Understanding Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) Functional Levels http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/understanding-active-directory-functional-levels(v=ws.10).aspx Understanding Active Directory Domain Services Integration http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc726034.aspx What's New in DNS http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd378952(v=ws.10).aspx Understanding Dynamic Update http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771255.aspx New features in DHCP for Windows Server 2008 R2 / Windows 7 http://blogs.technet.com/b/teamdhcp/archive/2009/02/26/new-features-in-dhcp-for-windows-server-2008-r2-windows-7.aspx A UNIVERSE without WINDOWS is CHAOS ! This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights. About Me ?
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May 2nd, 2012 3:32pm

Note that the new domain controller(s) will have Windows Server 2008 R2. I omitted that in my initial post, but have since added it into the text. Thanks... I thought I was wrong once, but, of course, I was wrong. Active Directory concepts are more or less same for 2000, 2003, 2008/R2. Here are some more references specific to 2008/R2 Understanding Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) Functional Levels http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/understanding-active-directory-functional-levels(v=ws.10).aspx Understanding Active Directory Domain Services Integration http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc726034.aspx What's New in DNS http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd378952(v=ws.10).aspx Understanding Dynamic Update http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771255.aspx New features in DHCP for Windows Server 2008 R2 / Windows 7 http://blogs.technet.com/b/teamdhcp/archive/2009/02/26/new-features-in-dhcp-for-windows-server-2008-r2-windows-7.aspx A UNIVERSE without WINDOWS is CHAOS ! This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights. About Me ?
May 2nd, 2012 3:32pm

Also, pls refer following discussion Migration from 2000 domain to 2008 domain - http://forums.techarena.in/active-directory/1031058.htm A UNIVERSE without WINDOWS is CHAOS ! This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights. About Me ?
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 2nd, 2012 3:35pm

Also, pls refer following discussion Migration from 2000 domain to 2008 domain - http://forums.techarena.in/active-directory/1031058.htm A UNIVERSE without WINDOWS is CHAOS ! This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights. About Me ?
May 2nd, 2012 3:35pm

Thanks for the input so far. What about hardware? These domain controllers will support about 50 users for now. I am looking at HP DL120 G7 servers with 4 300GB SAS drives, hardware raid, quad Xeon, 4GB of memory, etc... for about $5000 dollars each. This seems to be a bottom of the line system too. The main thing is the reliability of the system, I suppose. The users are mainly software developers. The AD also syncs up with Microsoft Online Services (soon to be Office 365). Is the above hardware typical for a case like this? Is it overkill? Are there some other recommendations for this scenario? Thanks . . . I thought I was wrong once, but, of course, I was wrong.
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May 7th, 2012 3:35pm

Thanks for the input so far. What about hardware? These domain controllers will support about 50 users for now. I am looking at HP DL120 G7 servers with 4 300GB SAS drives, hardware raid, quad Xeon, 4GB of memory, etc... for about $5000 dollars each. This seems to be a bottom of the line system too. The main thing is the reliability of the system, I suppose. The users are mainly software developers. The AD also syncs up with Microsoft Online Services (soon to be Office 365). Is the above hardware typical for a case like this? Is it overkill? Are there some other recommendations for this scenario? Thanks . . . I thought I was wrong once, but, of course, I was wrong.
May 7th, 2012 3:35pm

Hello, you already got lot of information here but how many DCs in total do you have? With 50 users only 2 DC/DNS/GC are fully sufficient. Also a DC should NOT be used for other services then AD/DNS/GC, so what additional server roles must be installed and what software must run on the DCs? Have you ever thought about virtualization?Best regards Meinolf Weber MVP, MCP, MCTS Microsoft MVP - Directory Services My Blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/mweber/ Disclaimer: This posting is provided AS IS with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.
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May 7th, 2012 3:56pm

Hello, you already got lot of information here but how many DCs in total do you have? With 50 users only 2 DC/DNS/GC are fully sufficient. Also a DC should NOT be used for other services then AD/DNS/GC, so what additional server roles must be installed and what software must run on the DCs? Have you ever thought about virtualization?Best regards Meinolf Weber MVP, MCP, MCTS Microsoft MVP - Directory Services My Blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/mweber/ Disclaimer: This posting is provided AS IS with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.
May 7th, 2012 3:56pm

Hi, As I mentioned up there in my first post, the current domain controllers are older systems that run multiple other software, such as cygwin and Exchange and file services, etc. I am looking to install new domain controllers and remove the DC functionality from the old servers. So, then, I'm curious if the HP DL120 G7's, I mentioned in the previous post, are typical servers for handling a small domain of this size. And the system needs to be robust with very minimal downtime. And, we have other software development servers and some virtualized servers for that, be there's no other server in place that could be used to virtualize the Domain Controllers. Thanks... I thought I was wrong once, but, of course, I was wrong.
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May 8th, 2012 3:55pm

Hi, As I mentioned up there in my first post, the current domain controllers are older systems that run multiple other software, such as cygwin and Exchange and file services, etc. I am looking to install new domain controllers and remove the DC functionality from the old servers. So, then, I'm curious if the HP DL120 G7's, I mentioned in the previous post, are typical servers for handling a small domain of this size. And the system needs to be robust with very minimal downtime. And, we have other software development servers and some virtualized servers for that, be there's no other server in place that could be used to virtualize the Domain Controllers. Thanks... I thought I was wrong once, but, of course, I was wrong.
May 8th, 2012 3:55pm

As per the specification in the below links , HP DL120 G7 is sufficient to serve AD installation on it ( Only for 50 odd users it worth going with it) http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06a/15351-15351-3328412-241644-3328421-5075933.html?dnr=1 Regards, _Prashant_ MCSA|MCITP SA|Microsoft Exchange 2003 Blog - http://prashant1987.wordpress.com Disclaimer: This posting is provided AS-IS with no warranties/guarantees and confers no rights.
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May 8th, 2012 5:17pm

As per the specification in the below links , HP DL120 G7 is sufficient to serve AD installation on it ( Only for 50 odd users it worth going with it) http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06a/15351-15351-3328412-241644-3328421-5075933.html?dnr=1 Regards, _Prashant_ MCSA|MCITP SA|Microsoft Exchange 2003 Blog - http://prashant1987.wordpress.com Disclaimer: This posting is provided AS-IS with no warranties/guarantees and confers no rights.
May 8th, 2012 5:17pm

Thanks for the input. I've been to that link. And I was hoping to see some other discussion about hardware for this situation. There's also the question of 15000 RPM SAS vs 7200 RPM SATA drives (and 4 drive hardware RAID). I have quotes for both. SATA is cheaper, but slower... but is it noticeably slower? My view is that you can never go too fast, but then again I don't control the check book! Is SATA less reliable than SAS these days... for use in domain controllers that need to be up and running reliably for a long time. Here's a repeat of a line from my fourth posts back up there: "Is the above hardware typical for a case like this? Is it overkill? Are there some other recommendations for this scenario?" I am relatively new to spec'ing out servers and want to present a reasonable proposal to get these servers. Thanks . . .I thought I was wrong once, but, of course, I was wrong.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 9th, 2012 2:48pm

Thanks for the input. I've been to that link. And I was hoping to see some other discussion about hardware for this situation. There's also the question of 15000 RPM SAS vs 7200 RPM SATA drives (and 4 drive hardware RAID). I have quotes for both. SATA is cheaper, but slower... but is it noticeably slower? My view is that you can never go too fast, but then again I don't control the check book! Is SATA less reliable than SAS these days... for use in domain controllers that need to be up and running reliably for a long time. Here's a repeat of a line from my fourth posts back up there: "Is the above hardware typical for a case like this? Is it overkill? Are there some other recommendations for this scenario?" I am relatively new to spec'ing out servers and want to present a reasonable proposal to get these servers. Thanks . . .I thought I was wrong once, but, of course, I was wrong.
May 9th, 2012 2:48pm

I would like to get some more input on my last post here regarding the hardware. I'm finding out that a Domain Controller doesn't need to be a powerhouse kind of server. And that these DL120s would be good for this. But, how powerful does it need to be. We have our Exchange in the Microsoft cloud. User's don't log in to our system. They simply connect to a wall port or wirelessly using a sign-in key for the wireless connection. But we do have VPN access to the system and resources. So, it seems now that our only need for AD is for the VPN and the synchronization process with Office 365 Online. (What a PITA some of that is becoming.) Well, we have a few small OU's defined as well. And, of course, some resources have static IPs, but most user systems are DHCP. So, would a system with 7200RPM hot swappable SATA 300 drives and only 4 or 8 GB of memory suffice for this? The DL120's will probably have the Xeon E3-1230 processors, only 1 per server. The two current DCs are a Pentium III machine with 1GB of RAM and a the other one is a Xeon 2.00Ghz machine with 3GB of RAM. But, they have 1500RPM SCSI drives in them. One has 8 drives that looks like about 100GB in Disk management and the other has 4 drives that looks like about 200GB in Disk Management. (I really don't know how to determine the RAID setup in production systems.) I wouldn't want any slowdowns in the VPN access or the online synchronizations. I guess, given this info now, it would boil down to the speed need for the hard drives. The SAS drives are way more expensive than the SATA drives. And I guess the bottom line is I need good info to present to management so I can get the hardware bought. I know I'm sort of rambling on here, but as I also mentioned, I am completely new to spec'ing out servers for purchase. Thanks...I thought I was wrong once, but, of course, I was wrong.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
June 18th, 2012 5:06pm

I would like to get some more input on my last post here regarding the hardware. I'm finding out that a Domain Controller doesn't need to be a powerhouse kind of server. And that these DL120s would be good for this. But, how powerful does it need to be. We have our Exchange in the Microsoft cloud. User's don't log in to our system. They simply connect to a wall port or wirelessly using a sign-in key for the wireless connection. But we do have VPN access to the system and resources. So, it seems now that our only need for AD is for the VPN and the synchronization process with Office 365 Online. (What a PITA some of that is becoming.) Well, we have a few small OU's defined as well. And, of course, some resources have static IPs, but most user systems are DHCP. So, would a system with 7200RPM hot swappable SATA 300 drives and only 4 or 8 GB of memory suffice for this? The DL120's will probably have the Xeon E3-1230 processors, only 1 per server. The two current DCs are a Pentium III machine with 1GB of RAM and a the other one is a Xeon 2.00Ghz machine with 3GB of RAM. But, they have 1500RPM SCSI drives in them. One has 8 drives that looks like about 100GB in Disk management and the other has 4 drives that looks like about 200GB in Disk Management. (I really don't know how to determine the RAID setup in production systems.) I wouldn't want any slowdowns in the VPN access or the online synchronizations. I guess, given this info now, it would boil down to the speed need for the hard drives. The SAS drives are way more expensive than the SATA drives. And I guess the bottom line is I need good info to present to management so I can get the hardware bought. I know I'm sort of rambling on here, but as I also mentioned, I am completely new to spec'ing out servers for purchase. Thanks...I thought I was wrong once, but, of course, I was wrong.
June 18th, 2012 5:07pm

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