I currently have a small home network that I run for educational purposes. Currently I have a 32 bit machine running Windows Server 2008 R2 as the primary domain controller. I've recently built a Hyper V server and created a 64 bit virtual Server 2008 R2 machine. I'd like to make the virtual server my primary domain controller. Is there an easy way to migrate configuration for things like DHCP and DNS?

There is no such concept as Primary Domain Controller in Active Directory. The PDC is a term used to describe the Read/Write DC in an NT 4.0 domain. In AD, with the exception of an RODC, all DCs are "primary". When you bring up the second DC, you can move any FSMO roles as you see fit as well as other networking services such as DHCP and/or DNS. The steps to do so are quite simple. For FSMO roles, the quickest way is using ntdsutil from the command prompt. However, you can move the roles using the AD consoles (AD Users and Computers, AD Domains and Trusts, etc...). For "migrating" DNS, if your DNS zone is AD integrated, the zone will appear once DNS is installed on the second DC. NO migration is required. If the zone is a standard primary, then you can just create a secondary zone on the second DC/DNS server and transfer the zone. I would recommend that you have at least two DC/DNS servers and host the zone as AD integrated. For DHCP, you can move the database over by using the netsh command, export from the first, then import into the second. This is also a learning opportunity for you to run DHCP on both servers and set up a Highly avaiable design, such as a 50/50 split scope model. Visit: anITKB.com, an IT Knowledge Base.

>>> Currently I have a 32 bit machine running Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 R2 is available only in 64 bit. I don’t think this DC is Windows 2008 R2. Anyway, if your plan is to upgrade the AD to Windows 2008 R2, you can introduce a new server and perform DCPROMO. You need to upgrade the schema using ADPREP before this process. You can see the instructions in the following article: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/active-directory-upgrade-high-level-steps.aspx Santhosh Sivarajan | MCTS, MCSE (W2K3/W2K/NT4), MCSA (W2K3/W2K/MSG), CCNA, Network+ Houston, TX Blogs - http://blogs.sivarajan.com/ Articles - http://www.sivarajan.com/publications.html Twitter: @santhosh_sivara - http://twitter.com/santhosh_sivara This posting is provided AS IS with no warranties,and confers no rights.

32 bit machine running Windows Server 2008 R2 Impossible. Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 is a 64 bit OS. I think that you have Windows Server 2008 SP2. I suppose here that you have an AD DS 2008 environment. In this case, you have to prepare your AD environment for Windows Server 2008 R2, details are mentioned here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731188(WS.10).aspx Once done, you can add your 2008 R2 server as an additional DC and transfer the PDC Emulator FSMO role to it. For Best Practices of Assigning FSMO roles: http://windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2004/06/15/fsmo.html Note that running a DC as a VM is not recommended for performance reasons. Also, it is recommended to have at least two DC / DNS / GC servers per domain. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights. Microsoft Student Partner 2010 / 2011 Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Security Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows 7, Configuring Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Enterprise Administrator

Thankyou to everyone who commented. I was mistaken about the old server be R2. I made use of the link provided by Santhosh to step through the procedure. Might have helped if I had studying the link a little closer and thought about it a bit more but eventually I got the new server online and the old server was shutdown. It went rather painlessly. Performance isn't a major concern for me since there are only 2 or 3 computers connecting to the domain. The server is simply an educational tool for my own personal education. Thanks again for the comments and help.