I'm about to upgrade our 2003 domain structure to 2008 server.. just starting out here..I have two DC's in the existing domain (virtual servers actually)..I am wondering, if in going to 2008, i can just do an Upgrade on the 2003 virtual DC's, or ifi am better off installing a fresh DC virtual server with 2008 from the start, then upgrading at that point.Anything i should be warned about before i do this.. ie: i'm assuming it shouldgo smooth and all our users and AD settings will justflow right over.We will still run a bunch of 2003 boxes in themeantime..We will also goto HyperV, either bare bones or the layered approach in a few months, getting rid of Virtual Server at that point, so for now, i can only use x86 clients.Thanks in advance

Hi, Both methods can achieve the goal. For time-saving aspect, you can consider in-place upgrade. If you prefer a relative clean environment, please install Window server 2008 on a 'clean' server. Also, remember to upgrade the Windows Server 2003 forest schema to Windows Server 2008 schema with the "adprep /forestprep" command on old DC, before you promote Windows server 2008 as an additional DC. What's more, before upgrading to or installing Windows server 2008, please make sure your hardware and application are compatible with Windows server 2008. I'd suggest performing the following actions: 1) Contact the hardware provider to confirm if the hardware is compatible with Windows server 2008. Please also check the hardware compatibility and see if the hardware is on the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL): http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hcl/default.mspx 2) Ensure the applications can normally work with Windows server 2008. We have a technical guidance about how to confirm your applications are compatible with Windows Server 2008. The "Works with" tool will help you quickly determine baseline compatibility with Windows Server 2008. For more details, please refer to: Windows Server 2008 Application Compatibility: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/cc148992.aspx You can refer to the Window Vista list, which is roughly similar with Windows server 2008. For more detailed information about system requirement, known issue, consideration, please refer to: Upgrading to Windows Server 2008 http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/f1713937-0b3f-4b0d-9d31-410598278f6e1033.mspx?mfr=true Installing Windows Server 2008 http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/ef8f3711-d1d1-4d4a-8a04-ee7bf61105541033.mspx Hope this helps. Best wishes --------------Morgan Che

Thanks for the links to the articles.. i'm starting to peruse them now...I guess with the inplace upgrade, i would create the 2008 DC and domain then move everything over? But i would imagine this would involve a new domain name etc?I'm leaning towards just creating another DC(virtual server) which is 2008 and running the forest prep before making the 2008 machine the DC.. Related to this.. i'm guessing i'd probably want to run this in the evening hours or on a friday, rather than midday to prevent any sort of hiccups that may occur?There should be no reason why we cant move to a 2008 domain structure i would think, provided we can still have 2003 machines which belong to the 2008 domain? (this is possible isnt it?) (And also, for now, 2008 servers which are members of the 2003 domain?)IE: i dont think most of our apps will have a problem on 2008 boxes (virtual machines mostly).. but things like our exchange 2007 server, i would probably not do the upgrade on the box to 2008, it would remain 2003 for the time being.. unless there is no reason Not to just do an "upgrade", if this is even possible, without damaging anything.Most of our other apps are either sql 2000, sql 2005 or systems center related as well.Thanks

If i were to just upgrade one of my existing virtual 2003 DC's.. what is the downside to doing this.. versus creating a whole new DC with 2008, then demoting the old DC's (2003)..Is it just folder structure differences.. ie: documents and settings instead of users.. or does the docs and settings folder get migrated into the newer format etc?Thanks