Hi there, I have a customer situation where they may not have run adprep /domainprep /gpprep before installing the first R2 2003 server into a Windows 2000 forest. The FSMO roles now live on 2003R2 DCs. The 2000 DCs have not yet been retired. Would it be ok to run the adprep /domainprep /gpprep now, I presume it wouldnt't cause an issue , though I realise this is not ideal? Comments appreciated.

my first question is how can you intruduce Windows 2003 R2 as an additional domain controller with out upgrading the active directory as you have already mentioned that the roles are now live on windows 2003r2 server ? to make it sure that the schema is already extended please do the following and let us know Verify the schema extension After you run Adprep, you can use the Windows Support tool ADSI Edit to verify the schema extension. To verify the schema extension Log on to an administrative workstation that has ADSI Edit installed. Click Start, click Run, type adsiedit.msc, and then click OK. Double-click Configuration Container, and then double-click CN=Configuration,DC=forest_root_domain where forest_root_domain is the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of your forest root domain. Double-click CN=ForestUpdates. Right-click CN=Windows2003Update, and then click Properties. Verify that the Revision attribute value is 9, and then close the Properties dialog box. Double-click Schema. Right-click CN=Schema,CN=Configuration,DC=forest_root_domain where forest_root_domain is the FQDN of your forest root domain. Click Properties. On the Attribute Editor tab, for Select a property to view, select objectVersion, and verify that the attribute Value(s) equals 31. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc773360(WS.10).aspx http://www.virmansec.com/blogs/skhairuddin

Hi there, no what I am suggesting is that vanilla adprep /forestprep and adprep /domainprep were run but adprep /domainprep /gppprep was not. All I asking is , can the customer run adprep /domainprep /gpprep now despite the first R2 DC being in place?

yes you may run it as This command performs similar updates as domainprep. However, this command also provides updates that are necessary to enable Resultant Set of Policy (RSOP) Planning Mode functionality. In Active Directory environments that run Microsoft Windows® 2000, this command performs updates during off-peak hours. This minimizes replication traffic that is created in those environments by updates to file system permissions and Active Directory permissions on existing Group Policy objects (GPOs). http://www.virmansec.com/blogs/skhairuddin

Hi Syed, Many thanks for your valuable input, I assume I can run this on the current 2003R2 based infrastructure master? I don't have to migrate this role back to a 2000 based DC? Thanks

yes you may please backup every thing before you do just for your safety thanks.http://www.virmansec.com/blogs/skhairuddin

Many thanks for the swift and informative replies Syed.