My turn to ask an active directory question.

At the moment we have three windows 2000 domain controllers (all SP4) in a 2000 native domain and forest.

I am upgrading to 2k3 , having bought two new 2k3 R2 servers.

On the Schema Master DC I have logged on with a domain admin account that is also a member of the schema admins group.

I have gone into the schema MMC and enabled updates to the schema on this computer.

When I run adprep /forestprep I get the usual warning about the required SP and hotfix which I do have.

"If ALL your existing Windows 2000 domain controllers meet this requirement, type C and then press ENTER to continue. Otherwise, type any other key and press ENTER to quit."

But when I continue I get a message saying that is has already been done and adprep stops.

"Forest-wide information has already been updated.

Adprep did not attempt to rerun this operation."

The same happens for /domainprep.

When I try and run DCPROMO on my new 2k3 machine it fails telling me that I first need to update the schema using adprep.......

Any suggestions on how I can persuade adprep to run correctly?

The log file from my 2k DC is shown below.

Adprep created the log file ADPrep.log under C:\WINNT\system32\debug\adprep\logs\20061103145426 directory.

Adprep copied file C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.MORPHIS\Desktop\I386\schema.ini from installation point to local machine under directory C:\WINNT.

Adprep copied file C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.MORPHIS\Desktop\I386\dcpromo.cs_ from installation point to local machine under directory C:\WINNT\system32\debug\adprep\data.

Adprep copied file C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.MORPHIS\Desktop\I386\409.cs_ from installation point to local machine under directory C:\WINNT\system32\debug\adprep\data.

Adprep successfully made the LDAP connection to the local domain controller NETSERVER_8.

Adprep was about to call the following LDAP API. ldap_search_s(). The base entry to start the search is (null).

LDAP API ldap_search_s() finished, return code is 0x0

Adprep successfully retrieved information from the local directory service.

Adprep successfully initialized global variables.

[status/Consequence]

Adprep is continuing.

ADPREP WARNING:

Before running adprep, all Windows 2000 domain controllers in the forest should be upgraded to Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 (SP1) with QFE 265089, or to Windows 2000 SP2 (or later).

QFE 265089 (included in Windows 2000 SP2 and later) is required to prevent potential domain controller corruption.

For more information about preparing your forest and domain see KB article Q331161 at Microsoft Help and Support.

[user Action]

If ALL your existing Windows 2000 domain controllers meet this requirement, type C and then press ENTER to continue. Otherwise, type any other key and press ENTER to quit.

Forest-wide information has already been updated.

[status/Consequence]

Adprep did not attempt to rerun this operation.

Sorry if the following is a dumb question Z (been a while since I did any AD migration): you're getting this on your existing 2k AD servers?

If it's already done, have you tried then adding a 2k3 servers to the AD ?

I had to do this some time ago (had a 2k AD and wanted to migrate it over to a pair of Win2k3 servers). I ran dcpromo, did the forestprep stuff and then just went onto the 2k3 box and added it to the domain, then relinquished AD functions from the 2k box :confused:

Nope , I've added a 2k3 member server to the domain and now I'm trying to promote it as you seem to have done.

Only difference is it worked for you.

How to upgrade Windows 2000 domain controllers to Windows Server 2003

Has instructions that I thought had sorted it.

If you have already extended the schema for exchange 2000 or 2003 it sets an attribute that marks the job as done even though it's a different set of changes.

Running the script then let me run adprep /domainprep successfully but forestprep still failed , and I still get the same error message when I try and promote a 2k3 member server

And I think I've cracked it.

There are two versions of ADprep included with 2003 server R2.

The one in the I386 folder which all the instructions refer to doesn't work.

There is a second one on CD2 which does work.

Now to see if dcpromo will run ok

It did.