Personal web server - Part 3: Windows Server 2003 Upgrades and Migrations
Part 3: Windows Server 2003 Upgrades and Migrations Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Inside Out Chapter 8 When running ADPREP /FORESTPREP, you will be prompted to verify that all domain controllers have the necessary service pack and QFE updates prior to ADPREP /FORESTPREP performing its operations. You can use REPADMIN /SHOWATTR to verify that service packs have been applied. Once you are certain that the correct service pack has been applied, you can press C to continue with the ADPREP /FORESTPREP process. Preparing the Forest There are a couple of different perspectives on how to upgrade a forest, and, interestingly enough, both of them are recommended by Microsoft. Early Microsoft documentation (including the help files that ship with the software) encourage you to take the Schema Master offline disconnect it from your enterprise network prior to performing the forest and domain preparation operations on it. Later documentation in the form of Knowledge Base article 821076, Windows Server 2003 Help Files Contain Incorrect Information About How to Update a Windows 2000 Domain (located at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;821076), states that this information is incorrect. Although this article does not provide any further insight into why Microsoft changed its opinion about taking the Schema Master offline prior to updating the Active Directory schema information, it encourages a moment of reflection on the issue. What if the forest and domain preparation has problems what if you encounter errors, such as corrupted directory objects or attributes? Would it replicate corrupt directory information to other domain controllers? Does it make more sense for you to take the risk of problems and the consequences of those problems in your production environment (your actual enterprise network) or to test it offline first? By isolating the Schema Master during the upgrade, you can verify that the upgrade was completed successfully before you integrate it back into your production environment. That way, if the upgrade fails and the Schema Master is rendered unusable, you can restore from backup and retry the upgrade preparation. Once you ve verified that the upgrade is successful, you can connect the Schema Master to the network so that it can replicate the changes to all domains. Then, after you ve verified that the schema changes have been replicated, you can run the ADPREP /DOMAINPREP command. To start the forest update process, you can take the Schema Master off your local network and set it up on an isolated network (or you can leave it online in your production environment as suggested by Microsoft Knowledge Base article 821076). Log on using an account that is a member of the Enterprise Admins group and the Schema Admins group. Then use the Active Directory Preparation tool (Adprep.exe) from the command line, with the /Forestprep parameter. The Adprep.exe program is located in the I386 directory of the Windows Server 2003 product CD. 238
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