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Dear Sir or Madam:<br />
<br />
I have a Window 2003 domain. On our domain there is only one 2003 domain controller, the other 7 are all &nbsp;windows 2000 domain controllers. My company pass the budget to upgrade our domain. I am planning to upgrade our domain to Windows 2003 base. Before I do that, i need degrade my old DCs. My question is some of the DCs are DHCP servers and DNS servers. If I degrade them, what should i do before that. Do i need set up another DNS server and DHCP servers. <br />
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I have five branches and HQ. At very branch, i have a DHCP server (also DC, altogether 5 DCs). At HQ, i have One primary DNS server and Secondary DNS server. Do i need to degrade them?<br />
<br />
Thank you for any help, the more detailed, the more appreciated. 
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Dear Sir or Madam:

I have a Window 2003 domain. On our domain there is only one 2003 domain controller, the other 7 are all  windows 2000 domain controllers. My company pass the budget to upgrade our domain. I am planning to upgrade our domain to Windows 2003 base. Before I do that, i need degrade my old DCs. My question is some of the DCs are DHCP servers and DNS servers. If I degrade them, what should i do before that. Do i need set up another DNS server and DHCP servers. 

I have five branches and HQ. At very branch, i have a DHCP server (also DC, altogether 5 DCs). At HQ, i have One primary DNS server and Secondary DNS server. Do i need to degrade them?

Thank you for any help, the more detailed, the more appreciated. 

What should I do before degrade this Windows 2000 domain controller?

Active Directory (AD) is a Microsoft brand for identity-related capabilities. In the on-premises world, Windows Server AD provides a set of identity capabilities and services, and is hugely popular (88% of Fortune 1000 and 95% of enterprises use AD). This topic includes all things Active Directory including DNS, Group Policy, DFS, troubleshooting, ADFS, and all other topics under the Microsoft AD and identity umbrella.

Active Directory

The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is an auto configuration protocol used on IP networks and an extension of the Bootstrap Protocol. DHCP allows for computers to be configured automatically to communicate with each other over an IP network without the need for manual setup by a network administrator. The implementation of DHCP relies on a DHCP server to hand out network configuration information to DHCP-capable clients that request an IP address (and other information required or useful in communicating with other devices on an IP network). In addition to an IP address, common configuration information served over DHCP includes a default gateway, subnet mask and DNS sever(s).