bobrossi56
asked on
adding a second doman controller
I have a Dell server running Windows Server 2003 Small Business Server at my office. I have outgrown it, so I purchased a new server to replace it. I turned on the new server at my house and let it come up and go through the initial screens. I now find out this was a mistake, and I should have brought the new server up attached to my office LAN. So now I have 2 servers with AD, DNS, DHCP, etc. I was told I could fix this by running DCPROMO on the new server, leaving it disconnected from my office LAN, and DCPROMO would remove AD / DS and let me then join it to the domain and start over correctly. So, I did this, but DCPROMO has been erasing AD and DS for 8 hours now. Is this length of time normal? Should I have done something different to correct my initial error? Any advise on how I can go forward with this mess is greatly appreciated.
thx...Bob
thx...Bob
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Lee W, MVP
What do you mean you outgrew SBS? You exceed 75 users?
ASKER
No, not 75 users, but the horsepower of the server was lacking.
I will try the dcpromo /forceremoval and follow your suggestions.
thanks so much,
-Bob
I will try the dcpromo /forceremoval and follow your suggestions.
thanks so much,
-Bob
ASKER
One other question regarding the moving of the DHCP. Right now my LinkSys VPN router acts as the DHCP service on the LAN. This has worked fine for years. Is there any advantage to letting the server dish out IP addresses vs. the router?
thx
thx
It's not clear what you're ultimately trying to do.
SBS allows you have additional servers - so why are you, apparently, trying to move away from it? Moving away from it will cost you more money as you'll have to buy new licenses. If you simply add a server to the network, your SBS licenses cover the network. Further, HOW is the server's horsepower lacking? Was the CPU pegging frequently at 100%? Was the disk performance slow? Was the network performance slow? There are many solutions, MOST FAR CHEAPER than adding a server - you really should reanalyze what your problems are before just throwing away money. Unless you like throwing away money... it's certainly helping the economy...
SBS allows you have additional servers - so why are you, apparently, trying to move away from it? Moving away from it will cost you more money as you'll have to buy new licenses. If you simply add a server to the network, your SBS licenses cover the network. Further, HOW is the server's horsepower lacking? Was the CPU pegging frequently at 100%? Was the disk performance slow? Was the network performance slow? There are many solutions, MOST FAR CHEAPER than adding a server - you really should reanalyze what your problems are before just throwing away money. Unless you like throwing away money... it's certainly helping the economy...
I would prefer to run DHCP on the server. Running DHCP on the server allows you to take advantage of dynamic DNS updates. I thought from your first post, you were running DHCP on the old server, hence the migration tip.
How many users are on this network and what kind of applicaitons are you running?
How many users are on this network and what kind of applicaitons are you running?
ASKER
I should start out by saying that the old server was a "home built" beefed up workstation running SBS, and we are now actually replacing it with a "real" server with RAID, redundant PS, dual xeon CPU, etc. We are not moving away from SBS, just replacing an original home built server with a real one. Sorry for that confusion.
We have 30 users hitting Office files, SQL server, Access DB and QuickBooks. Since day 1 we have let the router assign the IPs, but we will take your advise and begin using the server for DHCP.
We have 30 users hitting Office files, SQL server, Access DB and QuickBooks. Since day 1 we have let the router assign the IPs, but we will take your advise and begin using the server for DHCP.
ASKER
Well it took all night, but the new server finally says that AD has been removed from this computer. I don't know why it took so long, but at least it finished. SO, with AD removed, what shold my next steps be to bring this into the domian. Have I reversed the errors I created? Do I now try to join the domain? I am skiddish in the fact that I don't want to make anymore mistakes as I go forward.
thx experts...
thx experts...