I am hoping somebody has real experience with this situation can give me a hand, thank you.
I have a AD (windows 2003 R2) that has two DCs (both are GC). Last time they two talked to each other (successfully) was over 6 months ago. Since then, DC1 (that has all the FSMO roles, the first DC of the AD) has been shut down and shipped to an oversea site. Some AD changes have been made (creating new users, groups, etc) on DC2 in the past six months while DC1 was offline. Now DC2 has been shut down and shipped to the same oversea site as DC1.
Here comes the question, once both DCs are onsite, how do I get the two DCs replicate to each other so the changes on DC2 won't get lost? Assuming I cannot seize the FSMO roles and rebuild DC1 (this is because of some other reasons).
If you just decide to rebuild it you will still need to go through steps 2 and 3 to cleanup and seize FSMO roles.
1. dcpromo /forceremoval on DC1
2. Cleanup that DC from AD (metadata cleanup) http://www.petri.co.il/delete_failed_dcs_from_ad.htm
3. Seize FSMO roles off DC1 to DC2 http://www.petri.co.il/seizing_fsmo_roles.htm
4. Promote DC1 again
The AD Team has also outlined the process in their rollback article (same process here)..about halfway down
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2009/06/05/dc-s-and-vm-s-avoiding-the-do-over.aspx
Thanks
Mike