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Removing the LAST 2003 DC...Two new 2008 DC's up and running

I am migrating/transitioning our single domain from 2003 to 2008. I've had the twol old 2003 DC's unplugged for the past week or so with our two new 2008 DC's up and running....No problems. Both new 2008 DC's are running DNS, one running DHCP. Both GC's and one new 2008 server holds all FSMO roles. I just ran dcpromo on one of the old 2003 servers and removed AD without any problem. Before I run dcpromo on the other old 2003 DC, I was wondering if:

A.) It will automatically raise the domain level to 2008?
B.) If so, are there any issues with our Exchange 2003 server working in a 2008 domain?
C.) I just read that Group Policies won't work unless you redirect the containers that users and computers are created in.....Anyone know anything about that? We have network drives, security policies and a couple other things that get applied via Group Policy, so I can't have that not working!

Thanks in advance.....

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Adam Brown

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Govvy

You can redirect the Computers and Users AD containers later without breaking functionality:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324949

tenover

ASKER

Thanks.
The Group Policy issue is here, almost the very last step toward the end of the page.
http://networkadminkb.com/KB/a15/transitioning-a-windows-2003-domain-to-windows-2008-r2.aspx

Govvy

Since neither of these locations allow Group Policies to be applied it wont break any existing GPO's you have in place (i.e. they will still apply to the OU's they are linked to)

Adam Brown

Oh, that part doesn't really matter too much. Group Policies *can* apply to those OUs, but they have to be linked to the Domain, and will thus be applied to all computers and users in the domain. If your existing users and computers are not in those OUs, you won't have any problems skipping that step. You will just need to make sure that new computers and users are moved to the OU they need to be in when you create them.