Hello, I have a Server 2003 domain and need to upgrade the hardware of 2 of
my domain controllers. I thought this would be a good time to move to
Server 2003 R2.

I wanted to do a sanity check on the process and make sure there are no
gotcha's that I've not yet read about.

I've built the hardware and installed Server 2003 R2 and understand that the
next step is to run the forest prep. I've got good tape backups of the
domain controllers and individual system state backups of each as well.

Would there be any other best practices that I should do from a disaster
standpoint in case the forest prep goes south and I need to restore?

Or is this upgrade so minor that I'm worrying too much?

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks
Jim

R2 is Win 2k3 SP2 with feature upgrades. You would run adprep on the schema
master for your domain, then install the updated R2 features on the servers
you want to use the updated features on by installing the second disk of the
R2 set on those servers. If you are not going to use the updated features,
there is no need to install the second disk. By only using the first disk
you will have a Win 2k3 SP 2 server ready to go. At any point later you can
add the R2 updated features on this server by running setup2 from the second
disk of the R2 set.

FYI I've never see anyone in these news groups that said the schema update
went belly up. But good backups is a good Idea.


hth
DDS

"Jim" <jj@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:%23Vr%23IYLdIHA.4312@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...

Danny, All my server are Server 2003 SP2 already so are you saying that I
just have to run the second disk and then they are full R2 machines?

One of the main reasons I want to have R2 is the ability to establish quotas
on individual folders to limit the amount a user can put there.
Can I just install the second disk on the member server that I want to have
the quota's on and not upgrade the domain controllers to R2?

Thanks!

Jim




"Danny Sanders" <DSanders@NOSPAMciber.com> wrote in message
news:%232SesdLdIHA.3736@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

You will still need to run adprep on the schema master for your domain.
After that if the server is Win 2k3 SP 2 all you need to do is run setup 2
from the second disk of the R2 set to add the new features you want to use
to the server you want to use the new features on.

The schema master for your domain is on one of your DCs. This is the one you
run adprep on. If you are going to only use the new features on member
servers then you don't need to touch the DCs again.

hth
DDS


"Jim" <jj@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:%23hPRHTMdIHA.3400@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...

I don't think this is going to be a problem, but one correction: W2K3 R2
came out with SP1 slipstreamed, not SP2. That said, I imagine you can also
buy W2K3 R2 with SP2 slipstreamed at this point.

I am sure you can use disk 2 to install the R2 components on a SP2
installation anyway. You do have the product key for R2, correct? You will
be prompted if your server was installed from pre-R2 W2K3 media.

"Jim" wrote:

Actually no you can't. If you have Win 2k SP1 R2 disks it can only be
installed on a Win 2k3 server with SP 1.
If you have Win 2k3 SP2 R2 disks you will have to install SP 2 on the server
before it will work.

hth
DDS

"Baboon" <baboon@news.postalias> wrote in message
news:7FF5FD9A-2E6A-4B82-A594-9E89321DAB23@microsoft.com...

No problem, as a volume license customer I have the original R2 disks as
well as the R2 with SP2 versions but thanks for pointing that out.

Jim

"Baboon" <baboon@news.postalias> wrote in message
news:7FF5FD9A-2E6A-4B82-A594-9E89321DAB23@microsoft.com...

OK, thanks. I haven't been in that scenario to this point.

"Danny Sanders" wrote: