I have two domain controllers in my domain. For the following reasons
I would like to reload my secondary DC
-My OS partition is a little small for my liking (10 GB)
-Software RAID is used instead of hardware RAID
-I would like to load R2 for the Distributed File System (my other DC
is R2)

I have seen some things about upgrading to R2, but I would really like
to reload. There are only two users at this site, so downtime and
files (if lost) aren't that big a deal.

I am wondering what would be the best way to go about this. I was
thinking that I should demote the DC and reload it and then rejoin it
to the domain? Making sure that the sites and services/replication is
correct and that DNS proprogated. If I were to take this approach
should I give the reloaded server the same name as it was before?
I've read that I could rename is something different, but I would just
have to check mapped drivers and printer references.

The other DC is the primary and global catalog.

Thanks in advance for any help.

As long as you have another DC in place, you can simply dcpromo down the DC
that you wish to re-install (making sure that you do NOT place the
check-mark next to "This is the last DC in the domain" when it comes up!),
and then run dcpromo again once you've rebuilt it.

As long as the de-promoting process goes smoothly, you should have no issues
re-introducing the rebuilt DC with the same name. If you encounter any
errors when de-promoting the DC, you will need to perform a metadata cleanup
before re-introducing the re-installed DC, using the steps listed here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216498

HTH


--
-----------------------
Laura E. Hunter
Microsoft MVP - Windows Server Networking
Author: _Active Directory Consultant's Field Guide_
(http://tinyurl.com/7f8ll)
Author: _Active Directory Cookbook, Second Edition_
(http://tinyurl.com/z7svl)

"Robeast" <Robert.Jimerson@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1174673670.613890.110330@e65g2000hsc.googlegr oups.com...

Thanks for the reply. Let me get this straight. After I reload the
server, I join it to the domain and then I run dcpromo? Thanks again.


On Mar 23, 3:56 pm, "Laura E. Hunter [MVP]"
<laurahcomputing.nos...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'll typically join a new server to the domain as a member server before
running dcpromo just to ensure that you have good connectivity with the
existing domain before you start the promotion process.

HTH


--
-----------------------
Laura E. Hunter
Microsoft MVP - Windows Server Networking
Author: _Active Directory Consultant's Field Guide_
(http://tinyurl.com/7f8ll)
Author: _Active Directory Cookbook, Second Edition_
(http://tinyurl.com/z7svl)


"Robeast" <Robert.Jimerson@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1174688725.038147.167600@d57g2000hsg.googlegr oups.com...