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Setting up a new Windows 2000 BDC

We are just starting out to plan our Win2k migration. We have about 1600 machines -- about 1000 are already on Windows 2000 Professional. One of the recommendations was to set up a new Windows 2000 BDC. Wouldn't this overwhelm the BDC with having to validate the 1000 Windows 2000 workstations all of a sudden?

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If this is a Windows NT 4.0 domain, you cannot add a Windows 2000 BDC. You have to FIRST upgrade the Windows NT 4.0 PDC to a Windows 2000 DC. Then, you may add Windows 2000 BDCs. A Windows 2000 DC can handle the 1600 machines with too much of a problem -- given proper hardware configuration of course. Once you upgrade your PDC to Windows 2000, the Windows 2000 Professional machines will change their logon method from NTLM to Kerberos. The NT 4.0 BDCs cannot speak Kerberos, and thus, the Windows 2000 PDC will be the focal point for authentication.

This was first published in March 2002

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