Steps for changing NT4 PDC and two NT4 BDC servers to Win2k

I have three servers and 15 workstations, all running NT 4.0 SP6. Servers are NT 4.0 SP6 -- one server is a PDC and two are BDCs on a basic network -- we have no RAID, just simple backup services.

I need to upgrade all the servers to Win2k Server. The workstations will be upgraded at a later date. I would like to do the following: Remove one BDC server and upgrade it to Win2k. Then, once done, I want to change the new server to a PDC, then reconnect the new server to the network, remove the old NT 4.0 servers, do the upgrade and make them BDC's -- thus reducing downtime of network.

Any help is much appreciated.

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Interesting. Let me reiterate and add a couple of steps that could help.

  1. Remove on BDC from the network.
  2. Promote the isolated BDC to PDC.
  3. Upgrade the isolated PDC to Win2k. (Note that you will need to either install DNS on this machine or make another machine available to it that has DNS running on it.)
  4. Power down the existing PDC normally.
  5. Introduce the new PDC into the network.
  6. Switch the Win2k PDC's DNS to be the appropriate DNS for the network. Restart the server and check that the appropriate DNS entries get created.
  7. Upgrade the BDCs to Win2k.

This was first published in October 2002

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