[enderandrew]

I have a client who runs a small business. Their server was a closet without air conditioning for lack of a server room. They decided to turn up their furnace, and mostly melted their server. I have it up and limping along. However, the plan is to put in a new server/DC. As a smaller shop, they only run 1 server to do everything. They are currently running Server 2003 Small Business Edition.

The guy who set everything up initially really hosed their DC, permissions, etc. Also, they use roaming profiles and want to get away from that. I intend to make a new domain from scratch on the new server. The issue becomes, can I then wipe the old server, reinstall 2003 Small Business, and make it a backup DC to a 2008 Standard edition server? I'm hoping so, but assuming not.

[iamtheky]

You want to implement this item as the fail-safe for a production environment? With reviews like

Quote

mostly melted....up and limping along

I dont see why I would shop anywhere else


Having a mixed bag of DCs should not be an issue. Especially if the 2003 is only serving the purpose of being replicated to. Couple of threads with decent walkthroughs.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums...71-952e0c0e10f6

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums...0c-fa18d2ebeece

This post has been edited by iamtheky: 20 October 2009 - 02:19 PM

[enderandrew]

Thanks! I read that 2008 still supported mixed-mode, but I was worried that 2008 Standard may not like 2003 Small Business. Those look like great starting points.

I'm heavily encouraging the client to build a proper computer/server room. For the time being, I have the server in their conference room. I will be placing the new one there as well until they get a proper computer room built. I will not install the new server in the closet they were using before.

The really bad thing is that last month the closet overheated and they melted their switch. I warned them about heat then.

[Gaphrum]

The sbs2003 server has to hold all the fsmo roles. You would be better off joining the 2k8 to the 2k3 domain. You would also have to extend the schema on the sbs box first.

[chilifrei64]

Correct me if I'm wrong.. and it has been a very long time since I messed with SBS.. but cant you only have one DC in a SBS enviroment?

[cluberti]

Correct - you can have multiple member servers in a 2003 SBS domain, but none of them can be domain controllers.

[TheReasonIFail]

No, you can have multiple DC's but only one of them can be SBS.