The upgrade to Active Directory can be gradual and performed without interrupting operations. If you follow domain upgrade recommendations, it should never be necessary to take a domain offline to upgrade domain controllers, member servers, or workstations.
In Active Directory, a domain is a collection of computer, user, and group objects defined by the administrator. These objects share a common directory database, security policies, and security relationships with other domains. A forest is a collection of one or more Active Directory domains that share the same class and attribute definitions (schema), site and replication information (configuration), and forest-wide search capabilities (global catalog). Domains in the same forest are linked with two-way, transitive trust relationships.
To prepare for upgrades in a domain containing Windows 2000 domain controllers, it is recommended that you apply Service Pack 2 or later to all domain controllers running Windows 2000.
Before upgrading a domain controller running Windows 2000 to Windows Server 2003, or installing Active Directory on the first domain controller running Windows Server 2003, ensure that your server, your forest, and your domain are ready.
Two command-line tools are helpful in upgrading domain controllers:
|
