Transferring FSMO Roles in Windows Server 2008

Introduction This is a must to read article for any system administrator who administers Microsoft Windows Servers. One of any system administrator duties, would be to upgrade a current domain controller to a new hardware server. One of the crucial steps required to successfully migrate your domain controller, is to be able to successfully transfer the FSMO roles to the new hardware server. FSMO stands for Flexible Single Master Operations, and in a forest there are at least five roles. In this article, I will be showing you how to transfer the FSMO in Windows Server 2008,  and in my next article, I will show you the complete steps required to successfully migrate/upgrade your domain controller to a new hardware server. The five FSMO roles are: Schema Master Domain Naming Master Infrastructure Master Relative ID (RID) Master PDC Emulator The FSMO roles are going to be transferred, using the following three MMC snap-ins : Active Directory Schema snap-in  : Will be used to transfer the Schema Master role Active Directory Domains and Trusts snap-in : Will be used to transfer the Domain Naming Master role Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in : Will be used to transfer the RID Master, PDC Emulator, and Infrastructure Master roles Note: The following steps are done on the Windows Server 2008 machine that I intend to set as the roles holder ( transfer the roles to it ) Lets start transferring the FSMO roles. Using Active Directory Schema snap-in to transfer the Schema Master role You have to register schmmgmt.dll in order to be able to use the Active Directory Schema snap-in Click Start > Run Type regsvr32 schmmgmt.dll Click OK A popup message will confirm that schmmgmt.dll was successfully registered. Click OK Click Start > Run, type mmc, then click OK Click File > then click Add/Remove Snap-in... From the left side, under Available Snap-ins, click on Active Directory Schema, then click Add > and then click OK Right click Active Directory Schema, then click Change Active Directory Domain Controller... From the listed Domain Controllers, click on the domain controller that you want to be the schema master role holder and then click on OK You will receive a message box stating that the schema snap-in is not connected to a schema operations master. That is for sure, as we have not yet set this Windows Server 2008 domain controller as a Schema Master role holder. This will be done in the next step. Click OK In the console tree, right click Active Directory Schema [DomainController.DomainName], and then click Operations Master... On the Change Schema Master page, the current schema master role holder will be displayed ( ex. ELMAJ-DC.ELMAJDAL.NET) and the targeted schema holder as well (ex. ELMAJ-DC2K8.ELMAJDAL.NET). Once you click Change, the schema master holder will become ELMAJ-DC2K8.ELMAJDAL.NET , click Change Click Yes to confirm the role transfer The role will be transferred and a confirmation message will be displayed. Click OK Then click Close, as you can see in the below snapshot, the current schema master is ELMAJ-DC2K8.ELMAJDAL.NET Using Active Directory Domains and Trusts snap-in to transfer the Domain Naming Master Role Click Start > Administrative Tools > then click Active Directory Domains and Trusts Right click Active Directory Domains and Trusts, then click Change Active Directory Domain Controller... From the listed Domain Controllers, click on the domain controller that you want to be the Domain Naming master role holder and then click on OK Right click Active Directory Domains and Trusts, then click Operations Master... On the Operations Master page, we are going to change the Domain Naming role holder from ELMAJ-DC.ELMAJDAL.NET to ELMAJ-DC2K8.ELMAJDAL.NET, Click Change Click YES to confirm the transfer of the Domain Naming role The role will be transferred and a confirmation message will be displayed. Click OK , then click Close Till now, we have successfully transferred two FSMO roles, the Schema Master role and the Domain Naming role. The last three roles can be transferred using a single Snap-in. Using Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in to transfer the RID Master, PDC Emulator, and Infrastructure Master Roles Click Start > Administrative Tools > then click Active Directory Users and Computers Right click Active Directory Users and Computers, then click All Tasks > Operations Master... You will have three Tabs, representing three FSMO roles (RID, PDC, Infrastructure). Click the Change button under each of these three tabs to transfer the roles. Click Yes to confirm the role transfer The role will be transferred and a confirmation message will be displayed. Click OK As for the Infrastructure role, once you click on the Change button you will receive the below message By default, when you first install your first Domain Controller, it holds the five roles and beside that it is a Global Catalog. If your environment is a multi-domain/forest, then you should think about structuring your FSMO roles and transfer the Infrastructure role to a none Global Catalog domain controller. Else if you have small number of domain controllers ( ex. two domain controllers) then you should not worry about this. Click Yes The Tabs should now look like this:   That's it, by now, you have successfully transferred the five FSMO roles to the Windows Server 2008 Domain Controller.

 

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Install and Configure DHCP Server in Windows server 2003

A DHCP Server assigns IP addresses to client computers. This is very often used in enterprise networks to reduce configuration efforts. All IP addresses of all computers are stored in a database that resides on a server machine.



Installing DHCP Server is very easy in win server 2003

First you need to go to Start–>All Programs–>Administrative Tools–>Manage Your Server



Here you need to select Add or remove a role



Verify the following steps click on Next



Select Server Role as DHCP Server option click on Next



Summary selection click on Next



Installing DHCP Server in progress



Now this will prompt new scope welcome scree click next



A scope is a collection of IP addresses for computers on a subnet that use DHCP.
enter the name and description of your scope click next



Now you need to define the range of addresses that the scope will distribute across the network,the subnet mask for the IP address . Enter the appropriate details and click next.



Enter the IP address range that you want to exclude and click on next



Select lease duration how long a client can use an IP address assigned to it from this scope. It is recommended to add longer leases for a fixed network (in the office for example) and shorter leases for remote connections or laptop computers and click next



You are given a choice of whether or not you wish to configure the DHCP options for the scope now or later.You can select Yes,I want to… radion button and click next



Enter the router, or gateway, IP address click next. The client computers will then know which router to use and click next



Enter the DNS and domain name settings can be entered. The DNS server IP address will be distributed by the DHCP server and given to the client click next



If you have WINS setup then here is where to enter the IP Address of the WINS server. You can just input the server name into the appropriate box and press Resolve” to allow it to find the IP address itself click next



Now you need to activate this scope now and click next



DHCP Server new scope installation was finished and click finish



Now your server is now a DHCP server message and click finish



Configuring DHCP

Now you need to go to Start—>Administrative Tools—>DHCP



Right Click on your server click on Authorize your DHCP Server



Authorization completed now your DHCP server is up and running



DHCP servers permit you to reserve an IP address for a client. This means that the specific network client will have the same IP for as long as you wanted it to. To do this you will have to know the physical address (MAC) of each network card. Enter the reservation name, desired IP address, MAC address and description – choose whether you want to support DHCP or BOOTP and press add. The new reservation will be added to the list.

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install Active Directory in Windows Server 2003

Click Start -> Run...

Type "dcpromo" and click "OK"

You will see the first window of the wizard.  As it suggests, I suggest reading the help associated with Active Directory.  After this, click "Next"

Click "Next" on the compatibility window, and in the next window keep the default option of "Domain Controller for a new domain" selected, and click "Next"

In this tutorial we will create a domain in a new forest, because it is the first DC, so keep that option selected

 

Now we have to think of a name for our domain.  If you own a web domain like "visualwin.com", you can use it, but it isn't suggested because computers inside of your domain may not be able to reach the company website.  Active Directory domains don't need to be "real" domains like the one above - they can be anything you wish.  So here I will create "visualwin.testdomain"

Now in order to keep things simple, we will use the first part of our domain ("visualwin"), which is the default selection, as the NetBIOS name of the domain

The next dialog suggests storing the AD database and log on separate hard disks, and so do I, but for this tutorial I'll just keep the defaults

The SYSVOL folder is a public share, where things like .MSI software packages can be kept when you will distribute packages (as I said, AD has a lot of different features).  Once again, I will keep the default selection but it can be changed if you wish to use the space of another drive

Now we will get a message that basically says that you will need a DNS server in order for everything to work the way we want it (i.e., our "visualwin.testdomain" to be reachable).  As I mentioned earlier, we will install the DNS server on this machine as well, but it can be installed elsewhere.  So keep the default selection of "Install and configure", and click "Next"

Because, after all, this is a Windows Server 2003 tutorial website, we'll assume there are no pre-Windows 2000 servers that will be accessing this domain, so keep the default of "Permissions compatible only with Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 operating systems" and click "Next"

The restore mode password is the single password that all administrators hope to never use, however they should also never forget it because this is the single password that might save a failed server.  Make sure it's easy to remember but difficult to guess

Now we will see a summary of what will happen.  Make sure it's all correct because changing it afterwards can prove to be difficult

After the previous next was clicked, the actual process occurs.  This can take several minutes.  It's likely that you will be prompted for your Windows Server 2003 CD (for DNS) so have it handy

 

And after a while you will see

And we're finished.

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