I've done the promote/isolate method many times. You'll get to know ADSIedit and ntdsutil very well.
:^) Don Guyer Systems Engineer Information Services Prudential Fox Roach/ Trident 431 W. Lancaster Avenue Devon, PA 19333 Ph: (610) 993-3299 Fax: (610) 650-5306 www.prufoxroach.com [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: Brown, Ken F. [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 9:37 AM To: Active Directory Admin Issues Subject: RE: Copy of the production Active Directory from a live DC to a tes DC Saw other posts about this... If you replicate a DC (by whatever method) - make sure it has DNS on it...and after it is in the isolated environment, seize all the roles. If you can't make a 'snap shot' of an existing DC (using whatever method you prefer) then you can always fall back to the tried-and-true method (I've done these high-level steps with physical hardware {desktop's running server OS} and virtual technology): Build the server OS (make sure it has DNS on it!) Promote it to become a DC Mark is as a global catalog server Let it replicate all the data (AD/SYSVOL/GC data) Take it off the production network Clean up production (metadata cleanup - see technet articles) In the ISOLATED environment (NEVER ever let it come back into production - use separate, physical network gear!): Boot the OS Logon (using the administrator account) Configure the IP address as appropriate Point it to itself for DNS Reboot Seize all the FSMO roles Good luck! -----Original Message----- From: Ian Roche [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 4:22 AM To: Active Directory Admin Issues Subject: Copy of the production Active Directory from a live DC to a tes DC Just wondering if anyone has any tips for this one before I do it. Lots on the web about it was looking at following the link below. If its the way to go let me know. All I want to do is to get a test domain controller up and running on a segregated network as one of our departments in hear need to test application changes which uses LDAP authentication . http://www.pbbergs.com/windows/articles/TestDomain.html ~ NEW: CounterSpy Enterprise: Centralized Antispyware - #1 in eWEEK Test! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/product.cfm?id=400> ~ ~ NEW: CounterSpy Enterprise: Centralized Antispyware - #1 in eWEEK Test! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/product.cfm?id=400> ~ ~ NEW: CounterSpy Enterprise: Centralized Antispyware - #1 in eWEEK Test! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/product.cfm?id=400> ~
