To move from NT 4.0 to Win 2k3 you can either upgrade (by upgrading the
existing PDC first) or migrate by setting up the NT and AD domain side by
side on the same wire and use ADMT to move users from the NT domain to the
AD domain.
See:
How To Upgrade a Windows NT 4.0-Based PDC to a Windows Server 2003-Based
Domain Controller
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;326209
How to configure the Active Directory Migration Tool to migrate user
passwords from a Windows NT 4.0 domain to a Windows Server 2003 domain
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;832221
You should research each way to decide which works best in your environment.
You have to make decisions during setup that may take a format and reinstall
to recover from.
Is the best way to do it to create a new DC that
is running W3K and then replicate and demote the NT4 DC. This is my first
upgrade and any help advice would be very much appreciated.
This will not work. When you realize that the NT 4.0 PDC is the only DC on
the NT domain that carries a writeable copy of the SAM. Also that Win 2k3
can not be a BDC, there is no such choice, AD DC operate in multi master
mode. You will not be able to get a NT 4.0 PDC and a Win 2k3 server in the
same domain so they can replicate.
AD totally relies on DNS
See:
Best Practices for DNS Client settings in Windows 2000 server and in Windows
Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;825036
Setting Up the Domain Name System for Active Directory
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;237675
How to configure DNS for Internet access in Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;323380
You might also consider removing Win 2k3 from the new server and installing
NT 4.0 on it as a BDC while connected to your existing domain, promote to
PDC then follow the above link to upgrade it to Win 2k3.
hth
DDS W 2k MVP MCSE
"Exchange disaster recovery"
