Help! DC overload protection.

  • Thread starter Thread starter billj
  • Start date Start date
B

billj

I'm trying to find out if it will be necessary to
configure protection against domain controller overload
during our upgrade process. Here's our scenario: (the
key point being #4)
-------
1. In-place upgrade to 2003 AD on our NT4 PDC (Single
Domain model).
2. The PDC receiving the upgrade is a Dell PE2650 with
two 2gig processors, a gig of RAM, and a 3/Di RAID
Controller.
3. 1000 node mixed 2k/xp pro client base
4. The upgrade is to take place at night when only a few
users (10-20) will be active on the domain. I'm assuming
that half of the 1000 nodes will already be logged-in to
the domain but will have been idle for 2-3 hours with no
activity expected for another 8 hours. The other half
will either be powered off or not logged on.
5. We have 2003 Server installed on 3 more PE2650's which
will be dcpromo'd up within 2-3 hrs of the first (nt4) DC
dcpromo as part of the upgrade process.
------
Is there going to be any kind of load on the 1st DC if
the client machines are idle?

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Bill
 
Hi Bill,

I would not worry about it as long as you bring at least one of the other
domain controllers online before morning. The big issue with PDC overloading
is that it introduces a single point of failure (or if you have 10,000
clients trying to authenticate to the same server that's an issue also - but
not in your case). In any event, the clients will not start "attacking" the
PDC emulator as soon as it is upgraded. Check out this KB article for info
on how clients determine what domain version they are in (the KB article is
written for a different problem, but the cause and more info sections
contain some useful information):

Windows Server Members Still Authenticate with BDCs After PDC Is Upgraded
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=309273

Mike

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Mike Aubert
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