PDC Crash... Howto Promote BDC?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jonathan S.
  • Start date Start date
J

Jonathan S.

As luck would have it, my PDC crashed, and I need to promote my BDC to
PDC now. The old PDC is completely out of commission. What do I need to
do in order to get the BDC up and running properly as PDC?

Thanks in advance!

Jonathan
 
Try posting in microsoft.public.windowsnt.domain for a fuller answer, but
you can use Server Manager to promote your BDC.
 
Simon said:
Try posting in microsoft.public.windowsnt.domain for a fuller answer, but
you can use Server Manager to promote your BDC.
Click to expand...

Thanks.. I'll try posting in the proper group. I appreciate your help.

Jonathan
 
Jonathan said:
Thanks.. I'll try posting in the proper group. I appreciate your help.

Jonathan
Click to expand...

Seems the group you recommended is primarily a Windows NT group... these
are Windows 2000 servers. Will that make any difference?
 
Yes,

But I think that Simon made the suggestion that he made based on the
terminology that you used. In Windows 2000 there are no more PDCs or BDCs
( those are WINNT 4.0 terms ). In Windows 2000 there are simply Domain
Controllers. There are naturally the FSMO Roles ( Schema Master, Domain
Naming Master, PDC Emulator, RID Master and Infrastructure Master ) but
those are simply roles that a Domain Controller 'plays'.

Cary
 
PDC and BDC are Windows NT terms that are not used with Windows 2000 so I
assumed you were asking an NT question so sorry for the confusion.
There is no PDC or BDC concept in Windows 2000 which uses a multi-master
replication topology so when one of your DC's dies there is not usually an
urgent need to make any configuration so long as your second DC is a Global
Catalogue and the appropriate network services such as DNS are also
available somewhere else.

Any FSMO roles held by the dead DC will need to be seized, meaning that even
if it was repaired it should not be brought back online.

You can remove the details of your dead DC by following this article.
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=216498
 
Not sure if we are referencing NT or 2000 but I'll try to explain both.

In NT4 you use server manager and select the option to promote BDC

For Windows 2000 you can go into AD users and computers on the machine you
want to be the DC, right click on your domain name and go to Operations
Masters. There you should see PDC tab and move the PDC role.

I would recommend that you do some reading on FSMO roles and Global Catalog
since most likely the other FSMO roles were lost with the PDC.
 
Cary said:
Yes,

But I think that Simon made the suggestion that he made based on the
terminology that you used. In Windows 2000 there are no more PDCs or BDCs
( those are WINNT 4.0 terms ). In Windows 2000 there are simply Domain
Controllers. There are naturally the FSMO Roles ( Schema Master, Domain
Naming Master, PDC Emulator, RID Master and Infrastructure Master ) but
those are simply roles that a Domain Controller 'plays'.

Cary
Click to expand...
Sorry about the lingo issue... I'm still kind of new to this. My PDC
basically was the main system that controlled DNS, system time, domain
policies, etc. The BDC syncronized with the PDC (as is normal as I
understand) and in the event of a failure could "hold the fort" until a
time when the PDC could be repaired.

Unfortunately, I dont think the PDC can be repaired, per se since the
CPU fan died this weekend and toasted portions of the motherboard. When
I tried moving the hard drive into a new system it had some corruption
and wouldn't boot.

So, with the PDC apparently down for the count, and the event log on the
remaining DC rapidly filling with all manner of "cant find server x for
[pick your service]" messages, I'm trying to figure out how to get the
server to stop trying to sync, realize it's the top dog, and use the
synchronized AD data.

Thanks!

Jonathan
 
Simon said:
PDC and BDC are Windows NT terms that are not used with Windows 2000 so I
assumed you were asking an NT question so sorry for the confusion.
There is no PDC or BDC concept in Windows 2000 which uses a multi-master
replication topology so when one of your DC's dies there is not usually an
urgent need to make any configuration so long as your second DC is a Global
Catalogue and the appropriate network services such as DNS are also
available somewhere else.

Any FSMO roles held by the dead DC will need to be seized, meaning that even
if it was repaired it should not be brought back online.

You can remove the details of your dead DC by following this article.
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=216498
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response Simon. The KB Article seemed to imply that
whichever action I take to remove the dead DC will carry significant
risk. Assuming I'm able to apply all the necessary roles to my remaining
DC, will there be any adverse effect if I don't formally remove the dead
server from AD?

How would I go about seizing the roles?

Thanks!

Jonathan
 
Not sure if we are referencing NT or 2000 but I'll try to explain both.

In NT4 you use server manager and select the option to promote BDC

For Windows 2000 you can go into AD users and computers on the machine you
want to be the DC, right click on your domain name and go to Operations
Masters. There you should see PDC tab and move the PDC role.

I would recommend that you do some reading on FSMO roles and Global Catalog
since most likely the other FSMO roles were lost with the PDC.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. I'll definitely be doing some heavy reading
after this issue is resolved. In the mean time, do you have any
particular favorite books / sites / articles that I should pick up?

Thanks!

Jonathan
 
Follow the MSKB Article.

The warning is simply that by using ntdsutil you can do a lot of damage to
your Active Directory. However, if you follow the very well laid-out
article you will accomplish what you need to do...

Cary
 
Jonathan, there is no PDC or BDC in Windows2000 and later domains, there are
FSMO roles. You have to size theres roles to your other domain controller if
you ensure it never comes online again as domain controller.

--
Regards
Christoffer Andersson
Microsoft MVP - Directory Services

No email replies please - reply in the newsgroup
 
Thanks to everybody for their responses. I believe the immediate issue
is OK as I seized all 5 roles seemingly successfully.

Thanks again!

Jonathan
 
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