Joining an NT4.0 Domain

[dirtydave931 0]

I am a sys admin for a chain of car dealerships. We currently have an NT 4.0 Domain (to be replaced by 2003 server, shortly--thank god). A manufacturer has changed the way we access their data and we have inherited a Windows NT 4.0 Server that is a PDC for a domain that consists of three or four computers and is isolated from the rest of our network. I would like to add it to our own domain. I changed the IP address, subnet mask, DNS, WINS, created a hosts file and all that other fun crap but when I try to add it to our domain, it wants to manage it, not be a part of it. I added the machine's new node name on our current server as well. Is there a way to make this machine join our domain, rather than attempt to manage it and then spit back and error message saying that there is already a domain by that name being used on our network?

 

Thanks for any advice.

[DosFreak 2]

Well from what your saying...

 

You already have a domain setup and you want to add a PDC from a different domain to your domain?

 

So you have two PDC's trying to manage one domain....when there can only be one PDC.

 

If the domain you want to add only has "3-4" computers.....why not just remove those computers from the old domain and add them to your domain?

[dirtydave931 0]

Unfortunately, I need to keep that other PDC from the small network for the time being. I know I can't have two PDCs, I want to treat it as though it's a workstation on my larger domain.

 

The only reason I need to keep it is because a manufacturer (who will remain nameless, but they're from Sweden and are now owned by Ford) is moving all of their parts catalogs to the Internet. In the mean time, this machine must have outside Internet access, but it still has to have the old parts catalog on it. Normally I would just install the catalog on another machine, but some dunce at this location managed to lose the data DVDs.

 

Is there a way (without reformatting, lots of down time, etc) to make this machine join our domain???

[mnas 0]

You could set up a trust relationship between the two domains. Check out Microsoft's website about this. I bet they have lots of case studies involving domain trusts.

[DosFreak 2]

UPromote can convert from PDC to standalone. But for $99 it's not worth it.

 

Since both PDC's are on the same network it should be really easy to setup a trust. No firewalls or connectivity issues to worry about.

 

I'm missing something here that I can't quite remember....hopefully it'll come to be later today.

[peterh 1]

On NT4 you cannot convert a PDC to a Member server, you will have to reinstall NT to do that to change it status (you will lose its domain). You can convert a PDC to a BDC for the same domain but you cannot convert it for a different domain w/o another reinstall...

 

You would be better off backing up data on it, reformat and reinstall Windows 2000/2003 or whatever and restore the data.