Our present network system is a simple 'Workgroup' environment (15-20 workstation PC's and a Windows 2003 Server) and we're looking to switch to a proper domain environment.

Can we alter the Windows server to be used as a primary domain controller without having to reinstall the operating system?

If so, is it easy to do?

And, are there any particular pitfalls that I need be aware of?

Also, will this happily run alongside the workgroup environment, giving me time to switch over the users to domain accounts, or will everyone need to be switched across.

Note that the Windows Server is also our production file server.

Thanks in advance

Regards,

Sean Anderson

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Regards,

Sean Anderson

I'm not sure about setting it up as a domain controller. Hopefully this can be done thru the "Manager My Server" wizard that 2003 has.

The main problem you will likely encounter is that once this server is IN a domain all the workgroup users will need valid domain credentials to get at resources on this box. You might be able to configure file sharing to permit access to "everyone" but in my experience, even then you need some login creds.

-Peter

That implies that I would be better off following:

-- Set up a new PC with Windows 2003 server as a domain controller
-- Creating everyone's accounts on that
-- Switch desktop PC's to the new accounts
-- Add file servers to the domain

Comments and most importantly any pitfalls would be appreciated.

Regards,

Sean Anderson

That would probably be a better approach if you can do it. You might even be able to use file replication to get files onto the new server and aid in switchover by having the servers keep themselves in sync with the files. But you might run into problems with two machines that aren't configured the same from the domain standpoint.

-Peter

Hi There,

Windows 2003 server.. Go to run and type dcpromo this will initiate the Domain creating, By default it would be the PDC.

Then the role of File Server, we can use the File Server Module of the Server.