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Unable to raise Forest functional level from 2000 to 2003

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FrancoiD

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Nov 23, 2008, 12:21:00 AM11/23/08
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Hi,
I need to raise my forest's functional level from 2000 to 2003. Very simple
lab deployment, one GC and one DC, and one domain already at domain
functional level 2003. Very few "lab" users, no real activity.
When I select "Raise Forest Functional Level...", I correctly see Current
forest functional level: Windows 2000. I select 2003 as the new functional
level and click "Raise" - and after 30 secs or so I get the message "The
functional level could not be raised. The error is: The directory service is
busy." Entirely reproducible...
There is no reason for this to occur - it's a lab and I know there is no
user logged or any activity. I shut the DC down to just keep the GC, net
stop'd the DNS service, etc... Tried after net stop netlogon... Still same
issue.
Any idea of what is going on here?
Thanks

Meinolf Weber

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Nov 23, 2008, 7:15:25 AM11/23/08
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Hello FrancoiD,

Is it the only DC in the domain? Does it have all 5 FSMO roles, check with
"netdom query fsmo" from command line? At least it should have the schema
master role to raise the forest functional level. All DC's have to be up
and running and must be in sync, otherwise it fails. Try forcing replication
in AD sites and services before.

Best regards

Meinolf Weber
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Marcin

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Nov 23, 2008, 7:59:58 AM11/23/08
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Have you demoted any DCs in the domain in the past (in particular, following
the domain functional level change)? Are you logged on with an account that
has Schema Admin privileges? Any errors in the event log/dcdiag output? Have
you confirmed that replication is functioning properly between the two
domain controllers?
Btw. what's the reason for maintainging a separate GC in a single domain
forest? Why not configure both domain controllers as GCs?

hth
Marcin

"FrancoiD" <Fran...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
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FrancoiD

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Nov 23, 2008, 12:00:01 PM11/23/08
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Thanks Meinolf. Indeed it has all five roles. Running repadmin /showrepl
indicates config and dns replicate but there are issues on replicating
schema...
Going to try and force schema rep (I am very green in this, have never done
it and may come back on that).
Thanks

FrancoiD

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Nov 23, 2008, 12:08:01 PM11/23/08
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Ok, victory. Replication succeeded, and then raising functional level worked
on first reattempt.
Thanks!
Francois

FrancoiD

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Nov 23, 2008, 12:11:01 PM11/23/08
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Re the reason to maintain a single GC, none specifically but my inexperience,
I did not know/had not thought of the possibility. I take it you recommend to
promote the DC to GC? Do I use dcpromo for that? Any pointers?

Marcin

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Nov 23, 2008, 2:26:26 PM11/23/08
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You can designate a DC as a GC via Active Directory Site and Services
console (checkbox in the NTDS Settings Properties dialog box in the subnode
of the node representing target DC). With a single domain forest, all DCs
store the same domain partition anyway...

hth
Marcin


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Meinolf Weber

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Nov 23, 2008, 2:53:53 PM11/23/08
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Hello FrancoiD,

Nice to hear that you solved it. And as Marcin pointed out, in a single forest
domain make all DC's GC server for redundancy in case of failures. See here
how to do it: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=313994

FrancoiD

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Nov 23, 2008, 3:21:01 PM11/23/08
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Done, thanks.

Florian Frommherz [MVP]

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Nov 24, 2008, 2:46:58 AM11/24/08
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Howdie!

FrancoiD wrote:
> I need to raise my forest's functional level from 2000 to 2003. Very simple
> lab deployment, one GC and one DC, and one domain already at domain
> functional level 2003. Very few "lab" users, no real activity.
> When I select "Raise Forest Functional Level...", I correctly see Current
> forest functional level: Windows 2000. I select 2003 as the new functional
> level and click "Raise" - and after 30 secs or so I get the message "The
> functional level could not be raised. The error is: The directory service is
> busy." Entirely reproducible...

Have a look at the eventlog to see if there are any replication errors.
Does repadmin /showreps indicate that replication lately succeeded? I've
seen this in domains where replication has failed lately or changes to
the schema or GC PAS have not been propagated correctly.

cheers,

Florian
--
Microsoft MVP - Group Policy
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kathrynviggiano

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Oct 6, 2009, 10:30:16 AM10/6/09
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I'm working in a lab environment, with only 2 domain controllers - 1 parent, 1 child. replication was working fine in AD sites and services, until a change was made on parent DC. Now replication will not occur. error is RPC Server is unavailable. Was able to raise Domain Functional Levels on both parent and child DC's from 2003 to 2008 successfully, but when trying to raise Forest Functional Level, receive error that the Directory Service is Busy. Have tried everything from stopping/starting all AD services, netlogon service, rebuilding DNS... having NO luck. Please help!!!

Florian Frommherz [MVP] wrote:

Re: Unable to raise Forest functional level from 2000 to 2003
24-Nov-08

Howdie!

FrancoiD wrote:

Have a look at the eventlog to see if there are any replication errors.
Does repadmin /showreps indicate that replication lately succeeded? I've
seen this in domains where replication has failed lately or changes to
the schema or GC PAS have not been propagated correctly.

cheers,

Florian
--
Microsoft MVP - Group Policy
eMail: prename [at] frickelsoft [dot] net.
blog: http://www.frickelsoft.net/blog.
Maillist (german): http://frickelsoft.net/cms/index.php?page=mailingliste

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Ace Fekay [MCT]

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Oct 6, 2009, 10:35:31 AM10/6/09
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"Kathryn Viggiano" wrote in message news:200910610...@yahoo.com...


What exactly was changed on the parent domain?
What is in the event logs?
Please post an ipconfig /all of the parent and child DCs, please.

--
Ace

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