Windows – How to bring another DC up with all roles when first DC is no longer available

active-directorydomain-controllerwindows

I am so upset of this as i am not getting a proper answer anywhere.
Let me make it clear the same scenario again.

  1. I have a DC named DC-1 & another DC named DC-2. both DC-1 and DC-2 are the name servers.
  2. DC-1 is holding all the 5 roles.
  3. DC-1 goes down due to hardware failure(assume) and is no longer available. I cant even boot it up.
  4. Now my question is how can i bring up the ADC(DC-2) as an active DC as all my roles are belongs to DC-1.
  5. If its related to seize and transfer the roles from DC-1 to DC-2, yes i tried it. Let me share the results.

i) i went to DSRM on DC-2 and tried ntdsutil command like this:
ntdsutil>roles>connections>connect to server:

ii)when i tried connect to server i'm not able to connect any of the DC-1 or DC-2. I tried with "Set creds" also but i didnt work.

iii) tried to connect the domain no luck 🙁

iv) As it was a test environment i brought back the DC-1 up and tried the steps again from DC-2 it was success. I am able to connect to the server. But we dont want this. We want this when the DC-1 is totally in dead state.

OK. I hope you all are understood my crisis.. Can anybody help here. Am i doing something wrong steps or any other method to bring up the DC-2 with all the roles with out having DC-1 up. Please share your valuable knowledge and expertise!

Best Answer

ADC being Active Directory Connector for Exchange? If so, being an ADC doesn't make the server a domain controller also. If this is the case, you're out of luck as you've lost your only functional DC.

However if I'm reading that wrong and DC2 is definitely a full domain controller, then I think your problem lies in trying to use restore mode. You shouldn't need to. Instead, bring DC2 up into its regular windows environment, then follow the 'Seize FSMO Roles' guide found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/255504

Note: Ignore the 'Transfer' guide. It's not relevant for your scenario.

Edit: I just found the other question where you got the term 'ADC' from. This term is widely recognised as 'Active Directory Connector for Exchange' and not 'Additional Domain Controller' which I think is your usage. I don't recommend the use of acronyms that aren't widely used, as it often just causes confusion.

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