Question : Windows Server 2008 /adprep on a Windows Server 2000 DC

I am looking for confirmation of the following step in the related solution:

"Since you are upgrading the Operating System on the new Domain Controller, you will need to add some values to the existing Active Directory schema, in order for the new server to become a Domain Controller. Windows Server 2008 supports more functionality than before, so a schema upgrade for the domain and forest is required to facilitate this and make this new feature set fully functional on the domain. To make the necessary changes, you must be logged on as the built-in Administrator user account, or a user with Domain, Schema and Enterprise Admin privileges.

Insert the Windows Server 2008 media into your current server . Open a command prompt and browse to sources\adprep folder within the Windows Server 2008 DVD media. Execute the command adprep /forestprep."

Will this command work on a Windows 2000 server? I was under the impression that you could not upgrade directly from Server 2000 to Server 2008. Which I guess is not what is technically being done here. Anyway, just cautious.

Answer : Windows Server 2008 /adprep on a Windows Server 2000 DC

Hi there,

adprep is basically extending the AD schema to allow new objects/attributes in the database. Before you can promote a 2008 box to  DC you will need to do this.

There is no problem with running this on a 2000 domain. And you are right, this isn't the same as upgrading a server from 2000 to 2008.

Have a read of this: http://www.petri.co.il/windows-server-2008-adprep.htm

This explains what you need to do.

Tony