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June 04, 2009 12:00 AM

Q. Do I need to prepare the domain and forest for a Windows Server 2008 R2 domain controller (DC)?

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A. Server 2008 R2 introduces some new Active Directory (AD) functionality, and you must prepare both the domain and forest before you introduce a Server 2008 R2 DC.

If you already have Server 2008 DCs, you just need to run the commands

adprep /domainprep

and

adprep /forestprep

If you're running Windows 2003 DCs, you also need to run command

adprep /domainprep /gpprep

If you want to introduce RODC's (Server 2008 or 2008 R2), you also need to run

adprep /rodcprep

You can find adprep in the support\adprep folder of the 2008 R2 media. You should copy this folder to the C: drive of the local computer and execute adprep from the local folder. Remember that you must be a schema admin to run the forestprep update and you should run it on the schema master DC. You must be a domain admin to run domainprep, which should be run on the infrastructure master of the domain.

Related Reading:

Check out hundreds more useful Q&As like this in John Savill's FAQ for Windows. Also, watch instructional videos made by John at ITTV.net.

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Comments
  • MIKE
    3 years ago
    Jul 31, 2009

    Quick addition to the good article by John

    Windows Server 2008 R2 has two versions of ADPREP one is a x32 called ADPrep32.exe. So if your box you are prepping on is x32 you use this version.

    The adprep.exe on the R2 media is for x64 boxes. R2 is the first x64 only release of Windows server

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