Problem setting up additional domain controller

Hey

I'm having trouble setting up an additional domain controller in my AD
domain.

I have 1 primary domain controller (PDC) in my domain, windows server 2003.
And now I want to configure another machine to be an additional domain
controller, also windows server 2003

So I took backup of system state on PDC and started dcpromo /adv on that
other machine. Here is the problem: When I specify the path to the backup
file and click next, I then get an error message saying: "the system cannot
find the specified path"

I tryed different paths:
c:\download
c:\download\baclup.bkf

First I had the backup on a network share, but then I got the error saying
"the system cannot find the specified path". So I thought there was an
limitation here, that network share wasn't supported etc. So I then copied
the backup file over to a directory on that machine I want to have as
additional domain controller. c:\download is on that machine I want to have
as additional domain controller...

This is network I've setup at home for purpose of learning AD. After I took
the backup I created another AD user on PDC. which means that the backup
don't contain an up-to-date version of AD. That's fine, as I want to learn
how AD automatically discover this mismatch and update the other machine....

any suggestions why I get this "the system cannot find the specified path"
error?

Greetings Jeff,

Backup/restore is not the recommended method for creating additional domain
controllers within an active directory domain. The process is actually much
easier. Just install a new server in the domain then run dcpromo to install
active directory and make it a domain controller. I recommend you search the
web for "dcpromo". There are a lot of step by step articles out there.


Good Luck,
Greg

"Jeff" wrote:

> Hey
>
> I'm having trouble setting up an additional domain controller in my AD
> domain.
>
> I have 1 primary domain controller (PDC) in my domain, windows server 2003.
> And now I want to configure another machine to be an additional domain
> controller, also windows server 2003
>
> So I took backup of system state on PDC and started dcpromo /adv on that
> other machine. Here is the problem: When I specify the path to the backup
> file and click next, I then get an error message saying: "the system cannot
> find the specified path"
>
> I tryed different paths:
> c:\download
> c:\download\baclup.bkf
>
> First I had the backup on a network share, but then I got the error saying
> "the system cannot find the specified path". So I thought there was an
> limitation here, that network share wasn't supported etc. So I then copied
> the backup file over to a directory on that machine I want to have as
> additional domain controller. c:\download is on that machine I want to have
> as additional domain controller...
>
> This is network I've setup at home for purpose of learning AD. After I took
> the backup I created another AD user on PDC. which means that the backup
> don't contain an up-to-date version of AD. That's fine, as I want to learn
> how AD automatically discover this mismatch and update the other machine....
>
> any suggestions why I get this "the system cannot find the specified path"
> error?
>
>
>
>

Jeff - follow steps in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311078 (note that the
third one involves restoring backup to the local drive on the server you
will be promoting to the domain controller)...

hth
Marcin