Upgrading Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008

Before joining/upgrading  the Windows Server 2003 to Windows server 2008 domain, we need to upgrade the schema. To check the scheme is in old version or not, do the following:

Open windows registry by type regedit on the command prompt and go to

Hkey_local_machine > system > current control set > services > ntds> schema version

now check the version :

• 31 means old
• 44 means new (windows server 2008)

If it is 31, it means we need to upgrade the schema. To upgrade the schema and make it ready for windows server 2008, do the following:

In the Windows Server 2008 DVD, go to sources > adprep directory and do the following commands

d:\souces\adprep> adprep /forestprep

d:\souces\adprep> adprep /domainprep /gpprep

notes:

• here My dvd drive is D:
• /gpprep : used to changes permissions on group policy objects

Now, we can join the server to Windows Server 2008 domain or if it is already a domain controller, we can upgrade it to Windows Server 2008