Taking the plunge and introducing Windows Server 2003 Domain Controllers into your working Windows 2000 forest is often a worrying time for some administrators.  And there's usually lots of questions posted prior to doing the updates, particularly "How do I know everything has completed properly?"

This article shows you how to answer this question.

ADPREP stores its progress in Active Directory via container objects.  The /forestprep switch adds container objects to the configuration naming context; the /domainprep switch adds container objects to the domain naming context.

After running each switch you should check the following directory locations using a tool such as ADSIEdit.msc (Windows Support tools)*:

adprep /forestprep

After each task is completed an object, with a GUID for a name, is created under the CN=Operations,CN=ForestUpdates,CN=Configuration,DC=domain-name,DC=com container -where domain-name is the name of the forest root domain.

There are 36 operations in total, therefore there will be 36 container objects under this container.

Once all 36 operations are complete, a container object called CN=Windows2003Update,CN=ForestUpdates,CN=Configuration,DC=domain-name,DC=com is created -which signifies that the /forestprep has completed successfully.

adprep /domainprep

Again, after each task is completed an object, with a GUID for a name, is created under the CN=Operations,CN= CN=DomainUpdates,CN=System,DC=domain-name,DC=com container.

This time domain-name is the name of the domain in question being updated, and there are 52 operations in total.

Once all 52 operations are complete, a container object called CN=Windows2003Update,CN=DomainUpdates,CN=System,DC=domain-name,DC=com is created -which signifies that the /forestprep has completed successfully.

Summary

After the successful completion of adprep /forestprep the following object will exist in AD:

CN=Windows2003Update,CN=ForestUpdates,CN=Configuration,DC=domain-name,DC=com

 

After the successful completion of adprep /domainprep the following object will exist in AD:

CN=Windows2003Update,CN=DomainUpdates,CN=System,DC=domain-name,DC=com

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* To install the Windows Support Tools, run the MSI file "SUPTOOLS.MSI" located under the \SUPPORT directory of your Windows installation media or Service Pack media.

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