# Solved: Connecting an old server to a new domain



## suttybutty (May 29, 2008)

Hi everyone I will try to describe my problem that I have been tasked to solve as fully as I can -

My organisation (a local charity) used to have a client server setup using MS Server 2003, with about 15 clients all using Windows XP Pro connecting to a domain - domain.old (not the real name!). About a year ago they received funding to upgrade their system and had a new server installed using Server 2008 and everyone was successfully connected to the new domain (domain.new).

The old server was simply removed and put into a corner of the room and forgotten about.

The new server has a tapeware system and Backup Exec 12.5 for backup that has been causing all kinds of problems and after months of trying various things to sort it we have decided we would like to connect the old server to the new domain in a secure room over the network and use it simply as a backup hard drive running daily backups to it.

My question is will just connecting the old server (Server 2003 domain.old) and joining it to the new domain cause any problems? Will the operating systems work together? and will the two domains clash in any way?

Thanks for the help


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## srhoades (May 15, 2003)

As long as the old server is not SBS you shouldn't have a problem. Fire up the old server (make sure it is not connected to your new domain network) and demote it, there will be an option that says it is the last server in the forest or domain, make sure that is checked. Then make sure and remove any network services that the new server is doing ie DHCP, DNS etc. Then connect it to the new network, either add it to the domain as a member server or a secondary domain controller and you are good to go.


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