# Demoted SBS 2003 in Server 2012 forest/domain?



## Thrasonic (Aug 23, 2013)

An associate of mine has a SBS 2003 setup at his office. Just one server and 7 PC's. He's purchased a new server and we have put Windows Server 2012 Standard on it with Exchange 2013 and made it a new forest/domain environment. The forest and domain functional levels are 2012.

What I need to know is if you can demote a SBS 2003 server so that it's just a member server and then join it to the 2012 domain? Or can it just be demoted and perhaps just sit there outside of the 2012 domain?

The reason we need to keep it around for a little while is because of some applications it has running on it. We don't need Exchange running on it as the new server will be doing that. So he either wants to add it to his new domain as a member server or just have it sitting out there all by itself, as a SBS 2003 DC or not, and still be accessible for the apps running on it.

Thoughts?


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## srhoades (May 15, 2003)

You cannot use SBS as a member server. SBS has to be a DC, and it has to have all the FSMO roles, otherwise it will start rebooting.


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## Thrasonic (Aug 23, 2013)

Thanks for the information srhoades.


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