Active Directory, 4th Edition

Chapter 17. Upgrading to Windows Server 2003 R2

Windows Server 2003 has been available to the public since March 2003. Since its release, Microsoft has also released several feature packs that add additional functionality to the base operating system, and there has also been a substantial update in the form of Service Pack 1. Because the release dates for Windows Server 2008 were pushed further and further out, as well as for a number of other reasons, Microsoft decided to release a new version of Windows Server 2003 called R2. This is the gold version of Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1, and it includes the previously released to web (RTW) feature packs, as well as some new feature packs that were not previously released.

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 should not be considered an optional update; however, R2 can certainly be considered optional. Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003 is comparable to Service Pack 2 for XP in terms of the amount of security changes implemented across the OS. There are also a few additions to the Active Directory Services that this chapter will focus on. If you have already installed Service Pack 1 and do not want or need any of the feature packs on the R2 CD, then you will not need to install R2, though you should still consider running the R2 ADPrep to upgrade the schema to the latest Microsoft schema revision.

Before you can introduce Windows Server 2003 R2 domain controllers, you must prepare the forest with the ADPrep utility, which ...