Apr 27, 2010  Fast Track Method. Retry running ADPREP /FORESTPREP or ADPREP /DOMAINPREP on the schema operations master to determine if the problem is transient. Run Windows Server 2008 R2 ADPREP. The Windows Server 2008 R2 ADPREP has been modified to prevent antivirus software from interfering with /FORESTPREP. Prepare a Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 Forest Schema for a Domain Controller That Runs Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2.

Extending the AD schema to support either a new OS release or Active Directory (AD)-integrated applications that require it (e.g., Exchange Server) is a regular—if infrequent—administrative task. And these kinds of schema upgrades have always made AD administrators nervous. It's not because admins have personal experience with schema upgrades gone bad; if you ask 500 AD admins if they've personally had a bad schema-upgrade experience, 499 of them will admit they haven't. What makes AD admins wary is the fact that upgrading the AD schema can be confusing, and it's irreversible. Anything that affects the entire Windows authentication and authorization infrastructure, and has no 'undo' button, is a process to be careful about.

(See also, ' ' and ' '). Schema upgrades aren’t bothersome only to AD admins; they also irritate Microsoft's Customer Support Services (CSS), because confusion about the process is a high call generator. Further, adoption of many new AD-related and other features in a new OS was demonstrably slower if the feature depended on a schema upgrade because of the care (and resulting delay) associated with the process. As a result, one of the AD product group's goals for was to make the process simpler, faster, and generally more pain-free than in previous versions. With Server 2012, Adprep has been integrated into the Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) role installation process. Adprep is the utility—included in the OS installation media—that performs several crucial functions to upgrade AD to support that OS. The utility has three major options: /forestprep, /domainprep, and /rodcprep.

The /forestprep option runs first, extending the AD schema with new object and attribute classes that the new AD version needs. The /domainprep option creates new well-known objects in AD, applies security changes, and miscellaneous other bits. Finally, /rodcprep makes forest-wide security changes to allow read-only domain controller (RODC) functionality. Adprep from Server Manager The screenshot gallery in my article “ ” shows a Windows Server 2008 R2 forest being upgraded to Server 2012 with integrated Adprep and the subsequent promotion of the local DC from Server 2008 R2 to Server 2012. AD admins who didn't pay close attention to the documentation or who didn’t read this article will be in for a big surprise, as the Forestprep and domain preparation happens automatically as a result of initiating a Server 2012 DC installation—not beforehand, and with no warning at all. Forest cat hong kong drama series. (See image #14 in the screenshot gallery.) This means that if one of your administrators gets the idea to put a Server 2012 DC into a domain, before you know it Adprep will have run its course.