Setup first: I had a Windows Server 2008 domain for testing. The PDC died a horrible death, I was able to seize most FSMO roles (but not all) and drop them on another DC, but missed the RID Master role (if I recall correctly). The machine was shaky, though - it would lock up tight if someone tried to access a file via SMB, though Explorer, FTP, and CLI were fine - so it was not a good option for long-term DC operation. I have a Server 2019 instance that I'm also using for testing, so I moved it into the domain and added the active directory functions to it; on reboot it wanted to be made into a DC as they do. Trying to make it into a DC failed because it couldn't reach the dead PDC to get the RID Master information. I went back and read the articles I'd been following, found that it wasn't enough to be in the admin group, to seize the RID Master role I actually had to be logged in as Administrator, so tried that, seized RID Master onto the 2008 server, rebooted the 2019 server, told it to upgrade itself to DC, and sat back and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
It has now been nine days and the 2019 server is still "configuring this server to be a domain controller" and spinning its little progress bar. The Cancel button is, of course, grayed out. Can anyone suggest a next thing to do? Or is my entire domain now fatally hooped?
0 Answers