I was curious. I have a business that has 3 locations. The 1st location I have moved all the FSMO roles onto their DC. The other two offices have a DC also. They all are on NT. I know I have to do the ad/prep switches with the 2003 disk on the 2000NT domain controllers but if all FSMO roles are in one location do I do the prep switch on all the DC's still or just that one? Then when it comes to raising functional level do I have to raise it on all DC's? Or just one and it takes affect on all the others?

what ever command you wnat to run for preparing AD, it has to be done only from DC (try to do this from the DC , where FSMO roles are , specially Schema Master )Domain functional has to be raised only from one DC and AD will take care of that. Raj

If I make one DC have all 5 fsmo roles do I need to adprep the other 3 domain controllers at the other locations?

No, you dont need to do that. Just on DC will take care of forest preparations.Raj

DC what the one that holds all 5 fsmo roles?

Yes, the FSMO, specifically the schema master will handle that.Mark Morowczynski|MCT| MCSE 2003:Messaging, Security|MCITP:ES, SA,EA|MCTS:Windows Mobile Admin|Security+|http://almostdailytech.com

Hi John...i hope you have a single Active Directory forest which has a single domain (that spans to multiple sites)in this schenario one or more Domain controllers can run the FSMO roles, but you have mentioned you moved the FSMO roles to one DC.. thats fine when we say prepare schema, prepare AD we are prearing the "Active Directory" via one of a Domain conrollers NOTE: with Exchange 2007 MS recommends to run the /ps /PrepareAD on the domain conrollder which runs the FSMO roleswith Exchange server 2003, we can run them from the Exchange server itselfwhen you preare AD, you are making some changes in the "configuration partion" of the Active Directory. This change is made on the "local replica" of Domain contoller which you selected, then it will be repliacted to the other domain conrollers by Active Directory replication.likewise when prepare schema (/ps) making changes in the 'Schema partition"whne prepare domain (/pd) making changes in the "Domain partition"NOTE: eventhough you have got multiple domains in a forest /ps and /preapareAD needs to be run once on the forest root (the first Domain controller in the Forest)/prepare domain in all the domains please refer http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125224.aspxhope its useful.Thanks Hari