Monday, August 4, 2008

SMS 2003 & SCCM 2007 Schema Extention

Prepare your environment for running SMS 2003 - Schema
Warning

It is advised to follow the procedure below, before any schema modifications are made, not just sms 2003 schema extentions. There are no known issues in making the SMS 2003 schema extensions.
This being said, keep in mind that
1) Every forest only has 1 Schema partition.
2) There is no such thing as an AUTHORITATIVE RESTORE for the schema partition.
These 2 things combined spell disaster if something did go wrong. If something does go wrong with the schema extension process and the schema gets replicated to all dc's.
If this happens you have two options
1) Hire a Microsoft PSS consoltant to help clean up your Active Directory Schema mess
2) Restore a backup of the Active Directory on All domain controllers in the Forest. All domain controllers have to be disconnected from the network during this recovery.
Neither of these seem to really appealing to me.

Proper Procedure
1. Locate the server that is the schema master
1. In a command prompt type regsvr32 schmmgmt.dll (You should get a message that the dll was registered succesfully)
2. Type mmc, and add the Active Directory Schema snap-in
3. Right Click Active Directory Schema and select Operations Masters
4. Take note of the current Schema master
2. Back up the schema master.
3. Disconnect the schema master from the network and do not reestablish the connection until the end of this procedure. (This means fysically removing the cable, do not just disable the network interface since some of the tools used later in the procedure require a functional tcp/ip stack.
4. On the schema master, insert the SMS 2003 SP2 Setup CD in the CD-ROM drive.
5. Open a command prompt, change to the CD-ROM drive, and change to the \SMSSETUP\BIN\I386 folder on the CD.
6. On the schema master, at the command prompt, type Extadsch.exe
7. After the preceding command has finished on the schema master, confirm that the preparation of the forest was successful. Review %SystemDrive%\ExtAdSch.log
8. Evaluate the information you gathered in the previous step and choose accordingly:
1. If extadsch.exe ran without errors, reconnect the schema master to the network and continue with the next step of this procedure.
2. If extadsch.exe ran but error messages provided instructions for additional steps to take, follow the instructions and then return to the confirmation process described in the previous step.
3. If extadsch.exe did not run successfully, restore the schema master from backup and investigate the corrective steps necessary so that extadsch.exe can be run successfully.
Important Note: Extending the Schema will trigger a FULL Global Catalog Synchronization between Windows 2000 Global catalog servers. Windows 2003 Global Catalog servers will use delta replication.
Happy Schema Extention,
Paddy

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