FSMO Roles???

Hello-

I have a 1 Windows 2003 server, and 5 XP Pro PCs at a site that needs to go from a workgroup to a domain later this week and I'm hoping that someone can clear up FSMO roles before I make this switch.

Do I even need to worry about a FSMO role? The few articles I have found on MS site(s) lead me to believe this is only for a forest. Is this true?

Thank you!

You should not have to worry about that.

Is the server and the workstations a part of a forest? or will they connect to more servers with AD?

If not, you should just have to use DCPROMO on the server to make it the domain controller. Windows will walk you through most of it.

No, the servers nor the workstations are part of a forest, just a little workgroup.

I'm assuming (which usually bites me pretty bad sometimes) I would have to worry about the FSMO role in the future if we ever brought them into our domain. Which is at least 2 years down the road???

Thanks for the help!

Yeah, I am no expert on forests, but I don't think you have to worry about it now.

FSMO roles are only of consequece when you have more than one domain controller in your Active Directory. While all the DCs share out the Active Directory to ensure resilience, one and only one of them hosts a set of particular tasks (for example PDC emulation). Each of these tasks is defined/controlled by the relevant FSMO role. You can move the roles about between DCs as required; it's worth knowing how to do this in case you do have someting (PDC emulation again springs to mind) that is essential to your operation and you're planning to take the DC that hosts it offline for a while. In a crisis situation you can also sieze one or more FSMO roles but if you do then the DC you siezed them from cannot be put back onto the network, you have to rebuild it

Pretty much what I was thinking