Join Production Server 2008 to 2003 domain

Question

I administer a production server for a .com. It is live right now. Server 2008 x64 IIS 7 SQL 2008 PHP MYSQL

I have another server which is a DC Server 2003 x86 and a warm standby for the website, sql, DFS, exchange queue. In order to get DFS going to transfer user photos and other content I need it in the domain.

My question is, What preparations do I need to do to the production server to allow a smooth transition onto the domain? Things such as permissions for the website. I do not want to be running around resetting all the permissions. The Group Policy on the DC is completely default. Should I add the DNS manually or allow it to add itself? Anything else I left out.

Answer 1

You should just join the server to the DC's domain; if there are no custom GPOs (as you said), almost nothing will change in the server's behaviour. You will of course be able to log on to the server using domain user accounts, but it will keep all of its current local user database.