First Attempt At Changing Domains on a SQL 2005 Server

Well I have finished my first pass at moving one of our three SQL Servers to our new domain. I had to roll it back for the moment, but I learned a great deal in the process. This server runs on Windows 2003 Server 64-bit and SQL 2005 Enterprise Edition 64-bit. This server also runs Reporting Services and Integration Services packages to run scheduled reporting, so there are a number of things to test.

1) I changed the DNS Server IP addresses in the network settings to point at the DNS server which is part of the new Active Directory.

2) I changed the domain from the current domain to the new domain and completed the required reboot.

3) I setup security groups from the new domain on the SQL Server and assigned them the appropriate permissions. By assigning the domain groups as logins, it simplifies adding and removing employee permissions by making it a simple Active Directory group addition or removal for the user account.

4) I could connect to the server from my local PC (which I had already moved to the domain) from Management Studio. That gave me comfort that basic name resolution and integrated security were working properly.

5) From an IE browser, I tried to pull up the reporting services browser. No luck. In researching it, I found that the encryption key was not working after the domain change. I also found that a domain account from the old domain was setup for "Execute as" permissions. I attempted to change this to a new domain account but it failed. Tried restoring the backup of the encryption key, failed. I tried creating a new encryption key, failed.

Basically everything I tried to get Reporting Services up and running under the new domain failed. I was able to join the old domain and reset Reporting Services back to a working state so I can do some more research on the issues I encountered. I am considering moving the server to workgroup security and getting everything working right first, and then joining the new domain. Until I do some more research I am not sure.

Based on month end and some other priorities, I probably will not get another attempt at this until the middle of September. If anyone reading this has some advice or some good articles/blog entries on the subject, I welcome them.