We plan on building a new DNS from scratch. The old DNS is working, but we do not want to do a complete backup and restore to the new server of directory services. We have done this in the past during migrations and moved objects that have no value. However, we would like to preserve the user accounts in the OU, so when we attach the client computers to the new domains, the user accounts will have the proper SIDS. Some basic info:
The old server and new server will have the same FQDN.
Exchange Server is not a factor.
If we create new user accounts on the new server, the difference in SID will make user accounts on the client computers unaccessible.
If we could, we would like to transfer users and groups. We can rebuild all the rest.
The basic problem is that we have been migrating AD beginning with Windows NT, Windows 2003, Windows 2008, and most recently to Windows 2012R2. We are a small operation, PDS and BDS, serving about 200 user accounts on 60 client computers in a K-8 educational environment. Now that we have purchase new server hardware, we would like to minimize artifacts that remain from about 14 years of migration and clean things up.
Any help would be appreciated. We are skilled, but not full time professionals. Unpaid volunteers.