Question : Gotcha's & Rollbacks for raising AD 2003 Interim to Native mode

Background information:
I am fully aware of *how* to raise interim mode to native mode and I know that our environment is ready to go (ie. selecting "Raise Domain Functional Level" in AD returns no errors and selecting "Raise Forest Functional Level" reports only one domain that must be upgraded first). What I need is documented justification for management that this process is safe to continue and that *if* (by some freak of nature) something goes wrong, there is a plan to backout/rollback. I have found plenty of info online re rolling back when upgrading from NT4 or to 2000, but since we are running only 2003 DCs in Interim Mode, this info does not apply to us.

Our current environment:
Primary Site:
  Over 100 WinXP PCs
  A few Win2000 PCs
  2 Win2000 Servers
  21 Win2003 Servers, of which there are:
       2 Domain Controllers (both CGs, one holds all FSMO roles)
       1 Exchange 2003
  1 ESX VI3 server running dev & test guest VMs only (no production services)
Second Site:
  About 30 WinXP PCs
  1 Win2003 Server, Domain Controller (GC)
Sites are linked by 1Mb WAN

Previous SysAdmin migrated Server OS from NT4 to 2003 a few years ago. AD is currently running in Interim 2003 mode but previous upgrade project was never completed. All previous NT4 servers have been decommissioned. Current Win2000 servers provide legacy file sharing & SQL services only (and will be decommissioned soon).


Q: What are some of the known gotcha's/issues/problems when upgrading AD 2003 Interim mode to 2003 native mode (if any)?

Q: How would we rollback (or at least plan & prepare for a rollback) if we encounter problems during the upgrade? Given our current site setup, can we utilize anything for backout/rollback purposes?

Personally, I believe this upgrade is a trivial process and that management fears are unfounded. Please comment...

Answer : Gotcha's & Rollbacks for raising AD 2003 Interim to Native mode

No roll back possible!

Do AD Authoritative restore.

1.  CHANGE DSM PASSWORD using NTDSUTIL!!!
2.  Create a system state backup on your GC right before the change.
3.  Make the change.
4.  if broken, boot into safe mode and perform AD authoritative restore (RESTORE DATABASE).