Active Directory

[Sue]

I am getting ready to upgrade an NT 4 domain to W2k. I
have read until my eyes are blurred. I am looking for
suggestions on things to check to make sure I'm not
missing anything.

I have read the Migration Cookbook, Microsoft Active
Directory - Advantages and Disadvantages, Planning
Migration from Windows NT to Windows 2000 Whitepaper, Mark
Minasi's Windows 2000 Server, and numerous others.

I have created (in test) Service Management Roles and Data
Management Roles, created OUs, assigned roles to the OUs.

Any ideas/experiences would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Sue

 

[Rich]

Sue
I have done several NT4 to Win2000 upgrades. The first few
didn't go well. I eventually had to find several documents
that went step by step on the migration and combine the
portions that worked so that I had one good document. Even
some of Microsoft's documents didn't cover everything. I
am not sure how you are going to do your migration and
what business issues you hope to cover. You will need to
cover whether or not you are going to do a Single domain
control upgrade or if you are going to upgrade the
hardware and install AD on the new hardware. All of these
options are critical to deciding exactly what path you
should follow. One other thing to think about is if you
will have any of your NT4 DC's left on the network after
you start your upgrade. Remember you will be in Mixed mode
and loose some of AD's functionality during that mode.

Hope this helps.

Rich

 

[Guest]

Thank you, Rich.

We have one domain. Going to one domain.
Taking a BDC offline for recovery.
No BDCs will be online after migration.
Upgrading, not restructuring.
Staying in mixed mode for now due to application issues.
Two AD servers for redundancy
Make Active Directory Integrated by putting DNS on Domain
Controllers
Determine outside access to DNS servers
Determine forward requests to the Internet
Workstation setups

I've been reading hints about problems with users after
migration. Did you experience that?

Sue

 

[Rich]

I have seen problems with users only in the area of only
having pre-windows 2000 logons. Some of the users never
get a windows 2000 logon. This can easily be taken care
of by adding them manually.
The only reason you would need to be in Mixed mode is for
Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4 domain controllers in the
same domain. If you don't have that then you can go Native
mode.

Rich