DNS Question on NT4 to AD upgrade

[Mark Woods]

Hello Everyone,

I have a question on the best way to get DNS up and running for a Windows
NT domain to Active Directory upgrade.

The current NT domain is running on a PDC/BDC pair of servers, and I'm to
replace the PDC with a newer server. This PDC is already running DHCP
and WINS. I've got a server being delivered that is coming with Windows
2000, and will be rotated in during the upgrade to replace the PDC after
the upgrade, but I need to upgrade the NT domain to AD before shifting
the root to the new server.

The question is... What is the recommended, and easiest, way to upgrade
the DHCP, the WINS and add DNS during the upgrade? Should I leave the
DHCP and WINS on the current server, upgrade it to AD, then move the
upgraded DHCP, WINS and AD-integrated DNS to the new server after
DCPROMO'ing it...or should I move the DHCP and WINS to the new server,
install DNS and configure it as a standard primary zone on the 2000 box,
upgrade the NT box to AD and have it use the DNS for the upgrade, then
make the new server the root and update the DNS to AD-integrated?

I know I have to move the FSMO roles and GC from the upgraded PDC to the
new 2000 server in order to decommission the old server, but want to make
the upgrade as painless as possible.

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

Who said you had to upgrade the current PDC ?

Do the following

Install a new BDC in your NT environment on your new server. Promote it to
become the PDC> then upgrade it the windows 2003 active directory.

Secondly do you really need WINS? You only require it if you have downlevel
clients from windows NT > Win 9x. DHCP should upgrade easily but you have to
upgrade to win 2k then win 2k3 if your going the WIN 2k3 route. But as a
precaution back up the databases of WINS and DHCP, and the registry keys and
values for both services.
HKLM\System\currentcontrolset\services\wins and dhcp respectively.

Regards
Stephen

 

[Mark Woods]

=?Utf-8?B?VGhlIEFEIERlc2lnbmVy?=

Who said you had to upgrade the current PDC ?

My boss, the IT Operations Manager for the company. The current PDC is
the server that is being replaced in this switcheroo. Everything that is
on it...file shares, printers, WINS, DHCP have to be moved in one way or
another to the new server, along with upgrading the site's NT domain to
Windows 2000 Active Directory and the new server becoming the root of the
forest/domain for the site.

Do the following

Install a new BDC in your NT environment on your new server. Promote
it to become the PDC> then upgrade it the windows 2003 active
directory.

Won't work. The new server is a Dell PowerEdge 2850, and Dell doesn't
support or provide installation assistance with Windows NT 4.0 on this
model. It is being shipped pre-loaded with Windows 2000, and we do not
want to wipe it to install a previous OS version, just to re-install W2K
on it again.

Secondly do you really need WINS? You only require it if you have
downlevel clients from windows NT > Win 9x. DHCP should upgrade easily
but you have to upgrade to win 2k then win 2k3 if your going the WIN
2k3 route. But as a precaution back up the databases of WINS and DHCP,
and the registry keys and values for both services.
HKLM\System\currentcontrolset\services\wins and dhcp respectively.

Yes, WINS is a requirement. This site still has quite a few Win9x
computers, and some of our production applications require NetBIOS to
communicate, as well as each of our production sites is an individual
domain/AD forest with trusts between the forests, which require NetBIOS
for authentication...and don't comment about that. That was an IT
management decision, not my decision.

So, the question remains...should I move the WINS, DHCP from NT 4.0 to
Windows 2000 and install DNS on Windows 2000...THEN upgrade the NT 4.0
PDC to Windows 2000/Active Directory, promote the new Windows 2000
server, and reconfigure DNS for AD-integrated, then move the GC and FSMO
roles...or should I leave WINS and DHCP on the current PDC, upgrade it to
Windows 2000 (with installing DNS), then move DNS, WINS, DHCP, GC and
FSMO roles after the upgrade?

 

[Guest]

Mark

With the dell you can install NT4.0 it is just is not supported by dell.
This is to with the perc driver.

Move all your services over first to the Windows 2000 box (what other option
do you have?). Then perform your upgrade on the NT 4.0 Machine although this
is the long way round. With DHCP install the new scope on the win 2k box and
move any reservations you have for printers etc. Install WINS and replicate
with your existing WINS Server and make sure your downward clients are
pointing to the new WINS server on the first dhcp scope. Updat eall server
setting to reflect the new scope, after turn off replciation once all clients
and severs are using the new WINS Server.

Moving the scope can be tricky as all clients will need to perform a
ipconfig release && ipconfig /renew or a reboot may be necessary.

I hope this helps.