migrating NT domain to Win2000, tips?

[Jerome]

Hello,

We started with a Windows NT domain some years ago. Over the time we
added new servers (Win2000) but the domain remained NT. I'd like to
migrate to a 'real' Win2000 domain now. We've got about 100 PCs.

My questions:
- What are the biggest challenges and traps when migrating?
- What is the best way to do it?
- Can I use my stand-alone Win2000 to become sort of PDC (or the Win2k
equivalent)?
- Are there web sites explaining the migration process?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Jerome

 

[Wizzle]

There is no PDC and BDC with Win2k
Migration have just gotten easier. All you need to do is get the ADMT v.2
from MS site and you are good to go.
Wezo.

 

[Chriss3]

Hello there is today Operation Master Roles within a Windows Domain. One of
them are PDC emulator to take care of your NT Clients and replication down
to NT4.0 BDC´s if you are in mixed mode. You can migrate your old structure
over to a new fresh domain as Wizzle says. In your case if you don't want to
migrate over to a new structure, You can upgrade your existing NT4.0 PDC to
Windows2000 and then running a mixed mode with NT4.0 Domain Controllers and
Windows 2000 Domain Controllers until you are ready to move to Windows2000
Native Mode and only Windows2000 Domain Controllers.

How to Migrate Your Windows NT 4.0 Directory Services to Windows 2000 Active
Directory:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/TechNet/tcevents/itevents/tnq20003.asp

Domain Migration Strategies and Windows 2000:
http://www.microsoft.com/Seminar/Includes/Seminar.asp?Url=/Seminar/1033/19990923TEDMS/Portal.xml

Domain Migration Cookbook:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/planning/activedirectory/cookbook.asp

Planning Domain Migration Strategies:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/dpg/default.asp

Planning Migration from Windows NT to Windows 2000:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/planning/activedirectory/plandommig.asp

Download ADMT:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/tools/admt/default.asp

Active Directory Migration Tool Overview:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/howitworks/activedirectory/admt.asp

Migrating from Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 to Windows 2000 Server:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/archive/default.asp?url=/archive/en-us/dnarntserv/html/msdn_nt4to5.asp
--
Regards,

Christoffer Andersson
No email replies please - reply in the newsgroup
If the information was help full, you can let me know at:
http://www.itsystem.se/employers.asp?ID=1

 

[Enkidu]

Hello,

We started with a Windows NT domain some years ago. Over the time we
added new servers (Win2000) but the domain remained NT. I'd like to
migrate to a 'real' Win2000 domain now. We've got about 100 PCs.

My questions:
- What are the biggest challenges and traps when migrating?
- What is the best way to do it?
- Can I use my stand-alone Win2000 to become sort of PDC (or the Win2k
equivalent)?
- Are there web sites explaining the migration process?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

The best source of information is the Microsoft web site. There is an
article on that which goes step by step through the process.

You cannot add a Win2000 server as a PDC or BDC in an NT Domain. The
usual way to migrate is to first upgrade the NT PDC to a Win2000 DC.
This makes the Domain into a Windows 2000 Active Directory Domain.
Then you can add additional Win2000 boxes and promote them to DCs. Or
upgrade the NT BDCs to 2000 DCs.

One of the biggest gotchas is picking the wrong Domain. It is very
difficult to reverse this - once an AD Domain, always an AD Domain (up
to a point).

Another way of doing it is to create a seperate Win2000 AD and migrate
users and services across. That's probably a cleaner way to do it at
the expense of a bit of complexity.

Cheers,

Cliff

 

[Jerome]

Thanks, those links help!

 

[Jerome]

Hi,

After having read these e-mails and also some articles on the Microsoft
site, I just want to know if I've understood everything correctly:

So, since I've only got 1 NT4-PDC and 1 NT4-BDC (and several W2K
stand-alone servers), I just need to upgrade the NT4-PDC to a W2K DC
using the Windows 2000 Server Installation CD? The upgrade will take
care of my user accounts etc? And then I can add the other W2K servers
as W2K DCs as well?

After having upgraded the old PDC to a Win2000 DC and therethrough
having created a W2K domain, do I need to prepare the workstations
somehow or do they recognize the domain transparently?

Sorry for the potentially stupid questions, but thanks anyhow!

Jerome

 

[Chriss3]

You are welcome

--
Regards,

Christoffer Andersson
No email replies please - reply in the newsgroup
If the information was help full, you can let me know at:
http://www.itsystem.se/employers.asp?ID=1

Thanks, those links help!

http://msdn.microsoft.com/archive/default.asp?url=/archive/en-us/dnarntserv/html/msdn_nt4to5.asp

 

[Enkidu]

Replies inline

Cheers,

Cliff

Hi,

After having read these e-mails and also some articles on the Microsoft
site, I just want to know if I've understood everything correctly:

I had about a centimetre of printouts from several sources before I
did my upgrade. I did it stepwise, backup, small change, backup, small
change, backup, small change.... I didn't need the backups as it
turned out, but they were there if had needed them.

So, since I've only got 1 NT4-PDC and 1 NT4-BDC (and several W2K
stand-alone servers), I just need to upgrade the NT4-PDC to a W2K DC
using the Windows 2000 Server Installation CD? The upgrade will take
care of my user accounts etc? And then I can add the other W2K servers
as W2K DCs as well?

Yes, that's basically it. I urge you to read as much as you can first
though. Active Directory Domains are much more pervasive than NT
Domains. DNS is essential. If you don't have DNS, you will need it.

After having upgraded the old PDC to a Win2000 DC and therethrough
having created a W2K domain, do I need to prepare the workstations
somehow or do they recognize the domain transparently?

You won't have to touch the clients if all goes well.

Sorry for the potentially stupid questions, but thanks anyhow!

There's no such thing as a stupid question.

Cheers,

Cliff

 

[Enkidu]

After having read these e-mails and also some articles on the Microsoft
site, I just want to know if I've understood everything correctly:

Um, it's not a good idea to cross-post to so many groups..... One or
two, maybe.....

Cheers,

Cliff

 

[Cary Shultz [A.D. MVP]]

Jerome,

This should be a fairly straight forward situation. What you normally do is
upgrade the WINNT 4.0 PDC to WIN2000. This takes you from a WINNT 4.0
domain to a WIN2000 AD Domain. You need to know that DNS is extremely
important for WIN2000. Once you have done this then you could dcpromo your
member server ( WIN2000 ) to be a second DC. Please note that in WIN2000
there is no longer the PDC/BDC concept. In WIN2000 a Domain Controller is a
Domain Controller. There are five roles ( called FSMO Roles ) that exist
and one of them is called the PDC Emulator. This sometimes causes
confusion.

Check out the following links:

How to: upgrade to WIN2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;298107

WIN2000 FSMO Roles:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;197132&Product=win2000


Once things have been running properly for a week or so you might want to
consider dcpromoing the upgraded WIN2000 AD, making sure that it is
completely removed from AD, format it and do a clean and pristine
installation of WIN2000. NOTE: you need to make sure that you have that
second DC before you do this!!! You would need to make sure that any
services ( DNS, DHCP, etc. ) were moved over to the second DC. Those five
roles that I mentioned should be transferred over to the second DC when you
do the dcpromo. However, I like to transfer them manually before doing
this. You could either use the various MMCs to do this or use ntdsutil.
ntdsutil is a bit more complicated!

Check out the following links:

How to: prevent overloading the first DC:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;298713

How to: view and transfer fsmo roles using the GUI:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;255690&Product=win2000

How to: use ntdsutil to transfer / seize the FSMO Roles:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;255504&Product=win2000


Another possibility is that you create an entirely new domain/tree/forest
( WIN2000 ), create a trust between your existing WINNT domain and your
newly created WIN2000 AD and use ADMT v2 to migrate all of your user and
computer and group accounts over to the WIN2000 AD. This would require
additional hardware, though.

Check out the following links:

How to create a Trust with a WINNT domain:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308195&Product=win2000

How to: set up ADMT for a WINNT 4.0 to WIN2000 migration:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;260871


Download ADMT v2:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...b1-5849-4707-9817-8c9773c25c6c&DisplayLang=en

I might suggest that you not post to so many New Groups.

There is a lot of information available and a lot to absorb. I might
suggest that you 'practice' in a lab before attempting this on your
production environment. As always, you should have a backup!

HTH,

Cary

 

[Cary Shultz [A.D. MVP]]

One more very important thing to mention: Global Catalog Server! If you
simply upgrade the WINNT 4.0 PDC to WIN2000 DC that machine will be the
Global Catalog Server. If you should dcpromo the existing WIN2000 member
server to a DC I would suggest that you make this DC a Global Catalog Server
as well. You would do this in ADSS ( Active Directory Sites and Services ).
Here is the link:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;313994&Product=win2000

This way should you decide to remove the upgraded DC from the domain to do
the 'clean and pristine' installation you will have a Global Catalog server
already in existence.

HTH,

Cary