User Profile Migration From NT Domain To AD domain

[CP]

Dear all,

I urgently needed a solution for my problem, any advise is much appreciated.

We have a NT domain with about 100 users under domain name "ABCdomain" in
network A. Due to the shifting and upgrading, we have installed a new pure
win2K AD domain on a new server. The domain was named the same as
ABCdomain.com (NetBIOS name = ABCdomain. It is not a migratin from NT4 to
Win2K but a pure Win2K installation.

The problem I have is when a users logon to AD domain with the same
ABCdomain, the user profile in thier PC is set to default. This results us
making extra efforts to re-create email account by pointing to the emaill
database location, reset desktop and other application settings.

Is there a solution whereby I can copy the user profiles either from NT
domain or from the user local machine itself in order to avoid these extra
efforts and to minimise the disruption to users.

Please help and advise !! Urgent !


Warmest regards,
CP

 

[Tim Hines [MSFT]]

If it is not too late I would suggest that you start over. You should
upgrade the NT 4 domain to Windows 2000 since you wish to maintain the same
domain name. This will allow the user to maintain the profile and prevent
the users from rejoining the domain to establish a new secure channel. Is
there a particular reason you did things this way?


--
Tim Hines, MCSE, MCSA
Windows 2000 Directory Services

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[CP]

I did it this way as the current domain server is only Pentium 400MHz. We
have purchased the new server to accomodate more loads and also used for
file sharing purposes.

Anyway thanks for your suggestion and opionion. Appreciate it very much.

 

[Cary Shultz [A.D. MVP]]

CP,

Further to what Tim suggested, you could do the following:

1. Upgrade the WINNT 4.0 PDC to WIN2000. This would give you a WIN2000
Active Directory environment.
2. Add the new hardware as a WIN2000 Domain Controller / DNS Server / Global
Catalog Server.
3. Transfer all five of the FSMO Roles to the new hardware.
4. Transfer any user folders / files to the new hardware ( that is, what
ever resides on the old WINNT 4.0 Server )
5. Gracefully remove the old server from the environment
6. Clean things up - if necessary.

This way you have kept the same domain name and not really lost anything.

HTH,

Cary

 

[CP]

Hi Cary,

What is "FSMO" ? I don't quite get you as I am still quite new to AD.

Thanks for your help !

CP

 

[Tim Hines [MSFT]]

CP,

Another option would be to install NT 4 on the new server as a BDC.
After the install has completed you could promote the BDC to become the NT4
PDC and then install Windows 2000 on it to upgrade it. The domain will
become a Windows 2000 domain after Windows 2000 has been installed.
Dcpropmo will run after you reboot.

FSMO stands for Flexible Single Master Operations. For more info see the
following link 197132 Windows 2000 Active Directory FSMO Roles
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=197132

Here is another useful article

296480 HOW TO: Upgrade a Windows NT 4.0-Based PDC to a Windows 2000-Based
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=296480



--
Tim Hines, MCSE, MCSA
Windows 2000 Directory Services

=====================================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via
your newsreader so that others may learn and benefit
from your issue.
=====================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[CP]

Hi Tim,

I will try out this solution since I still have one more day for my
deadline. I suppose this is the easier way in which I am much more confident
to do right now.
Thank you very much.

Cary, thanks to you too !

Best rgds
CP