Going Backwards to Nt 4 Domain

[Guest]

I have a customer who is very concernd about migrating his NT 4 domain to
2000 Active Directory. The concerns are mostly due to the various 3rd party
software packages that they have running - some on the existing DCs.

I plan to install a clean NT 4 BDC in the domain and then promote it to the
PDC. I will then upgrade it to Windows 2000 and active directory. It will
be the first 2000 DC.

We also have two Windows 2000 member servers in the 4.0 domain. I plan to
use DCPromo on these to give us additional DCs. I will still have 4 NT 4
BDCs on the network including the original PDC that was demoted by my first
step.

My question is this. What if, for some unknown reason, I have to remove
active directory and go back to a pure NT 4 environment? At this point I
believe I could DCpromo the two additional DCs back to member servers and
take the 1st DC that was upgraded off the network. I would lastly use Server
Manager to promote my original NT4 PDC back to the primary DC.

Am I correct in my thinking? Since I never touched any of my 'original'
domain controllers I believe I would be back where I started.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[ptwilliams]

Sounds like a good plan. But one best answered in the test lab first.


--

Paul Williams

http://www.msresource.net
http://forums.msresource.net


I have a customer who is very concernd about migrating his NT 4 domain to
2000 Active Directory. The concerns are mostly due to the various 3rd party
software packages that they have running - some on the existing DCs.

I plan to install a clean NT 4 BDC in the domain and then promote it to the
PDC. I will then upgrade it to Windows 2000 and active directory. It will
be the first 2000 DC.

We also have two Windows 2000 member servers in the 4.0 domain. I plan to
use DCPromo on these to give us additional DCs. I will still have 4 NT 4
BDCs on the network including the original PDC that was demoted by my first
step.

My question is this. What if, for some unknown reason, I have to remove
active directory and go back to a pure NT 4 environment? At this point I
believe I could DCpromo the two additional DCs back to member servers and
take the 1st DC that was upgraded off the network. I would lastly use
Server
Manager to promote my original NT4 PDC back to the primary DC.

Am I correct in my thinking? Since I never touched any of my 'original'
domain controllers I believe I would be back where I started.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Herb Martin]

I have a customer who is very concernd about migrating his NT 4 domain to
2000 Active Directory. The concerns are mostly due to the various 3rd party
software packages that they have running - some on the existing DCs.

All of use were back in the early days -- year 2000 or so.

It has turned out to be almost never necessary but applications
are a possible reason (although most can be fooled.)

I plan to install a clean NT 4 BDC in the domain and then promote it to the
PDC. I will then upgrade it to Windows 2000 and active directory. It will
be the first 2000 DC.

And today you might as well use Win2003.

We also have two Windows 2000 member servers in the 4.0 domain. I plan to
use DCPromo on these to give us additional DCs. I will still have 4 NT 4
BDCs on the network including the original PDC that was demoted by my first
step.

Your Win2000-class machines will general flip over to using
strictly the DCs once they find them so if this is a large domain
then you need to DCPromo (enough) DCs or upgrade expeditiously.

My question is this. What if, for some unknown reason, I have to remove
active directory and go back to a pure NT 4 environment? At this point I
believe I could DCpromo the two additional DCs back to member servers and
take the 1st DC that was upgraded off the network. I would lastly use Server
Manager to promote my original NT4 PDC back to the primary DC.

As long as you are in MIXED mode and especially if you have
a running BDC you can go back. (You could install a BDC if
you didn't have one.)

Am I correct in my thinking? Since I never touched any of my 'original'
domain controllers I believe I would be back where I started.

Yes. Backups are good too.

Many people get all excited about the BDC idea but
a full backup is just as good.

 

[S.J.Haribabu]

Hello Mike,

The Migration plan is recommended, but the key thing here is once you
upgraded to Windows server 2000 from NT4 the user databse in NT4 (SAM) will
be moved in to AD and no way it can be revert back.

As per your plan, Once you promoted the NT4 BDC to PDC and upgrade to
windows server 2000. Promote one of the windows 2000 member server on the
network. So that you will have 2 servers in 2000 environment, even one goes
down you have the other one to handle.

hope this would help you.

Thanks,

(e-mail address removed)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Herb Martin]

Hello Mike,

The Migration plan is recommended, but the key thing here is once you
upgraded to Windows server 2000 from NT4 the user databse in NT4 (SAM) will
be moved in to AD and no way it can be revert back.

The above is not accurate from either a practical or
even a technical aspect.

As long as you are in mixed mode, retreat is
straightforward AND....

In mixed mode the PDC Emulator keeps a copy of
the SAM for installing new BDCs and replicating to
any BDCs in the domain.

 

[Guest]

Thanks to everyone for the input.