Incorrect AD namespace

[######]

Can anyone advise...
I have just started a new role where they have already
upgraded their old NT4 domain to Windows 2000 AD -
without any planning.
The current mess is as follows:
The Netbios domain is HQ-NTDOM0
The namespace is HQ-ntdom0.(charityname).South.Org.uk
The namespace that we want to use is (charityname).org.uk
and this results in a domain of "charityname"

Does anyone know the best way to do this? I have three
ideas...
1) Create a new 2003AD domain called charityname in the
namespace charityname.org.uk - then create a "federated"
inter-forest trust and use ADMT to move clients and
accounts into the new domain.
2) Create a child domain and force it to have a different
namespace, then migrate clients into the new domain
3) Move to 2003 Native Mode and use Domain rename.

The two main problems that I have with all these options
is that all client machines will need to have their
domain name changed, and that our deployment of Exchange
2003 will need to wait until the new domain exists (we
have Exch5.5)

Any ideas anyone?

 

[Ace Fekay [MVP]]

Your best bet is option 1 using ADMT. Reason is you can migrate users,
groups and computer objects. When you migrate computer objects, a security
translation is performed along with it so the users will be logging on their
new domain with their old profile. Transparent almost, just have to tell
them to select the new domain name.

Just not sure how it will play out if both the new and old domain are called
"charityname" while doing this on the same subnet. A trust would be needed
between the old and new and if the NetBIOS domain names area the same, that
would cause problems. They would have to be unique. Maybe make use of an
interim domain?

--
Regards,
Ace

Please direct all replies to the newsgroup so all can benefit.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties.

Ace Fekay, MCSE 2000, MCSE+I, MCSA, MCT, MVP
Microsoft Windows MVP - Active Directory

 

[Kevin D. Goodknecht [MVP]]

In

Can anyone advise...
I have just started a new role where they have already
upgraded their old NT4 domain to Windows 2000 AD -
without any planning.
The current mess is as follows:
The Netbios domain is HQ-NTDOM0
The namespace is HQ-ntdom0.(charityname).South.Org.uk
The namespace that we want to use is (charityname).org.uk
and this results in a domain of "charityname"

Does anyone know the best way to do this? I have three
ideas...
1) Create a new 2003AD domain called charityname in the
namespace charityname.org.uk - then create a "federated"
inter-forest trust and use ADMT to move clients and
accounts into the new domain.
2) Create a child domain and force it to have a different
namespace, then migrate clients into the new domain
3) Move to 2003 Native Mode and use Domain rename.

The two main problems that I have with all these options
is that all client machines will need to have their
domain name changed, and that our deployment of Exchange
2003 will need to wait until the new domain exists (we
have Exch5.5)

Any ideas anyone?

If you Upgrade to Win2k3 then you can rename your domain. There are links to
Docs in this article that will help you understand what to do.
819145 - Support WebCast: Microsoft Windows Server 2003: Implementing an
Active Directory Domain Rename Operation
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;819145&FR=1