Is UNDERSCORE in NT domain-name a problem for AD in-place upgrade?

[Rich Roller]

I'm converting an old NT domain to AD (WS2003) and one quirk is
that the old NT domain name has an UNDERSCORE, e.g. "ABC_CORP".

I know that underscores are not really supported as hostnames as
per the DNS standard but would this underscore also cause problems
if I did an IN-PLACE upgrade? My understanding is that an
in-place upgrade retains the original domain name. So after the
upgrade would the new WS2003 AD domain be happy with the
underscore??

I'm also considering doing an ADMT migration for other reasons and
am wondering if the underscore would be less problematic if I did
a migration instead of an in-place upgrade?

TIA,

Rich

 

[Matjaz Ladava [MVP]]

NetBios domain can have _ in its name, but DNS name should not contain
underscore, so when you dcpromo your domain, select DNS name that does not
contain underscore character.

--
Regards

Matjaz Ladava, MCSE, MCSA, MCT, MVP
Microsoft MVP - Active Directory
(e-mail address removed), (e-mail address removed)
http://ladava.com

 

[Rich Roller]

Yes I've known about the DNS issue. But are you implying that AD
domain name is fine with "_" and equally importantly that the
in-place upgrade program will be happy with a "_"? -Rich

 

[Robert Moir]

Yes I've known about the DNS issue. But are you implying that AD
domain name is fine with "_" and equally importantly that the
in-place upgrade program will be happy with a "_"? -Rich

The Netbios domain name is the backwards compatible name that works the same
as your current NT4 name.

This can have a "_" in it.

The Active Directory Domain name should not have a "_" in it. You'll be
given a chance to provide a active directory style domain name during the
upgrade process, and can pick a "legal" one at this point.


--