Domain rename or Migration?

[pagy]

I can't decide what to do in this situation;
2 Companies, one in the US and one in the UK. Both companies are part of the same same parent company.

Currently each office runs it's own AD infrastructure which are completely separate from the other, we want to now bring both offices into the same AD environment and we also want the domain to reflect the parent company. UK office has W2K3 DCs with forest and domain levels at 2003, US office has 2000 DCs with forest and domain levels at windows 2000. So the options I can see are as follows;

Re-name the UK domain to something like corp.parentcompany.com
Put a W2K3 server in the US office as a DC for corp.parentcompany.com
Use ADMT to bring users and computer accounts over to corp.parentcompany.com

Or;
Build a new forest as corp.parentcompany.com
Place DCs for corp.parentcompany.com in UK and US
Use ADMT to bring users and computer accounts over from both US and UK domains to new corp.parentcompany.com domain.

We are talking about 12 servers, 200 user and computer accounts.

Any thoughts????


Paul

MCSE 2003

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
Albert Einstein

 

[Roadki11]

I would ask myself why do i need to do this? what benefit would come from it? is that benefit worth the work? can we live happily ever after by just creating a trust? but if they just have to be in the same domain i would probably build a new 2k3 dc on the US side and add it to the UK side then ADMT the 2k stuff over.

just my 2 cents,

RoadKi11

 

[pagy]

Thanks Roadki11,

I'll just expand a bit more; the 2 companies are both software houses and very often projects are shared between offices, or the US office may do development work for UK or vice versa.
Both offices also run helpdesks for users of their software.

Looking forward the business wants to bring even more sharing of workload between the offices, so UK may handle helpdesk duties for the US and, again, vice versa.

I had thought about a trust but my understanding of what the business is really after is a much greater sharing of responsibilities and resources between offices and I think in the long run one AD infrastructure would be better for that. I'll keep my options open though :->


Paul

MCSE 2003

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
Albert Einstein

 

[ShackDaddy]

Paul, I don't think I would start going down the domain renaming road if I were you. I would either keep the domain name of the UK office and merely bring the US office into the same AD with ADMT and an additional DC, or I would start fresh with a new forest.

Between those two, if it was up to me, and the politics weren't an issue, I'd merely bring the US into the UK domain. That's your easiest route and least disruptive. You can still preserve the US company's email addressing by putting those users in their own OU and using an additional Recipient Policy, so as far as the outside world is concerned, their identity would not have changed.

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[pagy]

Unfortunately politics are an issue <Sigh>. I think I could be starting afresh.

I have heard people say that although domain renaming is possible it's not really a good idea so I will probably steer clear of that

Thanks




Paul

MCSE 2003

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
Albert Einstein