I am going to be upgrading my servers from NT4 to 2k3 in about a month. I'm in the planning stage and luckily I will be bringing in all new hardware. I know it's a general question, but I need to know what sandtraps not to fall into as I have never done this upgrade before and will not have any help. Thanks for any advice.
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Massive upgrade
- Thread starter staboogie
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Sorry. I left out alot. I will not be running Exchange on this new server immediately. It will be the Domain Controller and file server. If everything goes well, I will have 3 servers that I can upgrade and take a load off of the DC. I have about 60 users.
For 60 users I would do a clean install. This leaves you with a pristine install and unlimited time to get the new server tested, and online. The active directory for 60 users will place minuscule stress on the new server. As far as Exchange I would not run it on an FSMO DC, just about anything else is OK, place it on one of the other machines. Have another server as a DC, to duplicate the FSMO services, being DNS,WINS,DHCP etc, as soon as practical. Pick your new hardware carefully, you should have a Pci-x bus at 133 MHz or Pci express, matching raid controller, onboard Intel CSA network interfaces,if possible, good bit of ram, 1 Ghz minimum. A reliable tape unit on the FSMO is important.
Not recommending any particular machine, but the link below is a Dell with decent specs
........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial
Not recommending any particular machine, but the link below is a Dell with decent specs
........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial
OK, so you have 60 users, but how much data? How many shares? Are there a lot of permissions to duplicate? Do you CURRENTLY have Exchange?
I think the answers to these qustions need to be considered when you plan your migration.
If you have extensive shares and permissions and existing Exchange, you may want to consider using a swing server for your migration and actually perform an upgrade.
If you don't have a lot to worry about in the existing domain then you could easily use ADMT to migrate your workstations and user accounts.
I hope you find this post helpful.
Regards,
Mark
I think the answers to these qustions need to be considered when you plan your migration.
If you have extensive shares and permissions and existing Exchange, you may want to consider using a swing server for your migration and actually perform an upgrade.
If you don't have a lot to worry about in the existing domain then you could easily use ADMT to migrate your workstations and user accounts.
I hope you find this post helpful.
Regards,
Mark
eastwood357
Technical User
Staboogie
We did our massive domain upgrade with 2000 users and no problems.
We took 1 nt4 PDC server and upgraded that server to windows 2003. This upgraded all the users accounts to windows 2003 with passwords and the rest intact. then we installed the second clean 2003 server and promoted to domain controller. The transfered all FSMO roles. Waited until replication was complete and then turned off the upgraded 2003 server. Now we had a clean 2003 server with all existing user accounts. We then proceeded to do the fun stuff like DHCP. WINS.
DNS should have been ok as you are upgrading from NT4 but you will still have to consider that.as yuo need to add the namespace and such. If not sure get a DNS expert, you do NOT want to screw that up.
We did our massive domain upgrade with 2000 users and no problems.
We took 1 nt4 PDC server and upgraded that server to windows 2003. This upgraded all the users accounts to windows 2003 with passwords and the rest intact. then we installed the second clean 2003 server and promoted to domain controller. The transfered all FSMO roles. Waited until replication was complete and then turned off the upgraded 2003 server. Now we had a clean 2003 server with all existing user accounts. We then proceeded to do the fun stuff like DHCP. WINS.
DNS should have been ok as you are upgrading from NT4 but you will still have to consider that.as yuo need to add the namespace and such. If not sure get a DNS expert, you do NOT want to screw that up.
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Thank you all for your help. I am getting someone to help me with the DNS. Markdmac, I have about 400gb of data, but no exchange. The shares are simple enough but I figured that if I need to rearrange shares, with only 60 people, they will just need to adapt to the changes. The main question I was wondering was whether to upgrade the NT PDC or start everything new because I did not want to go through the password issue. Technome thanks for the server, I have a dual 3.6 compaq that seems to be pretty good. What is the hard part about the DNS? Everyone's I've talked to said that the DNS was the toughest part.
dns becomes very tough if you get it wrong in an active directory environment....
it needs thorough planning and understanding of its importance.
Aftertaf
________
Regain control of your PC, at
it needs thorough planning and understanding of its importance.
Aftertaf
________
Regain control of your PC, at
Mark Minasi's Master Windows 2003 Server, Sybex has a very good DNS section. Even if you get help,you should read this.
Toughest part, the details, along with the many options/security concerns. Get familiar with DcDiag.exe and NetDiag.exe, run them after the initial Win 2003 install.
........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial
Toughest part, the details, along with the many options/security concerns. Get familiar with DcDiag.exe and NetDiag.exe, run them after the initial Win 2003 install.
........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial
If the passwords are your only real concern with going with a totally new domain then don't let that stop you. You can use ADMT to migrate the users and computers to the new domain AND can migrate the passwords as well with ADMT. It is a few extra steps to set up but the technet website has very good information on it.
Upgrading an old PDC is sometimes not an option just because of the available disk space. That is why I suggest usining a swing server in that case.
Big advantage of doing a new domain and using ADMT is you can have both domains running side by side while you transition things.
I hope you find this post helpful.
Regards,
Mark
Upgrading an old PDC is sometimes not an option just because of the available disk space. That is why I suggest usining a swing server in that case.
Big advantage of doing a new domain and using ADMT is you can have both domains running side by side while you transition things.
I hope you find this post helpful.
Regards,
Mark
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