Migrating from NT to 2000 AD

[jakess]

I need help with the migration process from NT domain to a AD domain. I need to keep the NT domain name and just wish to implement AD. Can i use the migration tool called ADMT?
We dont have DNS on your lan but use the DNS of our ISP.
It seems that DNS is an important part of AD and needs lots of configuration.

 

[buddafish]

Last question first: yes, you need DNS on you LAN. You will use your ISP DNS as forwarders (after you have your W2K domain setup).

Middle question: depending on the topography of your existing network, you may or maynot need to use ADMT.

First question: depending on how your NT domain is named, you will or will not be able to keep it. Underscores are not supported.

There is a lot to consider with a migration, but in theory it is a pretty straight forward process. Once you migrate into a W2K domain, you can tune and adjust the details.

How is your current NT domain setup?

scottie

 

[markdmac]

Sounds like what you really need to do is upgrade your exisiting domain. That will eliminate the need for using ADMT and will help you avoid having to join computers to a new domain.

While in theory you could create anew AD based domain with the same name, it would not have the same SID and your workstations would not get onto it without joining the new domain. By upgrading you will avoid this, however you need to upgrade the PDC first.

Commonly this is done my creating a new BDC, promote it to PDC and then upgrade that server. This is done to minimize the impact on the current server.

I hope you find this post helpful. Please let me know if it was.

Regards,

Mark

 

[jakess]

we only point our pc's to the DNS of the ISP. How must i configure the local dns if necessary. We have a NT domain with a PDC and 3 BDC with the normal NT functions. We also have trusts setup with other domains outside our lan. How will this work if we using AD and the other stay on a NT domain? I need to keep the same domain name.
So i must upgrade my NT pdc to 2000 and then start the AD wizard. Will all the users with there permissions and the shared directories stay intact? What happens to DHCP and WINS?
What happens to the old NT BD controllers.
Will have to make any changes to the clients? Do they have to rejoin the new 2000 domain?
My apologies for all the questions but we need to implement 2000 with AD but we have no Win2000 experts here.

 

[markdmac]

Allow DCPROMO to set up your DNS and you should be fine. When DNS is set up. open the DNS management snap-in and right click the server name. Choose properties. Select the Forwarders tab and put your ISP DNS in there. On the NIC of the server set the DNS to point to itself.

All the rest of the stuff in your post above will remain the same but you would be best served to upgrade at least one other BDC to a 2000 DC and have it too host DNS. If and when you do that you will want to set the DNS servers NICs to point to each other as Primary and themselves as secondary.

For your clients, I assume you are using DHCP. You will want to configure your internal DNS servers within the DHCP scope options.

I hope you find this post helpful. Please let me know if it was.

Regards,

Mark

 

[Bonedoc]

I would like to piggyback here. I am in the same boot. We have a mixed environment and need to leave NT4 behind. Have three NT srvs (PDC, BDC, and another) along with four Win2K servers -
The PDC and BDC are Micron NetFRAME 3100s and are not bad servers - currently doing little.
We do not have a budget for any other server so I cannot buy a new one and install NT on it, then promote and then update to Win2K - stuck with UPDATING the PDC (I think?) after I pull the BDC off line for safety.
ANYONE UPDATE a NetFRAME (MicronPC) product recently? Any suggestions for this process?
We, like the originally poster, will keep our simple DOMAIN name and have ISP based DNS (looking forward to DDNS and all the functionality of AD).
Many thanks for any help .

Rich

 

[markdmac]

Rich, all of the same advise applies here.

One challenge I think you will find is the maximum partition size of NT4. A 4 gig partition just does not cut it anymore. You may find you need to load one server twice.

I would suggest the following:

1. Back up and reload the BDC as a fresh BDC. Install only the base components. Install SP6a.
2. Promote to PDC
3. Upgrade to Win2K3
4. Back up the former PDC.
5. Do a fresh install of Win2K3, expanding the boot partition to a minimum of 8GB, I suggest 10-12 to be safe.
6. Transfer the FSMO roles to this fresh server.
7. Install a fresh copy of Win2k3 on the machine that was upgraded.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[Bonedoc]

Thanks Mark,
Actually the current PDC (NT4, SP6a) has nothing except the mapping scripts (which I've found out were never replicated and i'm doing those type things now), printers and queue and no applications - the BDC has a 'web store' and so I'm leery of doing much to that initially.
Trying to find 2GB of space on the C: of the PDC... sometimes, with only about 50 users, I'm tempted to dump the 'domain', move everyone back to standalone, down the old servers, bring up the new Win2k and Win2K3 - create my domain and DCPromo, etc.. just build the users and so forth.. alas.
I'm not sure that the Symbios MegaRaid card/drivers will be supported in Win2K3 (know they have some inherent Symbios drivers - don't want to lose the raid5 on this PDC) -
So, what do you think? Replicate all the printer, scripts, etc to current BDC, down it... after cleaning up the PDC for space requirements - UPGRADE PDC to Win2K or 2K3?
What's the best WAY to deal with the BDC afterwards? Just upgrade it?
Thanks.

 

[markdmac]

When all is said and done, I am not a fan of upgrading. As stated above I think you inherrit too many problems thanks to the drive sizes allowed by NT4.

Don't forget that you can run the compatability wizard before installing to see if there will be any problems with your hardware upfront.

Best of luck to you.



I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[Bonedoc]

Yes!
The compatibility wizard is being run today. Need to get this done in less than two weeks. Thanks again. Tek-Tips is always helpful to me.
Agree with you about Upgrading. We are short on budget though. Have to see. And not even sure I've got any NT media around as the old IT management kept NO records or archives! Ouch.

Rich