NT 4 to W2K Upgrade-Just to make sure

[rdgordon]

I've read teh FAQ's Which are good but i just want to make sure i've got this planned right.

Current Environment
(1)NT 4.0 SP6a box running WINS. No DHCP. Domain Name is "city"
(40) Clients running W2K pro. All have static IP's. DNS is provided by ISP hosting website (

http://www."InstitutionName".com).

All workstations and server have DNS settings of ISP DNS servers and All register with wins server.

Have home simple login script mapping 3 drives
1 is apps
1 is data
1 is share with all home folders(users via security can only open their home foler)

I want to upgrade the existing PDC to W2K.
1. Back up everything
2. I thought i would take an extra blank pc and set it up as a BDC
3. Sync everything up.
4. Remove the BDC and put it aside just in case i run into trouble so i have my SID's
5. remove antivirus software
6. upgrade PDC to W2k server
7. Run dcpromo and set up dns with my ISP DNS servers as forwarders.
8. I plan to use DHCP to register the clients.

my questions:
A. I would like to change the name of my domain from "city" to something encompassing "BusinessName"
Should i name it "BusinessName.local"
or "BusinessName.com" (like website)
or "home.BusinessName.com"
B. Will this cause any problems except causing me to have to go to each client pc and change the name of the domain it is loging into?

C. With DNS do i still need WINS?

I know it's a lot
Thanks

 

[BWilson77080]

no you dont need wins...unless you have legacy clients...then you should probabaly keep it

youll also need to set up dhcp to register legacy clients that do not support dynamic updates

ill get back more to ya later...

most of your plan looks ok though....

i dont think you can rename with win2k...you could with 2003 though.....your option there would probabaly be a complete restructure and use the migration tool to bring all your users, etc. in, OR, buy 2003 server, upgrade from there, rename your domain, then add your 2000 servers...of course then youll have a win2003 domain because no going back to a 2000 native mode afterwards

 

[buddafish]

when you are upgrading to w2k, you will be prompted to name your domain. this is where you can name your domain businessname.com or .biz or .local. if you own your .com, .biz, .org, ect name, then you can use it. your nt domain name will still be usable after the upgrade. i.e. you can log on to your domain like the nt login. this is for some backward compatibility and down level access. but logging in as username@businessname.com is how it is done with w2k. users log on with thier email namen (fqdn). thus one should go this route.
Creating an empty root domain is useful for expansions and company mergers later on down the line, but for an average business, well, it is a bit simpler to just have the root domain and and child domains as needed.
You will most likely need WINS, but in a perfect w2k world ya don't.
BWilson's got it right about the DHCP. Set it up to do all the work with DNS. and have it hand out the addresses of the DNS and WINS serevers as well as the Domain Name via the scope options.

And yes, once you name your domain businessname.com, you can NOT rename a w2k domain with out removing AD and thus killing the domain. so... pick a good one.. LOL

best of luck

scottie

 

[xmsre]

Can a W2K client find a domain controller and log on to W2K domain without WINS? - Yes

Can it browse? - Maybe, it'll rely on broadcasts.

Can it find printers? - If they're published.

Will every application continue to work? - highly unlikely.

You'd be better off keeping WINS.

John

 

[rdgordon]

so if i name my domain "BusinessName.com" and my web site is "BusinessName.com" (which is hosted by a 3rd party ISP that also has DNS Servers that we use) this won't cause any problems?
Given the above is ok, how should i set up DNS?
I know this much...
I plan to setup DNS as follows
1)Remove root DNS Zone
2)Configure Forwarders (My ISP's DNS servers)

What else do i need to do to configure DNS properly for my configuration?
MY internal network has all private 10.X.X.X ip addresses we have a router that via frame relay connects us to our 3rd party data center that manages and keeps secret this frame relay network. In this data center is a firewall that we go to the internet through.
I just want to make sure i set up the DNS right here at my business...
Thanks

 

[pixboy]

If your current domain is named CITY, I'd suggest using city.loc or city.local for the Win2K domain name. If you used BusinessName.com for your Win2K domain name, your local machines will have a hard time getting to

http://www.businessname.com

unless you manually enter all the appropriate DNS entries for the domain. The clients will be using your DC as the DNS server, and if the DC thinks its authoratative for businessname.com, it won't provide

http://www.businessname.com

to anyone unless you manually configure it.

Presumably, the idea behind using a real domain name would be if you were hosting your own web site, Exchange server, etc. Personally, I think the .loc or .local idea makes more sense. Just my two cents.

 

[rdgordon]

could i change domain from "city" to "BusinessName.Local" rather than "city.local"? i like the idea of .local but i would prefer "businessname.local" over "city.local". Would that cause any problems or special considerations?

 

[pixboy]

It appears you can use whatever DNS name you want when you upgrade. The NetBIOS domain name will remain "CITY", according to some documentation I found online. So your clients will still be connecting to the CITY domain.

Microsoft says you really need to think through the domain name you choose before you install, since renaming is next to impossible without going through some major hurdles.

 

[rdgordon]

ok i think i'll go either "businessname.local" to be consistent with "businessname.com".
Unless there is a reason not to.

Also if anyone knows the best way to configure DNS in my situation that would help.

Thanks for all your help

 

[rdgordon]

i just read that using "businessname.local" is not as good as using "home.businessname.com" for the domain name...is this accurate?

 

[pixboy]

It really shouldn't make any difference. I still think businessname.local would be easier than home.businessname.com. Nobody outside your local network will be using businessname.local, whereas you never know who's using home.businessname.com out there for something valid online. Unless it's your real domain name, I wouldn't choose it for your Win2K domain name. (Even then, I wouldn't use it. Maybe the ".local" version of your own domain name.)

 

[rdgordon]

makes sense i'll use "businessName.local"