NT4 to 2003 stuff

[streborr]

I'm planning on upgrading our old NT4 domain to 2003.
The PDC is to old for 2003 to be installed for the upgrade and there is no BDC on the network.

I acquired another box with NT4 on it, which specs better for 2003, from another company that went under. That box was the PDC on their network. Naturally it has a different domain name, so my first question is - Can I just change the name of the domain on that machine to the domain name on my network?
Second Question - After renaming it, can I attach it to my network and then demote it to a BDC? Will there be a conflict if this box is connected to my network as a PDC?

This will then be used as the temp/upgrade box.

I will be purchasing a new box with Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise installed and removing the older two machines.

"Without deviation, progress is not possible."
Frank Zappa

 

[WhoKilledKenny]

You cant add a PDC/BDC from another Domain, just rebuild(from scratch) the New server as a BDC in you current domain. Then follow the instuctions on doing and Inplace upgrade to Active Directory. After you have completed the Upgrade, buy another server and add it to your 2003 domain as a second DC (I am assuming your current PDCs HW won't run Server2003).

 

[LWComputingMVP]

Why are you spending extra money on Enterprise - Why not just get standard? How large is your company? With only one DC, I assume you have a small business, probably under 50 users. In that case, why not get Small Business Server instead? It'll be far cheaper and give you Exchange as well.

WhoKilledKenny is correct - you can't take a BDC from somewhere else and "rename" it and it's domain and just plug it in to your network - quite simply, they don't work that way. Why you even bothered to get another server I don't know. All you needed to do was get a trial copy of Virtual PC or download the FREE copy of Virtual Server (you would have to install Virtual Server on 2003 (the new box, presumably), I'm 99% certain it won't run under NT4) and install a virtual server - then use that to migrate your domain.

 

[streborr]

Thanks whokilledkenny - I was just thinking I could get away with not doing a reinstall of NT4, but it's no big deal.
lwcomputing - I didn't "bother" to get another server. We closed down one of our companies and their old hardware was shipped to my location and sat in storage for the last 8 months.
I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.
2003 Standard Server is limited to 4gb ram. SBS is limited to 75 users. While we currently only have around 55 users, I want to be able to expand as the company grows. I would like to use terminal services for most of the users on the network because at this time I can't afford to upgrade all the workstations. Most of them are still running 98. I've heard conflicting stories of how well TS handles multiple users. Some say I need a box with tons of memory. Some say powerusers running in a TS session only use less than 10mb of memory on the TS box.

If anyone has any stats to share on this I would be very gratefull.

I spec'd out a box with 2003 Ent., 2 dual core Zeons, 16GB ram 3 - 300gb HDD - RAID 5, etc. The Rep from the company I plan on purchasing it from said that was overkill. - the box is to be the DC running TS.

I like the idea of using a virtual machine on the new box for the migration. Now, once again I could be wrong here, one of the migration options say to upgrade NT4 to 2003. I think I may have trouble installing NT4 in a VM on the new box though, NT will probably have trouble with the new hardware. Also, my current PDC can't handle 2003, too old. That was the reason for using the "acquired" NT$ box for the temp/upgrade box. That one will handle 2003 being installed on it.

I will do a clean install of NT4 on the "acquired" box as a BDC on the network, promote it to PDC, take it off the network, install 2003, perform the upgrade/migration, reconnect to network, take the original PDC off the network(which is now actually a BDC), bring the new machine on to the network and make that the main DC, setup TS, remove temporary box.

Like I said earlier, I could be wrong

 

[LWComputingMVP]

Terminal Services is not as cheap as you may think it is. You still need Terminal Services CALs and potentially beefy server - which could end up costing you more than upgrades/new systems. I urge you to carefully examine the system specs.

Yes, Standard is limited to 4GB of RAM.

It's foolish to run a Terminal Server on a DC. In fact, Terminal Services can be a pain to setup on a DC. Do you really want to let your users access the same system that runs your DNS, Directory Services, and possibly other functions. If you want a terminal server, setup a terminal server - but not on a DC (this is why SBS doesn't permit Application mode terminal services on the SBS box).

I'd love to see who says power users only use 10 MB? Memory usage depends on applications used. For most AVERAGE terminal services use, I recommend 512 for the OS plus about 96-128 MB per user, To ensure the system runs apporpriately. But again, this could vary depending on what you are running. Open a terminal session into a server and you can use task manager to see how much RAM the system uses just to load a desktop.

As for SBS - this still may be your best bet. Buy it now, save some money. Then when you grow beyond the 75 users, you buy the SBS Transition Pack - it doesn't cost any more than it would have to purchase everything all at once and you can save money now.

Lastly, you should have TWO DCs when possible - but that does NOT mean you should make a Terminal Server a DC if that's your second server.

 

[streborr]

Update:

I bought 2 new boxes each with two dual-core Xeon 5150 processors, 4MB cache, 2.66GHz 1333MHz FSB, 4GB 667MHz RAM, four 146GB HDD - RAID 10.

Installed Windows 2003 Server R2 Enterprise on each as the host OS. Installed VMWare Server on each. Running two Win2003R2Ent DC's in VM's (one on each box).

For the upgrade process, I created a VM with NT4 as a BDC, promted it to PDC, removed original PDC from network, upgraded the NT4 BDC to 2003, setup AD, DNS, DHCP, GC etc. Built the DC VM's, removed the Upgrade VM. Everything works!!

Created another VM to handle Print services and daily tape back-ups.

As soon as I purchase new switches, I will build the TS VM's.