UPGRADE FROM NT4 to @K ACTIVE DIRECTORY

[Rambocious]

Hello,
I need to upgrade my company network from NT4 to 2K.
Here is a quick rundown of my current network.

1 PDC
2 BDCs
2 DNS servers on Win2K server boxes
1 WINS server on the PDC
Various file Servers.
2 Exchange 5.5 servers on Win2k Boxes.
All workstations are 2K pro or XP.

Questions....
-What is the best way to go through this upgrade?
-During upgrade of the PDC it will ask if I want to install DNS, do I choose yes even though I have 2 DNS servers already?
-Should I do this upgrade on the PDC on or off the network?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

 

[ncvandy]

Rambocious,
Before you start I would recommend that you doing some reading on MS site, there are numerous articles there on the upgrade process. Also I would recommend that instead of going to W2k, you move to W2003. In short however, I would recommend the following steps:

1. Build a temporary BDC on any box that will support it.
2. Take one of your old BDC's offline in case you have issues and need to rollback.
3. Upgrade you temp BDC to PDC.
4. Upgrade the PDC to W2k or W2003.
5. Then build your real server that will be a DC from scratch vice an upgrade. This will give you a much cleaner install that upgrading a NT4 box. After loading the server software on it, run DCPROMO on it to make it a domain controller. Then transfer the operation master roles from your temp DC to the new DC that you just built. Then run DCPROMO on the temp DC to make it a member server. You can then get rid of the temp DC box.
6. You can then upgrade the other BDC's at your leisure. I would recommend a clean install on these boxes if possible vice an upgrade in place. The clean installs just lead to less issues in the long run.
7. I would recommend installing DNS on the new DC. This is not necessary however if your present DNS setup meets the requirements.
Once you have gotten rid of all the NT4 boxes then you can look at updating the domain and forest functionality.

For the exchange servers I would make a separate upgrade plan to address them. For now you would just have to make sure that you have the ADC connector running between your new active directory and exchange 5.5.


Jim

Elegant solutions are nice, but right now I'll settle for whatever works.