Win NT to W2K

[bennettd]

I do not know what the best route to upgrade. Currently running NT on PDC and BDC with 25 clients. Have new servers and would like to install W2k with same settings as old servers and replace the old servers. I do not know if this will work. Am I forced to install NT on old servers and incorp in network or shall I install W2K on new servers and recreate the network? What is the best route?
Thanks all for your time.
DAN

 

[GrnEyedLdy]

Found this advice for you on the net

"You have two options:

1) Install AD on your new 2k server, and choose a different domain name than your nt4 network.

b) setup a two way trust between your 2k and nt4 domain, and use ADMT tool from microsoft to migrate all user accounts to the new 2k DC.

c)Backup all files on your NT 4 PDC, and restore them to your new 2k DC

d) Once you've verified that the migration is ok, add all your workstations to the new domain. You can then at this point rebuild your old PDC and BDC with win2k, and either add them as redunant DC's or as member servers


Option #2: In place upgrade

1) Disconnect your NT4 BDC from the network

b) Do an in place upgrade of your NT4 PDC to win2k. Run dcpromo to make it a DC and get your SAM database back.

c) Add your new 2k server to the network, join it to the domain, run dcpromo to make it a DC, and if you like, transfer some of the FSMO roles over to this new server. Since the domain name is the same, and you did an in-place upgrade, there is no need to touch the workstations.

d)If the in-place upgrade resulted in a blue screen or other failure (unlikely but it can happen), then all you need to do is plug your BDC from step 1 back on the network, promote it to a PDC, and your users can work again until you get things sorted out.

Which method would I prefer? Well, I guess it would depend on the state of my NT4.0 PDC. If it's running well, has been kept tidy, doesn't have a million apps installed on it, and has generally been running well, I would do the in-place upgrade-- especially since you will end up with another fresh 2000DC on your network. If I was a consultant who was paid by the hour, and wanted to do a "by the book" migration, then I would do the parallel domain trust method. Definitely the in-place upgrade is less work, but you're also migrating whatever problems your nt4pdc had as well."

Here is the link where I found this advice,

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/Win2000/Q_20462357.html

Hope this helps,

Patty

 

[Seaspray0]

One good reason for creating a new Domain is if your current network contains lots of account and resource domains and you want to consoladate multiple domains to just a few or one. Since NT wasn't capable of handling tons of users, this was common practice to do. 2000 works well as a single domain and new features (organizational units) provide excellent ability to replace resource and account domains in a single domain structure. From the size you describe, you most likely do not fall under this condition. The other good reason is if you want a clean environment with all new user accounts, security settings, etc. Before the migration, you give the access control lists to your objects permissions for both your present domain and the new domain you are creating, then migrate users over to their new accounts. With your size, this wouldn't be too bad and it makes it more seamless to the users (they only have to log into the new domain name, the old domain is there for backup till deleted).

You are concerned with retaining old settings... this suggests migrating your old domain into 2000. The upgrade process can be done on your old servers or you can use a new server as your target. If just upgrading existing servers, the process is fairly straight forward. If you intend on using a new server, you have a few extra steps...

On the new server, install NT server as a BDC. This allows it to pick up all your SIDs from the PDC. Now, up the new server to being the PDC. If you were upgrading just the old servers, you would start with the PDC.

Upgrade the PDC to 2000. At the completion of the upgrade process, you promote the PDC to a domain controller (the command prompt program dcpromo will do this, or you can use the "configure your server" from the administrator utilities). Pick the mixed environment, you're not fully 2000 yet. You will be installing DNS during this process and picking a DNS name for your domain (NT only used netbios and WINS). Your settings are retained... most importantly, your SIDs for the user accounts are retained. The new 2000 server will now interact with your remaining NT servers like it was one itself. You can add new 2000 servers, upgrade other NT servers (or decommission them) now.

As a precaution, do full backups before upgrading, and you can also remove an existing BDC from the network during the upgrade process to expedite a recovery if necessary. If you are using RAS on an NT server, it will not function with 2000 server unless the server is added to the pre 2000 compatable security group in 2000. WINs databases will need upgrade or delete them to be recreated in 2000.

Once all your DC's (NT servers that are not domain controllers can be done later) are on 2000, you can switch to native mode and take advantage of all of 2000's features (i.e. new global security groups, RAS policies). If you look in the help for 2000 as well as the tools on the CD, you will find excellent documentation on upgrading to 2000 as well as some nice utilities to help you.

 

[bbyes]

Good Answer GrnEyedLdy!
I had a similar situation on my network, and I chose to do the in place upgrade. If you choose this route, do yourself a favor, "Do not forget to unplug the BDC before you do anything". That step is critical in the event of an upgrade gone awry. (Believe me, I know).
If you do an in place upgrade of your PDC and make it a domain controller, then you can just do regular installs on the new machines and add them to your existing domain.

Hope all goes well!