Windows NT to 2000 Domain Migration problem.

[bethhodge]

I have a customer who wants to upgrade their server from NT 4.0 to Windows 2000. The domain name has an underscore in it. From what I understand, I can't use the domain name in Windows 2000.

They have no backup domain controllers, and they are running Exchange 5.5 on the server we want to upgrade. Should I create a new domain, or is there some way to do the upgrade without changing the domain name, or changing it during the upgrade?

Thanks for your help.

Beth Hodge, MCP
Path Networks

 

[Antony13]

Hi Beth,

I haven't heard anything about NetBIOS domain names not being able to have underscores in them in Windows 2000 and can't find any information on it. Where did you hear this? If you're worried about the DNS name, only the NetBIOS name is taken when upgrading from NT4 to 2000 (and you can't change it), but you can specify your own DNS name during the upgrade so this won't be a problem.

If this is true though, the only way I can see you getting this done is to install a new Windows 2000 domain and then migrate your NT users into this domain. The ADMT tool is reasonable at this but leaves the new account in the Active Directory quite ugly i.e. the name is set to the old NT username, the new complex passwords that it sets are horrendously complex etc. Our solution to this was to use the ADMT to migrate the account, SID history etc. and then use a script which resets information such as CN, Display Name, Password etc. and any other details you want to set such as dial-in access etc. This runs from an Excel spreadsheet which holds the relevant information on the user i.e. old NT username in NT4 domain, new Display Name, CN, dial-in access etc.

Hope this helps,

Antony