Horror Stories
I'd like to hear true horror stories about actual NT4 > Active Directory upgrades and migrations. .
I'd like to hear "true" horror stories about actual NT4 --> Active Directory upgrades and migrations.
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First off I would read the Active Directory Cook Book
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treevie...plan/dommig.asp
This works well for a single domain. Some things to watch:
- make sure you know how you're going to handle DNS - whether you're going to use existing DNS servers, which servers will use Microsoft's DNS, whether you want AD-integrated DNS or not (you do!), etc.
- If you have mixed NT4 and W2K/XP clients, and if you rely on NT system policies for them, know what you're going to do with GPOs for the W2K/XP clients
- if you'll have NT4 BDCs for awhile, have a plan on how to keep the Netlogon replication in sync between the W2K DC environment (which uses FRS), and the NT4 BDC environment (which uses LMRepl)
- After you upgrade the PDC and add a second DC, consider moving the FSMOs to the second DC, removing the first one (old PDC), and rebuilding it. I feel more comfortable in having 'fresh-built' instead of 'upgraded-OS' servers, but that's up to you.
- add an additional BDC ahead of time, let it replicate, and take it offline before upgrading the PDC "just in case"
- TEST the process in the lab, more than once, before doing it in production - that's how we learned about most of the above.
Regarding horror stories, I have none. Testing, preparation, and a little luck have gotten me and my staff through several migrations. If you have more particular questions, feel free to post.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treevie...plan/dommig.asp
This works well for a single domain. Some things to watch:
- make sure you know how you're going to handle DNS - whether you're going to use existing DNS servers, which servers will use Microsoft's DNS, whether you want AD-integrated DNS or not (you do!), etc.
- If you have mixed NT4 and W2K/XP clients, and if you rely on NT system policies for them, know what you're going to do with GPOs for the W2K/XP clients
- if you'll have NT4 BDCs for awhile, have a plan on how to keep the Netlogon replication in sync between the W2K DC environment (which uses FRS), and the NT4 BDC environment (which uses LMRepl)
- After you upgrade the PDC and add a second DC, consider moving the FSMOs to the second DC, removing the first one (old PDC), and rebuilding it. I feel more comfortable in having 'fresh-built' instead of 'upgraded-OS' servers, but that's up to you.
- add an additional BDC ahead of time, let it replicate, and take it offline before upgrading the PDC "just in case"
- TEST the process in the lab, more than once, before doing it in production - that's how we learned about most of the above.
Regarding horror stories, I have none. Testing, preparation, and a little luck have gotten me and my staff through several migrations. If you have more particular questions, feel free to post.
I never got a chance to do this myself after maintaining an NT4 domain. The now defunct ISP I used to work for was looking into migrating to Win 2k Servers/Workstations but we were bought out twice and the office closed before completing work on the proposal.
I was hoping to get to work on something like this but never got the chance
I was hoping to get to work on something like this but never got the chance
