[sdw2003] NT to W2K3 AD migration questions

[O'Brien, Cathy]

Yes, you can use a different DNS domain name, but what you can't change
is the NetBIOS name. We did exactly this a couple years ago. In some
scenarios this isn't at all an issue, but it can bring some little bumps
along with it. Some applications don't let user log on with UPNs but
instead require the old NetBIOSdomainName\sAMAccountName format and vice
versa. Some of our users find this confusing. If your users will still
always use the old format then there's not so much to worry about; they
get used to seeing the new domain name in suffixes.

We did the in-place upgrade like you describe because we had three
different domains we wanted to place in a single forest as child domains
of a root placeholder. Although I somewhat wanted to start with a new
domain to clean things up, I have to admit it was incredibly less work
doing the in-place upgrade.

Since none of our NT boxes would support W2K3, we brought up a new BDC
on new hardware, promoted it to PDC, then upgraded to W2K3 on that box.
All of the FSMO roles start out on that one box. Then as you bring up
other W2K3 DCs you can move FSMO roles over if desired. I really new
hardware may not be an option, but it helps.

-----Original Message-----
From: sdw2003-bounces at mattware.com [mailto:sdw2003-bounces at mattware.com]
On Behalf Of Doug Sampson
Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 2:19 PM
To: 'San Diego Windows 2003 User Group'
Subject: RE: [sdw2003] NT to W2K3 AD migration questions

So it's confirmed that one cannot specify a new AD domain name during an
in-place upgrade? I.E., I use "DSP" as the NT domain name and I want to
use
"dawnsign.com" as the AD domain name (also DNS domain name). Will I be
allowed to use dawnsign.com instead of dsp.com? 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sdw2003-bounces at mattware.com
> [mailto:sdw2003-bounces at mattware.com]On Behalf Of Thaddeus Braun
> Sent: Monday, October 05, 2009 09:56 PM
> To: San Diego Windows 2003 User Group
> Subject: RE: [sdw2003] NT to W2K3 AD migration questions
> 
> 
> Wasn't there talk of something called a swing migration kit a 
> while ago?
> This seemed like a great way to be able to do what you wanted to do
> without having to do it all in one weekend. With the kit, I think you
> were able to take your sweet time transferring everything, 
> PLUS it had a
> revert option that you don't get if you cram it all on one weekend. 
> 
> As for a new domain name, I'd go with that because then it's a
> greenfield (never been touched) and any problems you had with the old
> domain won't transfer to the new domain. 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: sdw2003-bounces at mattware.com 
> [mailto:sdw2003-bounces at mattware.com]
> On Behalf Of James Eitzen
> Sent: Monday, October 05, 2009 6:46 PM
> To: San Diego Windows 2003 User Group
> Subject: Re: [sdw2003] NT to W2K3 AD migration questions
> 
> How many users to you currently have in AD?
> 
> Are you deploying new hardware at all?
> 
> And the kicker! Have you considered 2008 domain functionality?
> 
> Depending on the size and complexity of your currently deployment, it
> may be
> work considering building a new domain. I had to do one of these
> recently
> and I am soooo glad I went with building a new domain.
> 
> This also gives you a chance to whack anything wacky. This of course
> assumes
> you have nuaunces you want to get rid of, the worse is going 
> through all
> the
> work of a upgrade and crap follows from the old config.
> 
> On Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 5:40 PM, Doug Sampson 
> <dougs at dawnsign.com> wrote:
> 
> > I am planning a migration from a NT domain to a W2K3 AD domain. Long
> > overdue.
> >
> > I am debating going with an in-place upgrade versus 
> creating a two-way
> > trust
> > between the NT domain and a new AD domain. We have three NT 4.0 SP6
> servers
> > (two of them are PDC/BDCs) and four W2K/W2K3 member servers 
> along with
> > seven
> > FreeBSD servers using Samba. We also want to upgrade Exchange 5.5 to
> Exch
> > 2003. I've identified all or most relevant materials to study and
> prepare
> > for the migration. A few questions remain.
> >
> > One, when I last looked into this a while ago during the W2K Server
> days,
> > one of the issues with an in-place upgrade using an 
> existing NT domain
> > controller was that you couldn't specify an AD domain name. 
> They would
> take
> > whatever was your NetBIOS domain name and attach a ".com" to it. Is
> this
> > still true for the in-place upgrade to W2K3 AD? I'm 
> inclined to do an
> > in-place upgrade only if I can specify an AD domain name of 
> my choice.
> >
> > Two, assuming that the in-site upgrade goes well, can I completely
> transfer
> > all domain controller functions from these aging domain 
> controllers to
> new
> > machines? I vaguely seem to recall something about difficulties
> migrating
> > certain domain controller functions (global catalog comes 
> to mind) to
> other
> > domain controllers.
> >
> > Three, I looked at the system requirements for upgrading Windows
> servers to
> > W2K3 servers. The aging NT domain controllers appear to meet all
> > requirements except for one- available 1.5 GB of free space 
> on the OS
> disk.
> > Does anyone know if the upgrade routine is extremely picky 
> about this?
> >
> > Four, how easy is it to migrate printer drivers and printer shares
> from a
> > NT
> > server to a W2K3 server? I looked at printmig.exe version 
> 3.0 and that
> seem
> > to indicate it was quite easy to do so. Comments, anyone?
> >
> > I may have more questions later on but the ones listed here are the
> more
> > relevant ones. Any other gotchas I may need to know?
> >
> > ~Doug
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > sdw2003 mailing list
> > sdw2003 at mattware.com
> > http://lists.mattware.com/mailman/listinfo/sdw2003
> >
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> James Eitzen
> _______________________________________________
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> sdw2003 at mattware.com
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