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Ed Bott’s Microsoft Challenge #1

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Ninety days and counting. Microsoft says that Windows 2000 will finally be available for public consumption on February 17, 2000. So what should an IT pro do before upgrading current hardware and ordering new systems with Windows 2000 pre-loaded? What are the traps and pitfalls to avoid? That?s this week?s Microsoft Challenge.
Post your three pithiest pieces of upgrade advice here. I?ll have more planning and deployment questions over the next few months, and I?ll compile the best responses into the Mother of All Windows 2000 Upgrade Guides–ready just in time for the official launch party in February.

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Ed Bott’s Microsoft Challenge #1

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As a person who has played with Windows 2000 since beta 2, I have seen some pretty scary things happen with the product. However RC2 professional is the most stable desktop OS I have ever seen (once you get it up and running). My first suggestion isnot to do an in place upgrade at all. The reason for this is that of the 20 to 30 installs I have done almost 10 of those were in place from NT4 to 2000 and most of these have failed. This is because much of the software installed that access hardware, such as Easy CD Creator, is not compatible with Windows 2000. Not to say most of these don’t have patches, but a lot of them require you to install the software and then patch it without rebooting first. Secondly I would verify that any device attached to your PC is compatible with 2000. If you have the latest hardware it may not be, especially if you are a Windows 98 user currently.

Next comes Windows 2000 server. Migrating to a Windows 2000 infrastructure may be one of the most difficult upgrades ever face

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As a person who has played with Windows 2000 since beta 2, I have seen some pretty scary things happen with the product. However RC2 professional is the most stable desktop OS I have ever seen (once you get it up and running). My first suggestion isnot to do an in place upgrade at all. The reason for this is that of the 20 to 30 installs I have done almost 10 of those were in place from NT4 to 2000 and most of these have failed. This is because much of the software installed that access hardware, such as Easy CD Creator, is not compatible with Windows 2000. Not to say most of these don’t have patches, but a lot of them require you to install the software and then patch it without rebooting first. Secondly I would verify that any device attached to your PC is compatible with 2000. If you have the latest hardware it may not be, especially if you are a Windows 98 user currently.

Next comes Windows 2000 server. Migrating to a Windows 2000 infrastructure may be one of the most difficult upgrades ever face

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Much of my response got cut off?

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(1) Check the HCL for any hardware you are considering and try to stick with approved hardware.
(2) Remove any anti-virus software before the upgrade process. Most will not work after install anyway.
(3) Check software that accesses hardware orlow-level network functions for compatibility with Win2000. This may cause a BSOD if not compatible.

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A lot of planning for the upgrade at first seems to be the key for success with the new 2000.
1) The infrastructure tree needs to be well thoughout to provide for performance and functionality. Otherwise you will not be able to go to native 2000 and stuck with the old domain functionality.
2) Software compatibilty is another pitfall that people may not be considering. All the software that works with NT 4.0 may not work with 2000. When this happens you will not be able to go to native 2000. Though you can communicate with the old NT domain you will lack the benefits of 2000.
3) HCL

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Take the (currently) non-existent win2000 MCSE so you can be an expert in vapor-wear. And, of course, completely forget that useless, retired, waste-of-time NT4 certification that no one will want after Dec 31, 1999.

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Several of the other answers have already addressed some of the basics which every poor soul will need to take into consideration but the one which seems to always get overlooked is in-house software. Custom code is almost always tailored to a particular OS release and you may find yourself without the employee who wrote the code in the first place. Make sure there is a backout plan/contingency for those folks who may need to continue running the old OS until a port or alternative can be found.

Another consideration is the much hyped but rarely well executed training of the users. Supporting a new release is enough of a nightmare but if you don’t prep your users, it becomes considerably more frustrating.

If you haven’t already done so, and you’re seriously looking at implementing WIN2K in your organization, set up a test environment with your apps and your hardware to make sure you identify the shortfalls, and upgrades required to make it work before it hits the end user desktop. Planning can ea

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I don’t recommend going to a new version of anyone’s software immediately after it’s initial release. I am aware that it has been out in beta for a while, but the real test will be to find out how it’s doing a couple of months after it is released. As for the upgrades, I recommend a clean install of Windows 2000 on the upgraded systems. You could probably get by with an upgrade, but it seems like a good opportunity to do some “spring cleaning” on the systems.

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I must agree with what’s been written so far, especially about doing a new install rather than an upgrade. I would add that you should also sit down and plan exactly what you want from your network and get clear in your own mind what you want ActiveDirectory to do. Planning is the key – get everything ready prior to the installation – ensure hardware, drivers and software are all compliant and then go for it!

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It is probably not going to be a wise decision to immediatley migrate everyone in house to win 2000. there are going to be a ton of undocumented features. We are going to delay as long as possible. Now with the servers, they are being changed over to Linux becasue of reliablility issues. No 2000 servers for us.

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Network, Network, Network. Even though W2K is compatible with NT4 for network compatibility, planning for the network is a must. W2K networking is quite different from what we have been used to. As you install W@k throught the network, the first servers that you may want to do are the PDC’s , DNS, DHCP servers. THe pdc will help eliminate the individual W2K servers from trying to be network god’s and repeatively ask every 5-10seconds who all is out on the network. With the WINS change, your DNS strategy also should be looked at.

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1. Win2K servers. Airtight policies, firewalls, proxy servers, et al. Good, well-trained admins. Forget Linux here, except as functional servers.
2. Win98 desktops. Much more forgiving of users, hardware and software. Control from above!
3. If youmust buy new hardware get Win98 and then Win2K in ’01 (SP3 minimum). Personally, I believe we must force Microsoft to make the NT line more forgiving by brunt of our withheld business. Either that or we all just give up our creativity and go Sun ‘dumbboxes’…
Ron

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1) Do you REALLY need/want to?
2) Will your current software REALLY work with it?
3) Upgrade ONE machine for a start

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1- the first thing to be done is to check u r hardware and HCL with windows 2000.
2- try to install the windows 2000 on a server “test server” that has the same specification of u
the real server.
3-be sure that u have understand the AD and planned the tree for your domain , to take the full rel advantage of windows 2000

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just one advice : wait and see…

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1. Read the “Mother of All Windows 2000 Upgrade Guides” By Ed Bott.
2. Update your Resume`
3. Build a shrine dedicated to Bill Gates, burn insense, light candles, sit in a lotus position and repeat the following mantra 100,000 times “All hail thepower of system backups”.

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Well First things first . Look at your infrastructure & then talk. During my preview of the Product. I’d say. I’ve found it to be stable & (At long last) organized . Novices do have a problem with MMC but still.
secondly. during the Migration process Try to unistall all software from any other Software vendor . This will guarantee a full user migration. Oracle 7.3.2 or 7.3.4 dont work with win2k. the only version i could get it to work with was 8.0.5.

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The previous answers all identify the need for tight planning, policy reviews and upgrade issues. In an optimal setting, I would set up a “test site” and do a clean install (no upgrade)before I attempted a full migration affecting my users. Because of the active directory, I would chart carefully changes in administrative role and sub-roles. Finally, I would track down some benchmarks on hardware and consider upgrade needs based not only on APP and OS installs, but future service packs whichcan eat a fair amount of memory.

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* Prepare for Win2000 to devour your entire network. I.E. if you plan on keeping NT4 machines and Win9x boxes around your network will still require WINS and all of its broadcast traffic which makes bandwidth utilization inefficient. So it will haveto be either all or nothing for best results.
* Check all your apps & hardware for compatibility before upgrading.
* Win2000 has better integration with Unix than ever before thanks to its support of Kerberos.
* Most important has to be flattening your domain structure before the upgrade. There will be no more PDC/BDC’s only DC’s. But you can always go back to NT4’s domain structure if you keep an NT4 PDC around.
* Amusingly enough Win 2000 uses the terms trees & forests to describe it OU’s for Active directory [Reminds one of Banyan’s Vines doesn’t it].

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I went to one of the direct access sessions that Microsoft hosted for Windows 2000. One of the things that sounds good, but is a little scary is the Intellimirror. When you assign a program to a user, it could end up causing some major licensing issues because each time a user goes to a computer that does not have an assigned program and they try to use that program, the application is automatically installed on that computer. Since licenses are per computer and not per user, you could end up with an illegal copy of a program on a computer very easily. I got a response from Microsoft on this issue and they said, “As it stands right now, the application would remain on the computer until such time as an Administrator, or the user that installed the application Uninstalls the program. To have the program automatically uninstall after the user has logged off is not a feature of group policy. However, the application would uninstall if the hard disk space of the computer was runninglow.”

Another pro

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I went to one of the direct access sessions that Microsoft hosted for Windows 2000. One of the things that sounds good, but is a little scary is the Intellimirror. When you assign a program to a user, it could end up causing some major licensing issues because each time a user goes to a computer that does not have an assigned program and they try to use that program, the application is automatically installed on that computer. Since licenses are per computer and not per user, you could end up with an illegal copy of a program on a computer very easily. I got a response from Microsoft on this issue and they said, “As it stands right now, the application would remain on the computer until such time as an Administrator, or the user that installed the application Uninstalls the program. To have the program automatically uninstall after the user has logged off is not a feature of group policy. However, the application would uninstall if the hard disk space of the computer was runninglow.”

Another pro

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Another problem this may cause, and I am still waiting to hear back from Microsoft on this one is, say you have user A who is the primary user of a computer and user B who happens to use this computer one time.
User A is assinged the app Word 97 and user B is assigned Word 2000. If user B logs on to the computer and uses Word 2000, it is now installed on that computer. When user A logs back in, will he have Word 97 or Word 2000?????? What if user A doesn’t want Word 2000, and how many problems are going to be caused by having two versions of the same program installed on a computer?

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first, it isn’t feasible to wipe out your old os to load 2000 so, we need to work on upgrades.
1 remove all unessary programs, and as many drivers as possible.
2 remove all fixit programs and antivirus programs and set your video back to 256 colors and, make sure the drive isn’t compressed
3.load the 2000 os.. and cross your fingers!

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1. Check prices on upgrading all equipment and software to W2k, add in training.
2. Check prices on traning support personell to support Thin client computing. Factor in costs to buy servers and software. Factor in not having to replace as much hardware in the long run.
3. Decide which way is best (Good Luck!).

This is what we are trying to do now.

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