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Windows 2000 Upgrade

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by casta

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Hi all,
I come from a tech support background, this is my first time doing network administration I am aware that I have a lot to learn and I am going to take some Windows 2000 classes and no I am not interested in boot camps to become certified on 2000. What I want is to learn it then become certified. This is my current setup:
IBM Netfinity:
NT 4.0 400 Mhz, 192RAM,1-4gig drive, 2-9Gb hard drives non fault tolerant.
Domain Controller with 35 user accounts.

Compaq Proliant 2500
NT 4.0 200Mhz, 192RAM, 2 Mirrored 9Gb hard drives. Domain Controller with 21 user accounts.

Compaq Proliant 2500
NT 4.0 200Mhz, 192RAM this one is very much our mail server, came from another office, even thought is a domain controller it does not authenticate any users at this time.

Compaq Proliant 1600
NT Terminal Server, 400Mhz processor, 512Ram offers terminal services for 4 remote users.

What do you guys recommend if I want to upgrade to Windows 2000 Server?
Should I upgrade all of the domain controllers separately or should I condensate onto one maybe two?. Somehow the idea of implementing Active Directory for the server with 21 accounts seems like overkill to me. All these servers are in the same physical location they havetrust relationships (Always breaking of course..). Since Windows 2000 server offers Terminal Services what use do you recommend for the current Terminal Server? I am thinking it might as well replace one of the Proliant Servers since they do not have the minimum requirements for a 2000 Server upgrade. Thank you very much for your help and most of all for your time.

10 replies

by jordana

You need to upgrade your PDC's first. Then BDC's.
I am assuming you have more than 1 domain since you have 2 DC's with different number of accounts. I would recommend you build a new BDC for each domain (as NT 4.0) and once everything is replicated, power it down and put it into a corner somewhere, just as a backup in case your upgrade doesn't take.
You should do some research and reading on technet for performing the upgrade.

Jordan

by casta

Note: These domain controllers host different domains, there are no BDC's. I am aware that I should start looking into building a BDC first, for replication before moving forward.

by timwalsh

With the number of users you have, there really isn?t any need for multiple domains unless you have some other overriding reason for maintaining them.

The next question is to collapse the domains before or after migrating to 2000. Your 2 Proliant 2500s do meet minimum requirements as far as CPU and RAM so you could go either way. However, the easiest route would probably be to collapse your domains into one prior to migrating. That way you only have one domain to migrate (obviously) to AD.

As far as Terminal Services, much depends on what those four remote users are actually doing. Terminal Services in Win2K can be used in one of 2 modes: Application Server and Remote Administration. Both modes cannot be active at the same time. In Application Server mode, you must buy Terminal Services Client Access Licenses (TSCALs) for each client accessing this server unless the clients are running Win2K Pro (in which case TSCALs are not needed). In Remote Administration mode, you are limited to 2 concurrent log-ons and by default access is limited to Administrators.

Your mail server could be a separate issue depending on email solution you are using.

While having an available BDC is not an absolute necessity, it could beuseful as a fall-back position in case your Win2k migration goes horribly wrong (of course, that could NEVER happen, because you are using Microsoft products, right).

Good luck.

by ranger666

First thing you should do is build a BDC in case things crash while upgrading; believe me this does happen. Next upgrade the PDC and if things go well go with the BDC. I don't see any reason for two DCs at all. So you can change one of them to BDC to make life easier.

by dion1

Hi there, I am going thru the same scenario. I found a really good pawer Point presentation that I will e-mail to you. Hope this help.

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