Software

Ask something
Discussion Locked

Active Directory Name Space planning

0 helpful
2 replies

by stuarta

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

Should you set your 2000 AD name space to be the same as your existing domain name when migrating
to 2000?

Example

Single site with a single domain
Existing emails are user@abccorp.co.uk
Existing web site is www.abccorp.co.uk
Existing NT4.0 domain is abcuk

Any ideas on the preferred AD name space
and why?

Thanks for your time

2 replies

by timwalsh

There are no real hard and fast rules for AD domain naming except for one: AD domains cannot be renamed.
Obviously this means some thought needs to go into your chosen naming convention (which is where you are now).
FYI 1: When an AD domain is created, it uses the Internet domain-naming format (abcuk.com or abcuk.local for example).
FYI 2: Your AD domain name need not bear any relation to your NT4 domain name (with one caveat). An AD domain actually has 2 domain names: the AD name (for use with Win2K and later clients) and a NetBIOS domain name (for clients prior to Win2K - including NT). When creating an AD domain from scratch, the NetBIOS domain name will default to the portion of the AD domain name prior to the dot. (i.e. AD domain name - abccorp.co.uk; NetBIOS domain name - abccorp). However, if you migrate a NT4 domain, the NetBIOS domain name will be the same as the NT4 domain name and can't be changed.
FYI 3: At the log-on screen, the NetBIOS domain name is shown.
An obvious answer (and the easiest solution) would be to use your present Internet domain name (abccorp.co.uk) if possible. There a couple of factors that will determine if this is possible.
Some questions to point you in the right direction:
Where is your DNS, web site and email being hosted, internally or by an ISP? DNS is especially important, as AD needs full-time access to a DNS server. If all are being hosted internally, it makes it infinitely easier to use your Internet domain name (however this is not absolutely necessary). If all are being hosted by your ISP and you want to incorporate your Internet domain name, a solution would be to have the ISP create a subzone (ad.abccorp.co.uk or something similar) and host the subzone ontheir DNS server.
(cont.)

by timwalsh

(cont.)
What is your current IP addressing scheme? Are you using public (routable) or private (non-routable) IP addresses? Do the IP addresses of any of your computers need to be resolvable from the Internet (not likely if you are already using aprivate IP addressing scheme. If this is the case, you could host your own DNS (for your network) and call it whatever you like (abcuk.local for example) (if you are setting up a totally private AD domain, the .local extension is preferred to prevent DNS from attempting to register the domain on the Internet.)
What is the long-term outlook to grow/expand? Will you need to create child domains in the future?
Are there politics involved (The boss says "We have to include our Internet domain name in the new AD domain name!")?
So the bottom line here is you have great flexibility is choosing a naming scheme, but you do have to plan ahead and take into consideration not only your current environment but also your future environment.
Mostgood references dealing with AD will go into (in varying levels of detail) most of these same questions.
Hope I've pointed you in the right direction. Good Luck!

This discussion is closed to new replies.