IT Employment

Ask something
Discussion Locked

Upgrading NT4PDC to Windows 2000 Server

0 helpful
9 replies

by gjudy

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

We have a large 22 remote location network with about 300 mixed Windows 95, 98 and Nt4 Workstation computers. We have 1 PDC at our operations center and a BDC at each remote location as well as a BDC here at our operations center. We want to upgrade our PDC here and our BDC here at the operations center to Windows 2000 Server. What things do we need to watch out for and what downside or upside is there to doing this. We also want to migrate our network to all 22 remote locations to Windows 2000 server but take about 3 months to do so.

Please give any pro's and con's and any steps we need to follow and things to do ahead of time.

9 replies

by charleskin

We are in process of the same idea. We have set up a test network of 7 machines to test and implement the upgrade.

Our machines are: Win2000 professional, Win 98, Unix box running Samba, 1 NT 4 PDC, 2 NT 4 BDC?s , and a Win2000 Server for the Empty Root.

First: Download the document ? Best Practice Active Directory Design for Managing Windows Networks? from the Microsoft site.
Second: Read and fill out the forms for how you want to see your network.
Third: Use a test network to validate and document all the steps necessary for a successful upgrade.

Now for the fun stuff.
Add a new machine NT4 OS. Make this a BDC and add to your network.
Synch the 2 BDC?s and the PDC. Remove one of the BDC?s. This will be your fall back machine in case the upgrade fails.
Bring a new Win2000 Server and make this your empty root. Add Active directory and DNS.
Upgrade existing PDC to Win2000. Join the empty forest root as a child domain. Add WINS and DHCP to this machine. When you set up your first Child Domain the NETBIOS will ask you to verify name of domain for pre-Win200 Machines. This name should be the same as your existing and current domain. This way your users should not need to have their machines modified tostill access the network and services.
Ensure you set up your forward looking zone in DNS.
Establish trusts in both directions Child to Parent and Parent to child.
Make sure your exclusion for IP addresses are in place for the DHCP.
Now bring in other machines as needed

This is not an all encompassing response. This is generated as a rough scope of the work involved. It should give you a feeling for the work involved. This is based on what we have learned from using our test network.

Let me know how you are doing.
Charleskin

by charleskin

Then to finish off the upgrade, you can now create new child domains for each of your remote offices. i.e... your home office id:
companyname.com, this is the empty root.
usa.companyname.com, this is a local child domain.
japan.companyname.com, this is a remote child domain
and so on and so on.

by charleskin

Also, as a final note: We are planning on doing the upgrade on all local servers starting on a Friday evening and finishing Saturday early afternoon. We have 12 servers to upgrade. So far all indications point to creating the first child domain as being the one make or break event. We should be able to leave our 300 client machines alone, and they should be able to access the network and services as before.
We have spent about 400 manhours over 2 months to work through as many variables aspossible to minimize any problems. The true test will be in about 2 weeks.
We have started from our simulated current configuration in the test network, to a completely upgraded environment about 15 times, and finding new, smarter ways to completethe process. We have even had an outside consultant verify our configuration with us (just to be safe).
I hope this information is useful to you. The entire process has been very much an eye-opener and has added a few notches to our belts on troubleshooting and such.
Charleskin

by charleskin

Final Note:
Everything went well, we started the roll-out on Friday at 5:00 p.m. and went home and enjoyed the weekend by 9:00 p.m. Friday! The test network we setup and the pre-testing we accomplished paid off.
Lessons learned:
Plan, plan and plan more.
Be very aware of your system configuration (i.e. hard drive space, system requirements to upgrade..,etc...)
Document everything.
Have plenty of group meetings with all players to bounce ideas around.
Charleskin

by rjager

oh... And consider JUST upping the OS and NOT the complete domain structure ( ie. using ADS straight away). The upgrade of the server is then pretty straighforward. Just DO NOT switch to native mode on the w2k pdc and all should go well.

This discussion is closed to new replies.