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Windows 2003 Active Directory Questions

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by utken

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Hi. We're a 60-user LAN running on NT4 as our domain controller. For the first time we'll attempt to implement Active DIrectory along with an upgrade of the DC from NT to Windows 2003. The following are some questions we have and any input is greatly appreciated.

Current setup:

Server A (File server)- Domain controller on Windows NT 4 Server

Server B (print server)- member server on Windows 2000

Server C (DB server)- member server on WIndows 2000

Server D (SQL server)- member server on Windows 2000

LAN client workstations - Windows XP Pro, Windows 2000 Pro, Windows 98 and Windows 95.

Plans:
1. Upgrade Server A to Windows 2003 with Active Directory.
2. Make Server C as another domain controller and keep its existing operating system and setup

Questions:

1. Must all servers have the same OS level and Active Directory installed for AD to work?

2. Can Server C keep its current OS level and database setup if Active Directory is added to it?

3. How will the AD implementation affect the client users? Need any changes on the client workstation?

Thansks much:)

2 replies

by rindi1

1. The server don't need the same OS level and AD doesn't need to be installed on all. It does make sense to install AD on more than one server, mainly for redundancy and load balancing reasons. You will have to make sure you install AD in mixed mode so that pre win2000 still works.

2. C can stay as it is.

2a. D could also stay as it is, but it makes sense to upgrade to AD as that centralizes user management in SQL Databases (SQL Server 2000+ can utilize AD).

3. AD doesn't need to affect the users, but it can simplify things, particularly if you want to use a networked Printer, AD automatically supplies and installs the printer driver for the client's OS (if those drivers are present on the server). You don't really have to change anything on the client except that you will need to join the workstation to the AD Domain once it is up and running.

4. AD mostly centralizes the Administration of network objects like user, groups, Printers, Workstations etc. and connects with exchange server 2000+, SQL Server etc. This reduces the administrators workload.

by shawn

1. All of your servers do not need to be Windows 2003 - you can have a mix of Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 DCs in one Active Directory environment.

2. Server C can definetely stay as is. No issues there.

3. Some of the issues from the client side are spceific to Win9x. Specifically, once you have Active Directory installed, Win 9x has no idea how it works - they're not Active Directory-aware operating systems. Microsoft does have an Active Directory client you can download and install for 9x:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/server/evaluation/news/bulletins/adextension.asp

You will also need to keep in mind that you need to have DNS setup, since that's what Active Directory uses as it's default name resolution system, so you'll need to point all clients to your DC's with DNS installed in order for Active Directory to work.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Shawn

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