Upgrading NT4 network to 2000 network

DJNafey · 14-03-2005, 07:10 AM

Anyone here know anything about domain names and upgrading from an old Windows NT4 network?

I'm currently going through a massive project to upgrade our old network. Our current NT4 network domain is called "Office". I'm going through a training course at the moment about Windows 2000 server management and networking and it has explained that the domain names need names like you get on the Internet, e.g. Office.com or Office.net. If I call my new Windows 2000 network domain "Office.net", will all of the client PCs (predominantly Windows 2000 Professional) link to the new domain automatically? What I mean is, will it still say "Office" in the list of domain names that the users see when they come in in the morning and try to log on or do I have to go round to every PC and re-connect it to a new domain? We run lots of hard disk imaging software, have dual-boots and triple-boots, laptops out of the office, systems we don't use for months on end and then want to switch on and have working straight away, etc so a totally different domain could be a real logistical nightmare.

Am I going to cause myself a headache if I call the domain something completely different, i.e. the same name as our web site domain name so that we can manage our own web server and email server more easily in the future?

In fact, I'm actually upgrading our domain controller to Windows Server 2003 but I haven't got into the 2003 part of my course yet and I assume that it's still the same as Windows 2000 networking principles.

Would REALLY appreciate some advice on this as I've only got another 3 days of training on this and then I'm scheduled to start setting up the new domain controller later this week and implementing it all straight away after that!

Thanks in anticipation

AphJN · 14-03-2005, 07:08 PM

Out our Small office our Domain is just JETNETMAIN. Not '.' anything else other than local which the Win2K AS server puts in by itself. We have 10 servers and 108 pcs that connect to the Domain Controller with the domain of jetnetmain. When we switched our network over from I guess it was NT4 (Domain was JETNET1) to the new Domain it required each PC be setup on the new domain via Active Directory then log Each PC into the New Domain. I dont know how much of this was done because we have a retentive Technical Director or what, but I know we do make it harder than it needs to be here.

DJNafey · 14-03-2005, 09:22 PM

Thanks for the advice AphJN. My boss, the MD, really wants me to call the new domain controller something different to our old NT domain controller. Re-linking everyone's mapped network drives will be a piece of cake with a logon script but I'm not too sure how easily I can get everyone's Outlook profiles to point to a new server with a different name

Doing the Exchange Server 2003 administration course tomorrow and Wednesday though and, thankfully, it looks like there's quite a lot in it about migrating from Exchange Server 5.5, so that's comforting

I've finished the Windows 2000 Server / Professional / Administration course this morning and, in the last couple of hours, I did find that the PCs should all be able to log on easily if I keep the same domain name, as you've said. "Office.local" will be treated by the client PCs as being the same as "Office", which it is now. It would be nice, for future expansion reasons, if I renamed my domain to match our web site address but it's really not worth the extra headache now - my rollout is on a REALLY tight schedule and the potential benefits weren't that big a deal anyway.

Thanks again for the response

DJNafey · 14-03-2005, 09:24 PM

Ooops, I'd better get off the Internet - I've still got 3 or 4 hours of Windows Server 2003 training to finish off tonight so that I can stay on schedule !!

DJNafey · 20-03-2005, 07:07 PM

It turns out that, because my new server is running Small Business Server 2003, you have to put it on an entirely different domain anyway

Should be running a test PC onto the new domain on Tuesday so I'll see if Microsoft included any migration tools to help me move my test PC from the old domain to the new one or whether I'll still have to go round to every PC in the building. Fingers crossed ...... but, from what I've seen so far, I'm not too optimistic