My Corner of the Interweb

Entry 200.

Mood: Tired.
Music: How Soon Is Now, Love Spit Love.
Game: World of Warcraft, Planetside, Call of Duty, Auto Assault Beta.
Book: None.
Muffin: I had a croissant. They were out of muffins(!?).
Punchline: Nope.

This is my 200th entry into my blog. That's a lot of writing.

OK...the migration went pretty well overall. I can state that I know how to migrate an NT4 Domain to a W2003 Domain for the most part.

Things to keep in mind:

- NETBIOS must be activated on the 2003 box.
- You need to create a trust relationship between the two domains (at least during migration.)
- The DHCP server(s) must point to the 2003 box's DNS to resolve the Domain routing, then recursively hunt further upstream for other DNS resolution.
- The ADMT 2.0 tool is invaluable. Migrate the users, and all attached groups by using the User Migration Wizard. Prune the groups you no longer need. Useful tip: Adjust the password settings policy BEFORE migrating the users...or you might find yourself with a whole bunch of random passwords on the new domain. Oops.
- Each machine needs to now be joined to the new domain. Each machine must have the domain admin account added to their users/groups. Check that the internal firewall of each machine is shut off, or it will prevent the RPC ninjas from migrating the machine properly. Lastly, ensure that you know the name of the machine.
- Use the Computer Migration Wizard to move the machine over from the old domain to the new one, copying all security settings to the new domain. It should move the machine into the AD immediately, and take anywhere from 3 to 30 minutes for the Migration Agents to move the data from the old profiles to the new profiles. The wizard will tell you when the machine is migrated. If all went well, the machine will reboot on its own.
- Log in under the new Domain with the logon and password as specified. It should take a moment or two, then log on as if you were connected to the old domain.
- Note: Mail passwords, saved web passwords, and cookie/session data seems to not get migrated. You'll need to launch outlook and re-enter the mail passwords of the individuals. Nothing you can do about the web stuff. It DOES move bookmarks. Not cookies.

That's pretty much it. Once all the machines are moved from the old Domain, you can take down the old server, remove the trust relationship, and remove any DNS pointers you added. You SHOULD be able to shut off NETBIOS at this point if you want, and if you aren't running any machines with OSs older than W2000. Of course, there's no harm it leaving it on, I don't think.

So, I have two machines left, and I can take down the old server. And then...the Bastard Operator from Hell lives again....

Posted by Glenn at August 23, 2005 01:43 PM