domain controller upgrade from winnt4 to win2000 - best route?

[wingtong 0]

 

We will be needing to upgrade our domain servers from winnt4 to win2000 in the near future as winnt4's life is coming to an end. Win2000 because we've always had it (did not install it for the longest time) and win2003 cost $ and is not needed. Anyhow, what is the best route to go from a winnt4 domain network to a win2000 domain network?

 

I'm thinking to create a new second domain, "trust" that domain with the first existing nt4 domain, slowly migrate all workstations and peripherals to this new win2000 domain, then phase out the first existing nt4 domain. Any thoughts?

 

Is there a more direct path to migrate from winnt4 to win2000 domain servers? Any good ideas or source would be appreciated.

 

 

[PR 0]

If you have a "simple" nt4 domain containing PDC and some BDC´s there shouldn´t be such a big hazzle to upgrade. Take offline one BDC in case of catastrofy and then upgrade existing PDC to w2k. It should automatically became DC for your domain. Correct any issues and go ahead upgrade the rest of the servers to w2k. Add them as member servers in the domain whith the exception of at least one server that should became additional DC for redundance.

 

This is the "smple" answer and if your domain is complex you really should do some research before upgrading.

 

Edit w2k=windows 2000 server

[wingtong 0]

thanks....let me correct my intent...our existing NT PDC/BDC are old and running at 200-300 Mhz. I actually want to replace them with new (or at least better/recycled) hardware and at the same time integrate win2000 PDC/BDC servers to our network. Can I take the existing NT BDC offline, configure a new win2000 server to be the new BDC, then take the existing NT PDC offline, and then promote that newly configured win2000 BDC server to be the PDC...then configure another win2000 server as the final BDC?