Adding 2000 servers into the domain

[dirtboy]

I am planning on adding server Win2k servers on to my network. Currently I have one NT4 PDC and one NT4 server. Both are running DNS services.

Initially I am going to add one 2000 server, which will later on run DNS services. I will then replace the PDC with another server, which will require moving the users and the DNS services to the new server.

Only a few users are logging on to the servers...they are accessing resources on the standalone server after being authenticated by the PDC. The standalone server will stay NT4.

What I'm looking for is any resources dealing with adding 2000 servers into a domain environment...I don't want them fighting each others and resources on understanding AD in terms of switching my DNS services over.

Any advice is greatly apprciated!

 

[Ladi]

Why server and not win2k professional for users?

~Ladi

 

[dirtboy]

Because, these are going to be file servers. Sorry for any confusion, users are running Win95, Win98 or NT4...

We don't have many resources on the servers, but a few users actually need to be authenticated to access resources on the standalone NT4 server.

 

[Rogue]

Try Windows 2000 Magazine website for some great resources on this type of thing. A subscription to the magazine is also a suggestion. Seems kind of a waste to use Win2k Server for file serving unless you are going to migrate to using Disk Quotas and some of the more advanced features too. Are you also going to migrate to AD?

 

[dirtboy]

Yes, I would like to migrate to AD. We have one server running three seperate software packages. One of those two, the vendor has asked use to use Win2k, because they developed their software to run on it. I would like to seperate the other two programs on to seperate servers for performance reasons. The other is running a seperate project and DNS services. I would like to move those DNS services to a different machine.

I figured this would be a good opportunity to start learning Win2k server and AD. The biggest problem I forsee is that the second server must stay NT4 for the time being, as the software developers haven't certified their stuff as Win2k compatible. Users need to be domain authenticated to access this server and I am concerned by migrating to 2k, that there might be some problems with users connecting to this box.

The other problem I forsee, is that the PDC is going to continue running during the time the first Win2k server goes up. I have heard of people having server conflicts and I wish to avoid this completely.

 

[stash]

If you are just doing file serving, you will just install a straight win2k server install, and not run dcpromo to upgrade to a domain controller, and AD. If you want to do DNS the nice way, you'll want to do Dynamic DNS which requires AD.

If you keep the NT servers you have to keep the domain in mixed mode, as opposed to native mode. Once you change to native, you cant go back. The nice thing about native mode is that you can nest things like crazy. Its really nice. Of course, that is totally incompatible with usrmgr in NT so your stuck with the usual way of doing groups.

Trust me, I redid my entire network to totally w2k on the client and server side, and I havent looked back. The advantages of that are endless. You can trash WINS, and just run DNS, AD is an administrative dream once you get over the learning curve, and things like quotas and DFS make you wonder why they didnt put that in earlier.

If you have any other specific 2000 server questions, throw me a line @ stash100@yahoo.com and I will do my best to help you.