Upgrading NT domain to 2K this weekend - questions

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kevin McKee
  • Start date Start date
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Kevin McKee

OK, this is it. I am upgrading this weekend. I have made
a new, clean NT PDC - let's call it the "Compaq" - (OK, I
salvaged an old PC - P933/384M/4G C drive(3.3G
free)/100BaseT NIC, etc. to do it), syncronized my domain -
OK so far. I have a couple of BDC's and an EX5.5
server. Except for changing the DNS on their TCP setups I
expect these to remain untouched. I have backed up
everything and plan on taking my old PDC (now a BDC) off
line. I have another brand new server waiting to have W2K
installed - let's call it the "Dell". BTW I have a single
domain, about 65 users. We''ll be running in mixed mode
for the forseeable future. One of my BDCs is currently
configured as a WINS server, and I have no plans to change
this anytime soon.

Last minute questions:
1. Since the Compaq is not the most powerful beast in the
world, I plan on it having a short life as a DC. What I
would like to do is just do a bare-bones AD setup on this
machine but just do what it takes to get AD up and running
and then set up the nice new Dell as a DC. Since I have
been told that DNS is a resource hog I would like to set
up the Dell as the main DNS machine and relegate the
Compaq to a backup role. How do I go about doing this?
Also, in my existing NT servers, when I re-do the DNS do I
set the Hostname to be the same as whichever DC ends up
being the main DNS box?

2. Do I have to put DHCP on my first server (the Compaq)
or can that wait until I get the Dell up and running?

3. After my domain is set up and stable with both DCs up
and running, I plan on adding yet another new box and
making it a DC (this will eventually become our new EX2000
server). At this time I plan on decomissioning the Compaq
per the steps I read on Tek-Tips. Is this weekend work or
can I get away with doing it during normal working hours?

Thanks for all your help, everyone!
 
Kevin,

This is a weekend job. I've answered your questions inline

--
--Brian Desmond
Windows Server MVP
(e-mail address removed)12.il.us
Http://www.wpcp.org
OK, this is it. I am upgrading this weekend. I have made
a new, clean NT PDC - let's call it the "Compaq" - (OK, I
salvaged an old PC - P933/384M/4G C drive(3.3G
free)/100BaseT NIC, etc. to do it), syncronized my domain -
OK so far. I have a couple of BDC's and an EX5.5
server. Except for changing the DNS on their TCP setups I
expect these to remain untouched. I have backed up
everything and plan on taking my old PDC (now a BDC) off
line. I have another brand new server waiting to have W2K
installed - let's call it the "Dell". BTW I have a single
domain, about 65 users. We''ll be running in mixed mode
for the forseeable future. One of my BDCs is currently
configured as a WINS server, and I have no plans to change
this anytime soon.
Click to expand...

You can run WINS on 2000 no problem. It includes an upgraded version of
WINS.
Last minute questions:
1. Since the Compaq is not the most powerful beast in the
world, I plan on it having a short life as a DC. What I
would like to do is just do a bare-bones AD setup on this
machine but just do what it takes to get AD up and running
and then set up the nice new Dell as a DC. Since I have
been told that DNS is a resource hog I would like to set
up the Dell as the main DNS machine and relegate the
Compaq to a backup role. How do I go about doing this?
Also, in my existing NT servers, when I re-do the DNS do I
set the Hostname to be the same as whichever DC ends up
being the main DNS box?
Click to expand...

The Compaq box is more than sufficient for what you're doing. DNS will not
affect its performance. You want to have DNS on at least two of your AD DCs,
it actually is integrated with the active directory. If you want to specify
the dell as the primary dns in the DHCP scope, you can do that.
2. Do I have to put DHCP on my first server (the Compaq)
or can that wait until I get the Dell up and running?
Click to expand...

So long as you've got something else handling DHCP until you get your Dell
server running, you don't need to worry about it. Just remember to update
the scope to reflect the new DNS IPs.
3. After my domain is set up and stable with both DCs up
and running, I plan on adding yet another new box and
making it a DC (this will eventually become our new EX2000
server). At this time I plan on decomissioning the Compaq
per the steps I read on Tek-Tips. Is this weekend work or
can I get away with doing it during normal working hours?
Click to expand...

You could do this during working hours. The only time a user's mailbox is
unavailable is when it is being moved between servers, which doesn't take
that long.
 
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