Migrating from Netware 5.1 to Windows Server 2000

[cthreepo]

Please can you help me with the following questions:

1) Has anybody migrated from Netware 5.1 to Windows Server 2000 and if so what was involved and what aspects were difficult etc?

2) What changes will need to made on the workstations?

3) Are there any known issues regarding the tools that Microsoft have made for migrating from Netware to Win 2000?

4) Is it possible and is it wise to have both servers operational on the same network (for migration purposes)?

5) What is the best method for migrating to Win 2000? (I have a basic Netware
Server set-up).

Thanks for your help.


let's help one another, not hinder.

 

[dkediger]

How many users/servers are involved?

Its been several years, but in a 60 user, single Novell server environment, I ignored MS's migration tools and simply recreated user accounts by hand. For your questions:

1) The biggest change will be familiarity with the ActiveDirectory and Group Policies. There is no centralized login script manager as in Novell. This is done either in the user profile in AD or through Group Policies. The "user" folders aren't as private by default as in Netware, but this can be modified by hand/policy. In AD, the "deny" privelege over-rides the "allow" privelege, which is opposite of NDS.

2.) If you are using Novell's client, you will want to uninstall that when you are finished with the conversion. Any drives that were mapped by the user, rather than through the login script, will need to be remapped. Same with printers.

3.) As I mentioned before, I just recreated everything manually. Didn't take very long and didn't introduce any quirks into either server environment.

4.) Yes, it is possible and probably wise to keep the Novell server connected. During a migration, I always try to leave a path back to my beginning point in case something doesn't work out and I need to fall back to regroup.

5.) In my migration, I brought the Win2k server into the same network and after establishing new users and login stuff migrated DHCP over first. Next, over a long weekend, modified workstations/printers to login to the Win2k server and removed the Novell client. Final step was to map a drive on the Win2k server to my data on the Novell server and copy data.

Your biggest hurdle will probably be dealing with a complex login script if you have one. If you do, and you're short on time and have some extra budget, check out ScriptLogic (

http://www.scriptlogic.com).

Basically its a GUI on the kixstart scripting language that will give you a more organized presentation of the login than MS does.

 

[cthreepo]

Thank you, that's great.

There are 1500 users and a single server.

Can you create user accounts in Win 2000 like you can in Novell i.e. is there a "UIMPORT" utility which can create users from a .csv file?

I suppose one of my main worries is being able to create a similar setup as I have with the Novell server and re-creating 'that' on the Windows Server.

Also, with Windows 2000 will I see the Hard disk drives as Volumes like in Novell?

Thanks,

Jim

let's help one another, not hinder.

 

[dkediger]

How active are those 1500 users - or how many connections are occuring at once?

If they're pretty active users, a single AD/Win2k server will buckle under that. Particularly if you've got an email or database app server from that server.

I wouldn't try to recreate 1500 by hand, so yeah, you do need some import tools. I know there are some decent third party ones out there also - just don't recall their names right now.

One other Windows server gotcha - there is no Filer/Salvage equivalent. Once someone deletes a network file, its gone except for your backup. There are third party tools to address this.

 

[cthreepo]

I would say no more than 300 connections at any given time.

Thanks.

let's help one another, not hinder.