My plan to upgrade Domain from 2000 to 2003 1

[AndyNZ]

Not sure if upgrading to 2003 is a big deal.
Everything i've read seems rather positive, but i thought i'd post my plan here for a peer review of sorts.
So here goes.

1 2000 domain in Native mode
4 DC's running Win2k SP3

3 DC's in Mead Office (FMSO housed here)(TS Licensing here)
1 DC in offsite office acting as a print server as well

Running 1x Exchange 2003 server (Not 2000 so no probs here).

Here's the plan:

1.) Upgrade all Domain controllers to Win 2000 SP4
2.) Forest Prep and Domain Prep on FSMO server
3.) Leave for 24 hours to make sure there are no replication issues.
4.) Install 1st Windows 2003 Svr into Head Office. (new hardware)
5.) Upgrade it to Windows 2003 SP1
6.) DC Promo it into the domain
7.) Install 2nd Windows 2003 Svr into Head Office. (new hardware)
8.) Upgrade it to Windows 2003 SP1
9.) DCPromo it into the domain
10.) Move FSMO roles onto one of the new 2003 DC's
11.) Install 2003 TS Licensing service onto new DC and install 2000 and 2003 TS Licensing CAL's
12.) Decommission or Upgrade old Windows 2000 servers
13.) Upgrade offiste DC to Windows 2003 and update printer drivers to Win 2003 versions.
14.) Change to Windows 2003 NATIVE MODE.

We have mostly Winxp and 2000 clients with the odd Win95 as well. So I think there is a new security policy setting in Windows 2003 I need to change to make sure the Win95 PC's can still log on.

My main concerns / questions.

1.) Win95 PC's - Need to change policy to allow them to still logon
2.) Will all the Windows 2000 group policies still work?
3.) Will my VB logon script still work?
4.) Will Exchange 2003 have any issues

Am I missing anything?
Will this work?

 

[NickFerrar]

Sounds pretty good to me. Personally I'd forest prep then wait 24-48 hours before domain prepping (then wait another 24 hours). I'd also wait a week after step 13 before going native mode.

Not sure on the Win95 PCs, you really should get rid of them I haven't had a problem with our GPOs or login scripts (both VBS and kix) since upgrading. Can't see Exchange having issues (assuming it's not installed on a DC).

Apart from that, if you're using Win2k3 sp1 then set the GPO to turn off firewall functionality. And remember WINS/DNS/DHCP when putting in new servers. I had a problem moving TS license server to, stuff didn't seem to re-register as I was expecting but nothing's stopped working since (we use a Select licence pack to which may complicate things).

 

[bdoub1eu]

Question,

Once the new 2003 server is online and dcpromo'd, what have you all seen is the best approach upgrading the old 2000 DC's: upgrade using the 2003 cd or just removing them and building new DC's?

 

[wdoellefeld]

IMO, removing them and rebuilding.

On the other side, I had a client about a year back and they wanted inplace upgrades of their 3 DCs. Seemed to work out better than I thought it would.

FRCP

http://www.frcp.net

 

[schtek]

win 95 ensure there in a group called pre 2000 its under builtin folder as u might have log on probs, i also think it only gives them read only so u might have folder problems once in.

"Ask not what your computer network can do for you - ask what you can do to the computer network to give you a quiet moment ."

 

[bdoub1eu]

I had also read about taking the server that has the FSMO roles offline during the upgrade process...Is that right?

 

[bdoub1eu]

Woops, not the server that has all the roles, but I read something about leaving a server that has one of the roles offline during the upgrade.

 

[bdoub1eu]

Also could you explain another thing for me? Running the forestprep and domainprep is pretty much just upgrading the AD structure. Once AD is upgraded to 2003, you can just bring a 2003 member server online and dcpromo and move the fsmo roles over, correct?

 

[adcfaq]

that's correct.

---------------------------------------
Sr. Directory Services/Exchange Consultant

http://adcfaq.8m.com/

 

[bdoub1eu]

What about DNS and DHCP on the 2000 DC's...Can you leave that on there and how long before you should begin upgrading the 2000 DC's?

 

[bdoub1eu]

Question:

After running the /forestprep and /domainprep commands, which is the better apporach? Upgrade the 2000DC that has all of the FSMO roles to 2003 using the 2003 cd or dcpromo a 2003 member server and move the roles over?

Also have any of you seen issues with running an upgrade from setup on the 2003 cd? I've always been kinda partial to rebuilding rather than upgrading.

Thanks in advance!

 

[wdoellefeld]

The safer of the two options would be to add a new 2003 server and promote it and move roles.

FRCP

http://www.frcp.net

 

[AndyNZ]

I've completed the upgrade / migration to 2003.
Went really well.
What I found.

1.) In place upgrades worked fine, as long as I had W2k SP4 and the latest HP Support packs loaded (HP DL 360 servers) before the upgrade.

2.) Newly built servers worked fine as well (as expected)

3.) AD / Exchange / Logon performance increased after upgrading and changing to 2003 Native mode

4.) Windows 2003 SP1 takes AGES to install (45mins at least)

5.) In place upgrade of FSMO role holder worked a treat! Also upgraded IIS and our old Intranet running on that box STILL WORKED! I didn't expect that.

6.) You need the latest 2003 HP Support Pack after the upgrade if running HP servers. May be common sense, but if you forget you may run into weird driver issues.

7.) Safeword for Metaframe still worked fine after the upgrade (it updatef the Schema in WIn2k)

8.) Win95 clients didn't seem to have any issues, as long as I made the documented policy change.

So for me, an all round great experience.

 

[bdoub1eu]

So what's the best way to do test this in a lab environment?

I basically want to test this on my production environment so it would help if my lab was just like my production.

I have tried to backup one of my DC's using the system state and then restore it to another server of different hardware and it hangs while booting up...Even if it did work, I don't have all the other DC's in the lab that I do in the production.

Also, has anyone actually performed the upgrade during business hours?

Thanks!

 

[detroit]

What I am currently doing for a test environment was setting up 2 PC's, one being my main DC and the second, I installed Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 and setup different servers, including the new one. Tested transfer of roles, joining domain, etc. Works great so far, and if I need to recreate a server, I can just copy from another virtual file that was setup. Works great.

Detroit

 

[wmin]

I can't locate adprep.exe in specified directory i386, instead my install CD has this file in AMD64 directory, which does not run on Win2K. My new OS is 64bit, I am not sure if this should have any impact on utility files... Has anyone experience anything like that?

 

[bdoub1eu]

Has anyone done this during business hours? Above, it says to wait 24 - 48 hrs after the adprep commands...Not like anyone has an entire week when nobody will be on the system...

Has anyone ran into any problems by running the adprep commands? I'm just trying to figure a time to schedule this...Friday evenings are always good since you will have Saturday and Sunday to fix what you break

 

[wmin]

Err, sure, how about I cannot even run adprep!

 

[bdoub1eu]

Is the system state the only thing to backup? Should we also ghost the server or will the system state backup everything we need.

 

[bdoub1eu]

Are there any tests that I should run first on the domain?

According to a M$ article 325379 "How to upgrade Windows 2000 DC's to Windows Server 2003" it says to run:

DCDIAG /e /test:frssysvol
DCDIAG /test:FSMOCHECK
REPADMIN /SHOWREPS DCNAME

Are there any other tests I should run?