replacing nt4 file server with win2k file server

[andyshannon]

I am not doing an upgrade here, i am building a new server and i am going to replace the old nt4 file server completely and take it offline forever. Problem is the network drives on all 50 client pcs running anything from win98, win2000 and winxp pro are mapped to folder like "sys" on the server named "ntserver". I have built the new file server and copied all the data to it and copied all the same shared folder names and permissions on the new server which i named "ntserver2" and brought it on the domain. My plan next was to turn off the old "ntserver" and rename "ntserver2" to be named "ntserver" and than i wouldnt have to remap each clients mapped network drives to a new server name. When i try to rename the new server to the old servers name it gave me an error that a computer with that name has already authenticated on the domain.

This freaked me out a little bit to go on the nt4 pdc and delete the original file servers account off of the pdc, so i did a test first and mapped a spare pc with the same share names as my ntserver2 pc, than i mapped yet another pc to the share on ntserver2 and than turned off ntserver2, than went on the pdc and deleted ntserver2 account off of the pc and renamed the spare pc the be ntserver2 with the same share name as was on the original ntserver2 and went to my "yet another pc" and clicked on the mapped network drive that originally pointed to the original ntserver2, but when i clicked on it, eventually it would pop up that it could not reconnect to the drive.

When i go on network neighborhood i see the new ntserver2 but when i click on it, i get an error and cant browse it either. because of this test i dont think i should delete my active ntserver account off of the pdc and rename the new ntserver2 to ntserver.
can anyone help with this??? before my boss tells me to just do something to get it done tomorrow night??

 

[m33sta]

Found new area in microsoft technet specific to server consolidation

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/consolidation/default.mspx

If you dont ask you wont get
Steve Poole
Technical Analyst
Cinram UK ltd

http://WWW.cinram.com

 

[andyshannon]

thx for the link but it didnt provide any technical help, just a general overall guideline of how to do it.

 

[mawilson]

You will also want to change the IP address of the new machine to match what the original machine was. Or you can change it in DNS and WINS to point to the new server's IP address.

 

[andyshannon]

problem is the original file server was dhcp, should i change it to its latest dhcp ip address that it got assigned?

 

[mawilson]

You can try that or just make sure the entries in DNS and WINS are updated after you rename the new server. The machines have to be able to resolve the name to the right IP address to find the server and shares. If they are still looking for the old IP, they will never find it since the machine is turned off.