NT4 to 2003 upgrade - client setup

I am performing an upgrade from NT4 to 2003 and have done a bit of testing
but I am still unsure of the behavior of workstations and servers when they
suddenly find themselves on an upgraded domain.

Currently, the plan is this:

1. Take a NT4 BDC on a virtual machine and upgrade it to 2003. Add
NT4Emulator key.
2. Configure DNS, etc. Verify everything transferred over. Remove
NT4Emulator key.
3. Reboot.
4. Configure clients to use new DNS server.
5. Shutdown all other NT4 BDCs.

Im uncertain at what happens between steps 3 and 4. Will the workstations
continue to be able to authenticate on the domain before I change their DNS?
On my test machine, it looks like hung up, so I was forced to reboot it
before it accepted being a member of the AD domain. I could see its domain
name changed from "domain" to the FQDN I chose "domain.local".

Are reboots required? Will there be interruption of service?

Thanks

Hello drzaius2000,

1. You must use the PDC not a BDC to upgrade to Windows server 2003. If you
don't have that amount of servers, the NT4Emulator regkey is not a must (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/298713)

2. DNS is the most important part for Active directyory, make sure to use
only domain DNS servers on the NIC. After the upgrade process is completed
check the new DC with the support tools dcdiag /v, netdiag for errors. Therefore
install the support\tools\suptools.msi form the 2003 installation disk on
the 2003 DC.

3. So during AD implementation you choose a different domain name as before,
from single label domain name DOMAIN to DOMAIN.LOCAL? BTW, if you have MAC
OS in use you run into conflict with .LOCAL top level domain name, so better
choose something like .LOC for the internal domain name.

Of course a reboot is needed for the servers during upgrade. For the clients
you have to make sure they use the new domain DNS server on the NIC only,
so you can be sure they only work with that one and as you are changing the
domain name they also have to get the correct one.

Here you find all detailed steps:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserv...t4domtoad.mspx

Best regards

Meinolf Weber
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> I am performing an upgrade from NT4 to 2003 and have done a bit of
> testing but I am still unsure of the behavior of workstations and
> servers when they suddenly find themselves on an upgraded domain.
>
> Currently, the plan is this:
>
> 1. Take a NT4 BDC on a virtual machine and upgrade it to 2003. Add
> NT4Emulator key.
> 2. Configure DNS, etc. Verify everything transferred over. Remove
> NT4Emulator key.
> 3. Reboot.
> 4. Configure clients to use new DNS server.
> 5. Shutdown all other NT4 BDCs.
> Im uncertain at what happens between steps 3 and 4. Will the
> workstations continue to be able to authenticate on the domain before
> I change their DNS? On my test machine, it looks like hung up, so I
> was forced to reboot it before it accepted being a member of the AD
> domain. I could see its domain name changed from "domain" to the FQDN
> I chose "domain.local".
>
> Are reboots required? Will there be interruption of service?
>
> Thanks
>