Guido, Thanks for the reply - always appreciate hearing from you.
I agree completely that the complexity of a domain rename is not a light undertaking (understatement of the year) given that the Microsoft White Paper detailing the process wheighs in at a whopping 100 pages. (Clearing the record) I hope that no one construed that my advice was that the domain rename was 'not as bad as it looks'. The message was that getting to Forest Functional mode was not a huge issue - no where near as daunting as getting to Windows 2000 Native. In no way am I suggesting that the domain rename process is easily accomplished or advisable - the process, as you pointed out is fraught with difficulty. I, too, would love to witness the planning and execution of a successful rename. However, I doubt that it's going to occur with the given toolset. At present, the risks FAR outweigh the minimal reward. Rick Kingslan MCSE, MCSA, MCT Microsoft MVP - Active Directory Associate Expert Expert Zone - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of GRILLENMEIER,GUIDO (HP-Germany,ex1) Sent: Friday, July 04, 2003 2:15 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Domain Rename can you do a live demo when you do the rename? I'd love to be part of it... This is seriously a major undertaking, and you should obviously check the dependency of all your applications leveraging the netbios name of your domain within them (e.g. SMS is still a friend of the NetBios domain name...). The Exchange piece was already mentioned, but another known challenge is with domain based DFS, as the rename will likely break the DFS referrals. Be prepared to build a big lab which can host a very realistic environment with most of your apps and then do a lot of testing. Hope you have no NT4 left in your environment, as you'll (obviously) need to rejoin these to the renamed domain. Regarding the overall effort, don't forget that if DC DNS names should match new domain names, then each DC must undergo the DC rename procedure. Maybe even more important: you need RPC connectivity to every DC in the forest from the host running rendom.exe tool during operation - this can be quite challenging itself accross the WAN to 85 sites. I'd say the road to Windows 2000 Native was a piece of cake ;-) At least a cake that you could cut into pieces - the domain rename cake you have to swallow at once. I am sure MS will succeed in making this much easier in the future, but for now, if you don't absolutely have to do it in an environment of your size, you might want to think twice about it. Just something to cheer you up on your journey... /Guido -----Original Message----- From: Jan Wilson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Mittwoch, 2. Juli 2003 02:59 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thanks Rick - we find the two reboots per device requirement a bit ... tricky. (24 x 7 operations with 450 servers - 12500 workstations - 85 sites). Sounds like a mess of work for what I consider optics! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rick Kingslan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2003 5:08 PM Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Domain Rename > Jan, > > Key point is that you must be in Windows Server 2003 Forest Functional Mode > - only W2k3 DCs in the forest. It's not anywhere near as bad as it looks. > Not anywhere as daunting as the road to Windows 2000 Native.... List info : http://www.activedir.org/mail_list.htm List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/list_faq.htm List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/mail_list.htm List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/list_faq.htm List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/mail_list.htm List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/list_faq.htm List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/
