Title: domain naming
Brian,
What do you mean with "but I want to say you can edit the netbios
name during the upgrade"? Are you saying it is possible to change the
NetBIOS name of the domain when doing an in-place upgrade from NT4-> W2K3?
Have I missed something?
Cathy,
To my understanding when doing
an in-place upgrade from NT4-> W2K3 it is not possible to change the NetBIOS
name of a WIndows domain. It is, however possible during the upgrade to choose a
DNS name for the upgraded domain that differs from the NetBIOS name. So if the
NetBIOS name of the NT4 domain is LEGACYDOMAIN then the NetBIOS name of the W2K3
domain will also be LEGACYDOMAIN when doing an in-place upgrade. So if the DNS
name of your parent domain is PARENT.COM normally yoy would assign
LEGACYDOMAIN.PARENT.COM as the DNS name of the upgraded domain. If the name
LEGACYDOMAIN changed to FUTUREDOMAIN you can assign FUTUREDOMAIN.PARENT.COM as
the DNS name of the upgraded domain. I would not prefer it though, but (as
I know of) there are no technical issues when the most left level of the DNS
name differs from the NetBIOS name. If your users logon using the old style they
will see LEGACYDOMAIN in the domain box. If they logon using an UPN they will
need to logon using [EMAIL PROTECTED] or
[EMAIL PROTECTED] depending on which one
you explicitely assign. For administrators it might also be confusing because
when using service accounts. There will be situations when you'll use
LEGACYDOMAIN\USER instead of the UPN.
If possible in your situation I
would prefer to install a new child domain in the forest with a NetBIOS name of
FUTUREDOMAIN and a DNS name of FUTUREDOMAIN.PARENT.COM and after that migrate
the LEGACYDOMAIN users and resources to the new AD child
domain.
Maybe it isn't of any trouble at
this moment having a difference between the NetBIOS and the DNS name, is that
still valed for the future? (can't find any reason right now, just wanted to
make sure you don't miss this one)
You yourself said it... the name
has changed and it was an ugly proces. Do you still want to have the old name
around?
A domain rename in W2K3,
independent of what domain you rename, affects your whole forest and only the
though of it makes me shiver!
Another possibility is to rename
the NT4 domain before upgrading. Although also not a very pretty proces and it
wouldn't be my first choice because depending on the size of the domain and
the systems installed in it this also makes me shiver. (although less painfull
the a forest rename)
Hope this helps
you!
Cheers,
Jorge
NOTES:
* This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties and
with no rights!
* Allways test before
implementing!
__________________________________________________________________________
I don't think your
users will have much confusion over the matter. Just have them use upn to login
when a domain is required. It's bene a logn time since I did an NT4 -> AD
inplace upgrade, but I want to say you can edit the netbios name during the
upgrade.
--Brian
Desmond
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Payton on the web!
www.wpcp.org
v - 773.534.0034 x135
f -
773.534.8101
c -
312.731.3132
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on
behalf of O'Brien, Cathy
Sent: Tue 3/15/2005 5:12 PM
To:
'ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org'
Subject: [ActiveDir] domain
naming
Our organization is planning an in-place upgrade from
NT4 to W2K3. Our current NT domain name is no longer applicable (due to a
corporate name change), unwieldy, and just plain ugly, and so we'd like to
select a different name during the upgrade realizing of course that our NetBIOS
name would remain the same.
We know that a domain rename is now a possibility,
but from the stories we've heard we're not in a rush to go that route. We're
just wondering how much confusion may be caused for users by having our NetBIOS
and our domain DNS name not match. Off the tops of our heads it seems like not
much of an issue, particularly since although we'll be a child domain we're
planning to use just the forest root suffix for our UPNs. Our current DNS suffix
doesn't contain our NT domain name at all, so whatever gets placed there will be
a change for users.
Does anyone have any issues to point out that we're
not thinking of, or opinion in general on the pros and cons of having the domain
DNS and NetBIOS names match?
TIA,
Cathy O'Brien
Cubic Transportation Systems
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