Windows 2000 was such a revolutionary change from NT 4.0; somehow to me it doesn't seem old enough, even though it's been our for four years (and I've moved to Windows 2003). And yet, mainstream support for it is ending on June 30 of this year (http://www.support.microsoft.com/windows2000/support/lifecycle). Does this support deadline affect your plans to migrate to Windows 2003?
In the article, I mentioned that sometimes it's the unexpected feature your customers decide is a worthwhile reason to support your infrastructure upgrade. For example, site-costing in DFS can be a big plus for a large DFS upgrade. I'd like to know--what do you feel is an underappreciated gem of a feature, good enough to help sell your upgrade?
One of the areas I found most likely to trip you up in a Windows 2003 DC upgrade is the area of application compatibility. It's really hard to know what's out there in your environment, and to plan for it. Since your domain controllers service all kinds of applications on servers in your Active Directory forest, unless you have a really buttoned-down environment, you probably don't have a handle on the apps that are touching your DC's. For example, when's the last time you talked to your network operations group about the software they use for managing their routers? Microsoft talks a good deal about Windows client compatibility, but says very little about non-Windows clients. I'd like to hear from you - if you upgrade to Windows 20003, or you're in the middle of an upgrade, what kind of application compatibility issues have you come across?
Hi everyone, welcome to my AD blog! I confess I'm a bit late to this blogging thing (and as a writer I personally abhor the word "blog"), but I've been writing in personal journals and travelogues for many years. I mean, isn't a blog just a diary you're letting someone look over your shoulder and participate in?
Let me say up front that my opinions in this blog are just that - my own - and not that of Intel's. Having the corporate Thought Police knocking on your door isn't a nice way to begin your day.
I'd also like to welcome Stephen Schullo, Michael Royer, and Nathan Casey to this blog. They're the winners of the IT Prolympics, and sound like three experienced guys. Stephen's an AD subject matter expert, Mike's a senior IT manager with major technical chops (the kind us individual contributors appreciate), and Nathan's the kind of guy I like to work with. When I have a nagging problem I know I'll get bored with, or soon see something shiny and wander off, all I have to do is get someone like Nathan interested and I know he'll gnaw on it like a terrier until it's figured out!
These guys will lend their expertise in the subject of this blog: Lessons learned in migrating one's infrastructure services to Windows 2003. But they aren't the only ones. I'm counting on you (yes you, the harried IT person stalling on your other stuff for a few minutes to read this) to add your experience for others to share. Have you been through a migration situation you wouldn't wish on anyone else? Make that happen by telling us about it. And if your migration went well, we'd love to hear about that too. (We like to encourage those fence-sitters.)
We'll kick this blog off in a few days with some of our own experiences. In the meantime, bookmark this page and we'll do our best to make it worth your time.
On a personal note, I'm pleased to say that Microsoft has seen fit to re-award me MVP status for Directory Services again for 2005. Aside from the nifty little pin, it's a privilege to be included in such a group of megacephaloids (as my friend Minasi would say).
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