Hi everyone, Im wanting some advice about our network overhaul that we are planning. Here is the current situation: *We are a college of 1000+ Student Users, 100 Teaching Staff and 50 Admin/Support Staff. *2 NT4 Server Domain Controllers, 1 for Admin and 1 for Curricular. Curricular Domain Trusts Admin Domain. (NOT V-LANS) *1 Windows 2003 Member Server running CMIS and SQL 2000. *1 NAS Device with windows 2000 Advanced Server. *250 workstations, some as Win98 - few as 95. most 2K. *30 laptops for teachers, few 2k. most XP Pro. What we plan to do: *Keep the CMIS/SQL server as it is. *Keep the NAS Device as it is (extra storage and apps programs) *Buy a new Server with windows 2003 server OS. (Good Spec!) *Create Active Directory *Start the OS from fresh and copy the data over to new server with new directory structure *Combine both domains in to the 1 OS but maybe have a Replication server for redundance. The server maybe the DHCP, DDNS, etc server. *Create an image of a client workstation and replicate to to all client machine (not sure if via a third party or windows 2003 RIS). Thanks for reading, what do you think? Good, Bad, adventurous? Please let me know any points or advice. We are thinking of a 3rd party purchased to come in and do this work so if you have any company's in mind please post their address here too. Thanks Again Thomas Hutchinson - (MCP) ICT Technical Support Officer Whitby Community College

I think it's a great idea. Presently you have two separate domains that operate on trusts. I've worked with NT in the past and never liked the trusts....they were prone to problems. With 2000/2003 and AD integration you can create one domain with separate OU's for admin, students and instructors etc to keep them separate and still have the benefits of AD. However, if you haven't done this before, or worked a whole lot with AD, I think you'ld best do some serious research on upgrading an NT domain to 2000/2003 AD. The best place to start I can think of offhand would be microsoft's web site. Proper planning and a good knowledge base before starting will help you to avoid serious trouble when it comes time to switch over.

I agree with Curt, its all in the planning. You'll probably need a 3rd party tool instead of RIS unless all of your pc's have pxe nic's or ones supported by the RIS boot disk and the os your installing also has to have built in drivers for the nic's they also have to have the same HAL, basically its not much use. Your final aim of one AD sounds good but hold back your plan until you've hared the plan of who ever you get to do the job, that way you know they've done there research. Do you have much win2000 & 2003 & AD experience ? If not and you need to learn from scratch anyway then Linux runnin SAMBA is also an option worth considering. My girlfriends uncle has just resigned as a head of IT and I've hared is planning on starting up his own business along with some ex coleges of his based in Sunderland, if you'd be interested in speaking to him mail me and I'll put you in touch.

I see a server/workstation centric plan but nothing about fault tolerance, backups, or topology. Without these three considerations you have a imcomplete plan that can cost you plenty in the end. DNS/IP plan is core to Active Directory so you need to plan this area carefully. Personally if I were in your position I would be calling other colleges and talking to their IT depts. Their experience will go a long way in helping you plan

Thanks for the advice. Currently we have an Extended Star topology with some hubs which at the same time of network rehauling we are puting Switches in to make it all 3Com SS3 4400 switches to the 3Com Fiber Backbone with duel Gigabit Server Link (already in place). We have an Inty box that deals with the Gov'mnt Broadband, ISDN, Email, Intranet, Extranet and DNS but think that the 2003 server will prefer to do the DNS its self for AD to work to performance. This is a big job we know, but any 3rd party installers would be nice to hear from. My self and the Network Manager both have MCP in Installing, Configuring and Administering Windows 2000 Server and Workstation so know what we are after and know what to expect but need to work with 2k to feel compatant. We dont want to head down the Linux way as its not a NYCC Recommended thing and getting someone in to administer it would be more hasle. Another thing we need to think about is the Laptop users. They need to be able to use there laptop at home and in College as well as using workstations in college so we thought roaming profiles are the perfect with Offline files but can be a pain to set up unlike a Mandatory Profile. If anyone has any websites i can check out that can do the work then that would be helpfull. Thanx. Tom