Post by Dmitry ZagadskyI've inherited a windows 2000 active directory and we're in the
process of upgrading to server 2003 and adding exchange.
the question i have is that the domain doesn't have a fully qualified
domain name with a suffix. it's [company] and that's it. so all the
computers are [user].[company]
will that cause problems? i want to switch it to [company].local. is
there any way of doing that without getting rid of the domain and
then starting over?
Thanks
Yes it will cause numerous problems. I'm surprised there aren't any issues
happening now. This is called a single label name issue. DNS is hierarchal
that requires a minimum of two levels. A single label name has only one.
When registration occurs, DNS will excessively query the Root Hints looking
for a reference to a TLD called "company" before it will look at itself.
Microsoft actually stopped single label name registration with 2000 SP4.
That is why I am surprised you are not experiencing trouble, unless your
predecessor applied the reg bandaid to force it to register. Besides, XP and
2003 don't play well with single label DNS names.
I assume the NetBIOS domain name is called "company" as well?
If you upgrade to Win2003, 2003 has the option to rename the domain.
But honestly, IMHO, I would migrate them into a brand new pristine 2003
domain without problems. ADMT will be beneficial to help you in this area.
But one thingdoing it this way, you will need to change the NetBIOS name on
the new domain since migrating from the one to another must be different
NetBIOS name.
One more thing, there is one more way to do it prior to upgrading. If, *_and
only IF_*, the 2000 domain is still in mixed mode, you can install an NT4
BDC into the domain, demote the current DC(s), then promote the NT4 BDC to a
PDC, then upgrade that to 2000, or even 2003 with this time choosing the
proper AD DNS domain name.
Your choice will also depend on how many users, domain controllers, and
sites. THe more users, the easier it is to do an upgrade. With only a
handful of users, say 100 or less, I may choose a migration.
--
Ace
Innovative IT Concepts, Inc
Willow Grove, PA
This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and
confers no rights.
Ace Fekay, MCSE 2003 & 2000, MCSA 2003 & 2000, MCSE+I, MCT, MVP
Microsoft MVP - Directory Services
Microsoft Certified Trainer
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