Windows 2003 Server
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Not sure how well everyone has been in keeping up with the story so far. So I will provide a cheat sheet. A customer has previously been rorted by their IT company and as such had the following hardware and software in their office. Compaq Proliant 400 (Pentium III 500 64MB) running Windows NT 4 Server PDC Celeron 600 128 MB running Windows 2000 Professional Pentium III 450 64 MB running Windows NT 4 Workstation Pentium 166 64 MB running Windows NT 4 Workstation Pentium 133 64 MB running Windows NT 4 Workstation All of this setup in the last 2-3 years. I have been onsite a few times putting out fires and installing a Pentium IV 2.4GHz 512MB running Windows XP Professional. This customer is not frightened to spend money if he feels he is getting something worthwhile for it. Unfortunately we ran into a few teething problems getting the new to play nicely with the old. He was pissed off and calling us all the names under sun until the QuickBooks bloke came onsite to install the 2003 version. It blew up cause the systems weren't up to minimum requirements except for the Win 2k ans XP machines. Consequently we are supplying him with 3 new XP machies and after a RAM upgrade the server is to be upgraded with Windows 2003 Server as I believe Windows 2000 Server is no longer available. Problem is the closest I ever got to installing Windows 2000 Server in the real world with Active Directory and all was 3 weeks. That is how close I was to being the Australian Domain Admin when my last company was doing the worldwide rollout but I was given the arse. So I obviously don't have a spare copy (or any copy) of Windows 2000/2003 Server lying around I can install and experiment with. So does anyone have any idea how I can figure out what I need to do to get all this to work? Theory only isn't ideal, but I don't seem to have any other option and I don't want anyone else in to do the job. I want the experience and more importantly I want the money for doing the job. Michael Martin Australia "I personally love it because I can get as down and dirty as I want on the backend, while also being able to dabble with fun scripting and presentation games on the front end." - Chris Maunder 15/07/2002
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Not sure how well everyone has been in keeping up with the story so far. So I will provide a cheat sheet. A customer has previously been rorted by their IT company and as such had the following hardware and software in their office. Compaq Proliant 400 (Pentium III 500 64MB) running Windows NT 4 Server PDC Celeron 600 128 MB running Windows 2000 Professional Pentium III 450 64 MB running Windows NT 4 Workstation Pentium 166 64 MB running Windows NT 4 Workstation Pentium 133 64 MB running Windows NT 4 Workstation All of this setup in the last 2-3 years. I have been onsite a few times putting out fires and installing a Pentium IV 2.4GHz 512MB running Windows XP Professional. This customer is not frightened to spend money if he feels he is getting something worthwhile for it. Unfortunately we ran into a few teething problems getting the new to play nicely with the old. He was pissed off and calling us all the names under sun until the QuickBooks bloke came onsite to install the 2003 version. It blew up cause the systems weren't up to minimum requirements except for the Win 2k ans XP machines. Consequently we are supplying him with 3 new XP machies and after a RAM upgrade the server is to be upgraded with Windows 2003 Server as I believe Windows 2000 Server is no longer available. Problem is the closest I ever got to installing Windows 2000 Server in the real world with Active Directory and all was 3 weeks. That is how close I was to being the Australian Domain Admin when my last company was doing the worldwide rollout but I was given the arse. So I obviously don't have a spare copy (or any copy) of Windows 2000/2003 Server lying around I can install and experiment with. So does anyone have any idea how I can figure out what I need to do to get all this to work? Theory only isn't ideal, but I don't seem to have any other option and I don't want anyone else in to do the job. I want the experience and more importantly I want the money for doing the job. Michael Martin Australia "I personally love it because I can get as down and dirty as I want on the backend, while also being able to dabble with fun scripting and presentation games on the front end." - Chris Maunder 15/07/2002
I have a copy of Win2003 Server RC1 sitting on my shelf here. How big is your inbox?:-D
"The Lion shall lie down with the Lamb;
but the Lamb will not get much sleep..."
Lazarus Long -
Not sure how well everyone has been in keeping up with the story so far. So I will provide a cheat sheet. A customer has previously been rorted by their IT company and as such had the following hardware and software in their office. Compaq Proliant 400 (Pentium III 500 64MB) running Windows NT 4 Server PDC Celeron 600 128 MB running Windows 2000 Professional Pentium III 450 64 MB running Windows NT 4 Workstation Pentium 166 64 MB running Windows NT 4 Workstation Pentium 133 64 MB running Windows NT 4 Workstation All of this setup in the last 2-3 years. I have been onsite a few times putting out fires and installing a Pentium IV 2.4GHz 512MB running Windows XP Professional. This customer is not frightened to spend money if he feels he is getting something worthwhile for it. Unfortunately we ran into a few teething problems getting the new to play nicely with the old. He was pissed off and calling us all the names under sun until the QuickBooks bloke came onsite to install the 2003 version. It blew up cause the systems weren't up to minimum requirements except for the Win 2k ans XP machines. Consequently we are supplying him with 3 new XP machies and after a RAM upgrade the server is to be upgraded with Windows 2003 Server as I believe Windows 2000 Server is no longer available. Problem is the closest I ever got to installing Windows 2000 Server in the real world with Active Directory and all was 3 weeks. That is how close I was to being the Australian Domain Admin when my last company was doing the worldwide rollout but I was given the arse. So I obviously don't have a spare copy (or any copy) of Windows 2000/2003 Server lying around I can install and experiment with. So does anyone have any idea how I can figure out what I need to do to get all this to work? Theory only isn't ideal, but I don't seem to have any other option and I don't want anyone else in to do the job. I want the experience and more importantly I want the money for doing the job. Michael Martin Australia "I personally love it because I can get as down and dirty as I want on the backend, while also being able to dabble with fun scripting and presentation games on the front end." - Chris Maunder 15/07/2002
2000 Server is still available, but obviously it's closer to the end of its support lifecycle (by three years). Server 2003 I've not yet really used 'in anger', as it were. Installation was no harder on my old PII-300 than any previous version of Windows, really. You're upgrading a PDC. I'd recommend backing up the server before you begin - but then you should do this when upgrading anything. On upgrading an NT 4.0 domain, Server 2003 will start off in Mixed Mode on the domain. To migrate to Active Directory is a bit more painful. You can get an evaluation copy of Server 2003 from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/trial/evalkit.mspx[^] I suggest reading the upgrade notes at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/upgrading/nt4/default.mspx[^]. Hope this helps.
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2000 Server is still available, but obviously it's closer to the end of its support lifecycle (by three years). Server 2003 I've not yet really used 'in anger', as it were. Installation was no harder on my old PII-300 than any previous version of Windows, really. You're upgrading a PDC. I'd recommend backing up the server before you begin - but then you should do this when upgrading anything. On upgrading an NT 4.0 domain, Server 2003 will start off in Mixed Mode on the domain. To migrate to Active Directory is a bit more painful. You can get an evaluation copy of Server 2003 from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/trial/evalkit.mspx[^] I suggest reading the upgrade notes at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/upgrading/nt4/default.mspx[^]. Hope this helps.
Not long got home (02:15 02-Aug-2003) from installing the server. Fresh install not an upgrade. Back there in about 7 hours to finish configuring the clients and connecting them to the domain. After that copy all data back to the server and new clients and install a bit of software. Sunday we take them from my company premises back onsite reconnect and hope all is well. Windows Server 2003 (as David Stone told me it was called) installed OK. But the wizard that set the role of the server bit me. I took the typical settings as it was my first time through and it was getting late. Bad move as it created a DHCP server, didn't want it as we have hardware doing it elsewhere. Removed it, activated it and updated it. Looking good so far. Thanks for your reply. Michael Martin Australia "I personally love it because I can get as down and dirty as I want on the backend, while also being able to dabble with fun scripting and presentation games on the front end." - Chris Maunder 15/07/2002