Lesson 1: Project Life Cycle

This lesson introduces four components of a Windows NT 4.0 to Windows 2000 migration project life cycle: the analysis phase, the design phase, the testing phase, and the production phase.

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After this lesson, you will be able to

• Put your migration into a rough framework for design and implementation.
• Write down at least 15 issues that can affect a Windows 2000 migration for any size network infrastructure.

Estimated lesson time: 30 minutes

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Migration—An Overview

Before you perform a Windows 2000 migration, consider the several core areas that apply to systems, ranging from a 10-node network to an enterprise-wide WAN infrastructure. These areas can be broadly categorized into the following phases of a project life cycle:

• Analysis. In the analysis phase, determine the business and IT objectives. Obtain as much feedback as possible from everyone who will be affected by the Windows 2000 migration project. Your analysis should include details of your current infrastructure and culture as well as the endpoint you want to reach.
• Design. In the design phase, prioritize the different business and technological goals to create a working draft that will take you from your existing environment to the new one. Use this document as a basis for the relevant staff to evolve the final design plan. It will allow your business, security, and IT teams to make suggestions to avoid potential disaster areas. Some examples include interoperability issues, Active Directory schema extensions, and access and security threats due to backward-compatibility issues.
• Testing. In the testing phase, verify and hone your migration strategy. You can perform early aspects of the testing in conjunction with the design phase (for example, the testing of mission-critical applications). You'll also conduct a pilot phase on a live deployment to verify that the tests are correct.
• Production. The production phase is the actual implementation. Implementation includes user and support training, necessary hardware upgrades, as well as the migration of Windows NT 4.0 to Windows 2000. Ensure that a dedicated support line and business continuity plan are available should an unforeseen disaster happen.

Practice: Categorizing Migration Issues

In this practice, assign the following list of issues and goals to the appropriate four broad migration phases covered in this lesson. Place one or more numbers and at least one letter next to each statement, where 1 = the analysis phase, 2 = the design phase, 3 = the testing phase, 4 = the production phase, B = a business/political issue, and T = a technical issue. The first item is completed as an example. (The answers for this Practice appear below.)

	Issue/Goal	Phase
1	Naming conventions.	1, 2, B, T
2	Reducing total cost of ownership.
3	Windows NT 4.0 logon scripts don't work with the Windows 2000 File Replication service (FRS).
4	Current hardware considerations.
5	Application compatibility.
6	Disaster recovery.
7	Budget.
8	Ownership of the Domain Name Service (DNS) servers.
9	Increase in network traffic.
10	Business versus geographical organizational unit (OU) structures.
11	Company logo and help support phone number implemented as part of the logon screen.
12	Better security of data traveling on the LAN and on the local machine.
13	Inability to use group nesting in mixed mode.
14	Training issues.
15	The first domain migrated will be the permanent forest root of the Active Directory structure.
16	Skills assessment of staff employed to migrate and support the new infrastructure.
17	Logical and physical topology.
18	Licensing considerations.
19	Administration team for the migration project.
20	TCP/IP issues such as DNS/WINS and DHCP.
21	Time scales for migration.
22	Hardware driver availability.
23	Post-migration considerations.
24	Interoperability considerations.
25	Active Directory planning (sites, domains, and OUs).
26	Allow department managers to reset passwords.
27	Removal of NetBIOS.
28	Easy to locate resources regardless of their location in the IT infrastructure.
29	Version of Windows 2000 (Professional, Server, Advanced Server, or Datacenter Server) being used.
30	Whether to use the corporate Internet domain name as the root domain name for the first installed Windows 2000 domain.

Answers

The following table contains some suggested answers. As you can see, many of the functions overlap. These overlaps differ for every organization and business culture, so don't worry if your answers vary from these.

	Issue/Goal	Phase
1	Naming conventions.	1, 2, B, T
2	Reducing total cost of ownership.	1, B
3	Windows NT 4.0 logon scripts don't work with Windows 2000 FRS.	3, T
4	Current hardware considerations.	1, B
5	Application compatibility.	2, 3, B, T
6	Disaster recovery.	2, 3, 4, B, T
7	Budget.	2, B
8	Ownership of the DNS servers.	2, B
9	Increase in network traffic.	2, 3, T
10	Business versus geographical OU structures.	2, B, T
11	Company logo and help support phone number implemented as part of the logon screen.	2, 3, B
12	Better security of data traveling on the LAN and on the local machine.	1, 2, 3, B, T
13	Inability to use group nesting in mixed mode.	2, 3, T
14	Training issues.	2, 3, 4, B, T
15	The first domain migrated will be the permanent forest root of the Active Directory structure.	2, T
16	Skills assessment of staff employed to migrate and support the new infrastructure.	1, T
17	Logical and physical topology.	1, 2, T
18	Licensing considerations.	2, B
19	Administration team for the migration project.	2, B
20	TCP/IP issues such as DNS/WINS and DHCP.	2, 3, T
21	Time scales for migration.	2, 3, B
22	Hardware driver availability.	3, T
23	Post-migration considerations.	4, T
24	Interoperability considerations.	2, 3, T
25	Active Directory planning (sites, domains, and OUs)	2, B, T
26	Allow department managers to reset passwords.	1, B
27	Removal of NetBIOS.	1, 2, 3, T
28	Easy to locate resources regardless of their location in the IT infrastructure.	1, B, T
29	Version of Windows 2000 (Professional, Server, Advanced Server, or Datacenter Server) being used.	2, B, T
30	Whether to use the corporate Internet domain name as the root domain name for the first installed Windows 2000 domain.	2, T

Lesson Summary

In this lesson, you learned about the four core phases—analysis, design, testing, and production—of a Windows 2000 migration and how to map issues and goals into these areas. When studying future chapters in this book, picture where the subjects in each chapter fit into the four core phases. Don't expect your first design to be the correct one. Many companies perform several iterations of their Windows NT to Windows 2000 migration design before finding the best one for their organizational and business culture. You can obtain further information on design processes from the Microsoft Solutions Framework Web site at www.microsoft.com/msf.