Decommissioning Windows 2000


One of the very last steps to be completed is the decommissioning of servers. After functionality and clients have been migrated to Windows 2003, you are still faced with the tasks of removing domains and domain servers no longer in use.

In some cases the removal of source domain controllers and servers leave undesired entries in Active Directory and server lists. The following sections provide insight and best practices for decommissioning source domains and domain servers as well as methods to perform clean-up tasks when the removed servers are still present in Active Directory.

Decommissioning Windows 2000 Domains and Domain Controllers

When preparing domain controllers to be decommissioned, you should first focus on the connectivity that was required when the domain was functional and communicating with the Windows 2003 domain.

Review areas such as existing domain trusts and migration tools that were installed on the source domain that may still be needed once the domain is decomissioned. Be sure to break and remove any unneeded trusts before decommissioning the last domain controllers in the source domain.

As a migration comes to a close, additional domain controllers that are no longer needed can be demoted using the DCPROMO command. This will uninstall Active Directory from the domain controller and enable you to then remove the server from the source domain.

After the remaining areas such as trust have been broken, the remaining Windows 2000 domain controller can simply be turned off. This will not affect the new Windows 2003 domain and information regarding the source domain should be removed dynamically.

Decommissioning Domain Member Servers

When domain servers are not directly upgraded to Windows Server 2003, roles must be migrated to the target domain, leaving servers in the source domain ready to effectively be removed. By understanding the best practices for migrating server roles, you can also systematically begin decommissioning server resources simultaneously , which would normally be removed at the end of the migration.

Prioritizing Server Roles During a Migration

During a migration process, server roles need to be prioritized so that the migration process is done in a manner that supports dependencies between servers as they exist. The three server roles are as follows :

  • File and Print Servers When hardware requirements are met, it is sometimes more effective to upgrade file servers using an in-place migration scenario to Windows Server 2003. When this is not possible, migrating these files and print services can be done with relative ease allowing these larger capacity servers to be reallocated into the new Active Directory domain.

  • Application and Web Services With more organizations relying on Web services and server-based applications to support daily business needs, extensive testing, and validations are required to ensure application compatibility and a successful migration. By migrating these services later rather than sooner, you can leverage time to complete detailed testing and validation of application upgrades and functionality before migrating.

  • Migration Support Servers Before the migration becomes strictly focused on decommission of the remaining Windows servers, review the server roles that reside in the target domain that were used to support the migration. Decommission these roles such as the Active Directory Migration Tool and server services used for the migration.

When the Source Domain Continues to Appear in the Server Browse List...

When the source domain continues to appear in the server browse list after it has been decommissioned and turned off, use the Regedt32 to remove the information.

Run the Regedt32 from the Run command prompt and navigate the Registry to find the following:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\ Parameters

Select the Other Domains value and the REG_MULTI_SZ data type, and expand the value.

If the domain name of the unneeded domain is present, remove the domain name and restart the server.


Removing Servers with ADSI Editor

As is often the case in Active Directory, a domain controller might have been removed from the forest without first being demoted. This might happen because of server failure or problems in the administrative process, but those servers will need to be removed from the directory before completing an upgrade to Windows 2003. Simply deleting the object out of Active Directory Sites and Services will not work. Instead, a low-level directory tool, ADSI-Edit, will need to be used to remove these servers.

The following process outlines how to install and use ADSI-Edit to remove these domain controllers:

  1. Install ADSI-Edit from the Windows 2003 Support Tools.

  2. Navigate to ConfigurationCN=ConfigurationCN=SitesCN=SITENAMECN = ServersCN=SERVERNAME (Where SITENAME and SERVERNAME correspond to the location of the domain controller being removed).

  3. Right-click on the CN=NTDS Settings and click Delete.

  4. At the prompt, click Yes to delete the object.

  5. Close ADSI Edit. This will allow the server to be deleted from the container using Active Directory Users and Computers.



Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Insider Solutions
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Insider Solutions
ISBN: 0672326094
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 325

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