Migrating Resources from One Platform to the Other

Maintaining multiple operating systems and various versions makes administration very difficult and time consuming. It should always be a goal to consolidate platforms onto a single operating system, if feasible . Window Server 2003 offers great promise in being able to consolidate many functions performed by Unix and other LDAP-based directory services.

Hosting Directory Services

LDAP services can be hosted by multiple platforms simultaneously in an enterprise. This should only be used as a stopgap measure. The Windows Server 2003 LDAP schema can be extended to accommodate a range of client requests .

Synchronization between LDAP servers should be configured as a one-way transaction to the Active Directory. This enables you to consolidate and manage all the directory resources from a central location.

Consolidating File Shares

File shares need to be consolidated for ease of management and security. To consolidate these resources you can methodically transition clients off the Unix file-sharing platform. NFS file shares can be hosted via Windows SFU-based NFS Server. Samba shares can be migrated to Windows-based DFS shares for fault-tolerance and load balancing.

Consolidating Printers

Printer shares can be consolidated within the organization by transitioning them to the Windows Server 2003 print servers. Samba printer shares can be migrated and native LPD services can be hosted by Print Services for Unix.