Migrating from a Workgroup

I have a client that is thinking about purchasing a new server, their
existing machine is close to 10 years old. Right now they are setup as a
workgroup. There's about 40 user accounts, with 20-25 concurrent users at
any given time.

I have've been a network admin using server 2003 since it came out. And
have experience with 2000 (and NT) before that. But I have never done a
workgroup migration. (I have not used 2008)
I'm looking for suggestions, and have a couple questions.

They do not use Exchange, they have pop email accounts. That can't change.
Their business app runs on a network that is at a different location, and
they use Remote Desktop to access that. They use Office fairly heavily, and
have shared folders on the existing Server 2000 box that they use. They
also have about 5 networked printers. The 2000 server they have was setup
as a DC with Active Directory at one time, but the company changed hands,
and they were converted to WG - mainly because the number of employees
decreased significantly.

If they do buy a new server, I would like to see them migrate to Active
Directory. The manager there is very gun-shy about doing that, I guess they
had a lot of problems when they changed from AD to WG.

I think one of his big concerns is; how much disruption would this be to
each user? In other words, how long would each PC be out of commision. I
think that took a long time in the previous migration, and I believe it had
something to do with the user profiles on the desktops.

What tools are available to do this? And how painless or painfull would
this be?

Thanks

 

John
refer to for guidance - let us know
if you have any questions related to this process..
Exchange is not a requirement in AD environment. File/printer sharing and
RDP access are also not an issue - although you might look into a more
efficient mechanism of running network-based apps...
Considering the size of your environment, AD sounds like a good idea...

hth
Marcin

"JohnB" <jbrigan@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:eYoZmmOJKHA.1248@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
>I have a client that is thinking about purchasing a new server, their
>existing machine is close to 10 years old. Right now they are setup as a
>workgroup. There's about 40 user accounts, with 20-25 concurrent users at
>any given time.
>
> I have've been a network admin using server 2003 since it came out. And
> have experience with 2000 (and NT) before that. But I have never done a
> workgroup migration. (I have not used 2008)
> I'm looking for suggestions, and have a couple questions.
>
> They do not use Exchange, they have pop email accounts. That can't
> change. Their business app runs on a network that is at a different
> location, and they use Remote Desktop to access that. They use Office
> fairly heavily, and have shared folders on the existing Server 2000 box
> that they use. They also have about 5 networked printers. The 2000
> server they have was setup as a DC with Active Directory at one time, but
> the company changed hands, and they were converted to WG - mainly because
> the number of employees decreased significantly.
>
> If they do buy a new server, I would like to see them migrate to Active
> Directory. The manager there is very gun-shy about doing that, I guess
> they had a lot of problems when they changed from AD to WG.
>
> I think one of his big concerns is; how much disruption would this be to
> each user? In other words, how long would each PC be out of commision. I
> think that took a long time in the previous migration, and I believe it
> had something to do with the user profiles on the desktops.
>
> What tools are available to do this? And how painless or painfull would
> this be?
>
> Thanks
> <!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->