Question

  Asked: Jan 22 2008   3:08 PM GMT
  Asked by: Rayz


Active Directory Migration issue


Active Directory migration, DNS, WINS, Active Directory

I need to migrate users from a child domain in one forest to a child domain in a second forest. The issue is that the forest root domains are named identically. For sake of simplicity lets call the source domain xyz.group.local and the target domain abc.group.local. I created a WINS relationship so these domains can reach each other via Netbios, but unfortunately when I attempt to create a trust relationship DNS is being used and since I cannot share DNS between the two domains. Any Thoughts?

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I would STOP trying to combine the two domains with the same name immediately!!!

So the duplicate domain names are a no-no and can not reside in the same forest I would use adduses.exe that can be found on a windows 2000 resource cd (or on the web) This will allow you to export your users to a delimited file and then use the same exe to import them to your AD forest of choice.

Passwords do not come over but using a program like l0phtcrack you can retrieve and import them as well. Or just require all users to have to change their password on the next login.

Microsoft first introduced this app in NT and you can read about it here. I have used it to import, export and migrate users using it you can read about my detailed experiences here.

Let me know more details if you want further help!
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Wrobinson  |   Jan 25 2008  12:46AM GMT

If we are talking Windows Server 2003, you can rename a domain but it may not be practical to do so. Should this be the case, you can migrate to a staging domain before migrating to the destination domain but this will increase the time and effort, as well as impact to users. You can also export user information from AD and import it into the destination forest/domain but doing so is not supported in a production environment.