Re: New Domain Name

Danny wrote:
We are changing our domain name and I have a question regarding my
workstations. Presently my workstations log on to mydomain.ca and
we will change to mydomain.local. Is it easier to switch my
workstation to Workgroup and then reconnect to new domain and
transfer Files and Settings to new profile?

Shenan Stanley wrote:
Easier than what?
1/2 the 'easier than' equation given.

Is that the 'easiest' method? Not in my mind.

Is it easier than some of the other ways I can think of? Sure.

Can even the 'more difficult' ways I can think of than the one you
have given be simplified to be 'just as easy' with scripting, etc?
Sure.

Danny wrote:
Which method would you recommend?

Depends on how many you need to do and how much help you have...

Making sure the user(s) in question had accounts in the new domain first, if
not DHCP (or just if the DNS entries are specified on the machine) I would
write a script to run as an administrator of the machine to:

- change the DNS entries and the DNS Suffic Search order for the new domain
- Setup any trusted 'zones' necessary
- using VBScript - join the domain (directly) - placing the computer in the
correct OU
- run gpupdate /force a few times (5 or so in a row) and then...
- reboot and logon the new domain as a domain admin, making sure group
policies had applied to the machine.
(I might even rename the machine using netdom after it joined the domain
(using netdom) - if it didn't meet any standard naming scheme I used
normally.)

Then the manual part would be logging off, log in as the new domain user
account of user that utilizes this particular machine. That would create a
new user on the machine. I would then reboot, log on as the administrator
again and change the registry entry for the user I just created to point to
the old profile they used to utilize and make sure that the new account had
full rights (file and directory) permissions to everything in the old
account directory. Log off, log on as the new user in the new domain and if
the permissions for the user are the same as they were before the move (user
level hopefully) - life will be good.

USMT is also an option if you are doing more users/more moves than just a
few or you have no help and need this done quickly, etc. However - the
whole exporting/importing of profiles can be TIME CONSUMING - depending on
the amount of crud said user has collected.

There's probably easier methods. There may even be faster methods. In some
cases we have told users that they should have everything saved on 'x
network drive' before the move that they want to keep and everything else
will go away. Then run the script to move the machine to the new domain and
show the user their saved stuff. (Sometimes you might feel generous and
later remotely copy their IE Favorites and other app bookmarks to their new
profile too. heh)

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html


.

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