Re: How hard would it be to script this process

From: Al Dunbar [MS-MVP] (alan-no-drub-spam_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 05/20/04 

Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 23:11:01 -0600

You're not really asking much, are you ;-)

But seriously, I suspect it would be harder for the person that asked the
question than someone who might be able to provide a little help with parts
of it. On the other hand, since you know which antivirus package you have
and I don't, scripting that little bit might be somewhat simpler for you
than me. But then, of course it also depends on what you know about
scripting.

So, how hard it would be depends on who would be doing the work. It would
also depend on how you would like to quantify the difficulty of the task.
Are you aware of any metrics that would be meaningful?

I suspect, however, that implicit under the question you asked is the
question you did not ask: "is it easy enough to make it worthwhile trying?".
Even that is a tough one. Having just gone through a desktop upgrade (albeit
a different one, w98 to wxp), I would guess it to be nearly impossible to
develop all of the scripting required without actually running it on
numerous workstations. For this reason alone, and because of the extreme
likelihood that what works on one machine will not work on another because
of those pesky little differences that crop up between computers on a
network, the level of difficulty would also depend on how clean a state you
are starting in.

I hate to say it, but I suspect that if you were organized well enough to
define the problem unambiguously enough to have the solution by the time you
had already converted 300 of the systems, you would already have started.

Sorry for the poor answer - here's a better one: you are not likely to do
all of that in one single monolithic script. I would strongly recommend that
you start scripting those parts that you can, and cobble this together with
a checklist describing the steps to be taken. Depending on the time frames
available, you might be better off hiring in a bunch of students to do it
all manually.

/Al

"SA" <nospam@nospam.nospam> wrote in message
news:esJw2wOPEHA.2132@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Hi all,
> I am going to be migrating about 600 Windows XP machines from Novell to
> Microsoft Active directory over the summer. Because of certain
requirements
> I need to follow this process and was wondering how hard it would be to
> script this.
>
> Log in as Local Administrator Account and do the following:
>
> a) Note the MAC address.
>
> b) Rename the built-in Administrator account, assign a complex
> password. Ensure Guest account is disabled. Change default account
> description.
>
> c) Make sure virus protection is current.
>
> d) Ensure computer name adheres to established naming convention.
If
> not change and reboot.
>
> e) Run script JoinDOM which will change workgroup to domain.
>
> f) Then reboot.
>
> Log in as Domain User Account which will do the following:
>
> a) Create a domain account user profile. (No interaction of IT
> personnel needed at this point).
>
> b) Then reboot.
>
> Log in as Local Administrator Account and do the following:
>
> a) Move over the user profile of the local user account to the
domain
> user account.
>
> For staff helpdesk: Copy profile using the User Profiles tool.
Copy
> the local profile to C:\Documents and Settings\Domain username
>
> For Faculty helpdesk: Move local user from local administrators
group
> to users group. Log off and log back in as local administrator. Copy
> profile using the User Profiles tool. Copy the local profile to
> C:\Documents and Settings\Domain username
>
> b) Assign domain helpdesk group to local administrator group for
local
> administrator privileges.
>
> c) Assign user domain account to appropriate local group:
>
> Admin helpdesk: Power Users
>
> Faculty helpdesk: Administrators
>
> d) Uninstall Novell client.
>
> e) Then reboot.
>
> Log in as Domain User Account which will do the following:
>
> a) Delete existing Novell Printers (if any) and add printers through
> AD.
>
> b) Ensure user profile migration is complete and check to see file
and
> printer functionality.
>
>
>
> Thanks all,
> SA.
>
>

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