Frequently Asked Questions about Active Directory at Georgia Tech

November 2001

Should I join the forest as a separate domain or join the campus tree?

How do I join the Georgia Tech Active Directory Forest?

How should I proceed with bringing my department into the Active Directory world?

Should I upgrade my Windows NT 4 workstation/servers to Windows 2000?

What is Georgia Tech’s licensing agreement with Microsoft for Windows 2000?

How will the Active Directory DNS namespace affect my IP services?

Should I join the forest as a separate domain or join the campus tree?

There are three ways to join the forest: (1) Creating a delegated OU in the AD domain. This is a future option. (2) Creating a new domain as a sub-domain of an existing tree. These are created at the discretion of Dept or School (3) Creating a new domain as root of a new forest tree (tier one) usually named for the School or Dept such as GTRI, COE, etc. Each choice has a number of implications that will affect how your organization functions within the Georgia Tech forest.

How do I join the Georgia Tech Active Directory Forest?

To be determined.

How should I proceed with bringing my department into the Active Directory world?

Start with some background reading on Active Directory. The Other Resources section lists a number of useful links to Active Directory related topics.

Should I upgrade my Windows NT 4 workstation/servers to Windows 2000?

The commonly espoused wisdom is to upgrade all of your workstations to Windows 2000 or above. Whether you upgrade your NT 4 servers to Windows 2000 depends upon several factors. If you presently run a NT 4 domain, and want to join the Georgia Tech forest as Tier One Domain (highly recommended), your Existing Domain controllers may be upgraded as Member servers. The existing accounts may be used until you migrate users to the Kerberos Userid and Password (default account). Accounts for ALL employees and students have already been created in the AD root.

OIT believes that the best solution is to build your Domain with two Windows 2000 servers, and migrate applications, users, etc. over to Windows 2000 as time permits. We have observed NT 4 to W2k migrations leave the servers cluttered with excessive amounts of unneeded and unused "stuff". Another important consideration is that the NT 4 to W2k migration process creates servers with reduced security permissions, so that Windows 9x applications will run without any problems. If you do decide to migrate instead of rebuild your servers, there are several commercial applications on the market that can ease the migration process. Send a note to the adwg@list.gatech.edu mailing list and ask what other units have done.

What is Georgia Tech’s licensing agreement with Microsoft for Windows 2000?

Georgia Tech has reached a licensing agreement with Microsoft that includes Windows 2000 and other Microsoft products. For details on this agreement, see the Microsoft Custom Enterprise Agreement.

How will the Active Directory DNS namespace affect my IP services?

To be determined.