Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Dealing with Directory Dilemmas?

Posted by Cliff on from the choosing-the-right-index dept.

Bardaris asks: "In my work environment, I maintain a large number of Novell, and Windows servers. Although Novell is the dominant OS, vendor applications are increasingly making the change from Novell based apps, to single NT4/Win 2k servers. This has put a strain on my PDC. Currently the MS boxes are outnumbering my Novell 30 to 22, with more Win 2k servers in the coming months, as each application vendor has found it cheaper to dictate a sole Win server for their app, rather than sharing nicely on Novell. Now I've been tasked with assessing what to do with the Windows environment. My preference leans to eDirectory and dirXML to contain and maintain the Microsoft proliferation, but what of my NT4 PDC. Should I upgrade to Active Directory (if so, how)? Leave it as is until the last possible moment, whatever that may be? Is there a better way? I highly doubt I can sell a Linux/Samba solution, given the current state of the server environment and political climate here in my company, so that's not one of my options. I'm wondering if other Slashdot readers have ran across similar problems and how they tackled this issue."

2 of 44 comments (clear)

  1. eDirectory is the way to go by invisik · · Score: 5, Informative

    Clearly stay on eDirectory. You will eventually have Linux servers in the house, and that's a great way to integrate everything you are running.

    You probably want to upgrade your NT boxes, if for no other reason then updates/security issues. If you can't bring them to NetWare or Linux, I'd consolidate as many as possible on Windows 2003 and plan your migration to other platforms.

    I would also recommend calling your local Novell office for a personalized look at your situation and some better price offerings.

    Good luck! Should be fun, if nothing else...!

    -m

    --
    http://www.invisik.com
  2. 1 domain, 52 servers? by droid_rage · · Score: 5, Informative

    You've got One NT4 domain, 52 servers, and out of those, 22 of them are Novell, but most of those are going away, right?
    Since you've already got an NT4 domain, your easiest bet is to upgrade to Win2k/2k3 AD. If you've got s single domain, and no trusts, this is simple. if you upgrade your NT4 PDC to Win2k/2k3, it will automatically promote it to an AD DC. Now, it's important to learn something about AD, and you really should have multiple DCs for fault tolerance and load balancing, but this is all pretty easy. Microsoft even has free guides to help you out.