Allin Consulting is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for Enterprise Systems.  We have successfully migrated many organizations of all sizes in a variety of industries to Windows and Exchange 2003.  We realize that some companies choose not to engage a Microsoft Partner and attempt to upgrade to Active Directory and Exchange 2003 alone.  However, it is our experience that these companies tend to have significantly more issues during the migration process.

Among the benefits organizations receive by engaging with Allin Consulting are a proven methodology and vast Windows and Exchange 2003 deployment and migration experience.  Although internal IT departments understand the day-to-day administration and operation of a Microsoft network, they rarely perform migrations such as those from NT 4.0 Domain to Active Directory or Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003.  Subsequently, they lack the experience and knowledge gained by performing multiple domain upgrades and migrations.  Migrating an organization’s infrastructure from NT 4.0 Domain to Active Directory requires a significantly different skill set and knowledge base than needed for day-to-day network administration.  Allin’s network consultants possess both the everyday administration skills and also the necessary migration expertise that can only evolve from being in the IT consulting business.   Allin’s network consultants are required to stay on the cutting edge of Microsoft products and are well-practiced in implementation strategies that minimally impact any client’s business.

When working with our customers, Allin’s primary objective is to provide the most appropriate Active Directory design, as well as the most cost effective migration approach to achieve this solution.  After gathering requirements, we find that in many cases, (especially in the small and medium enterprise customers) organizations can perform a simple domain upgrade to Active Directory as oppose to taking the more complex and time consuming migration route.  Typically organizations lack highly specialized and experienced in-house IT engineers.  These in-house staff may certainly have a general understanding of the new technology but unfortunately, lack the in-depth knowledge that is necessary to properly design, install, configure and migrate a company to Active Directory and Exchange 2003.  Something as simple as an incorrect DNS setting can make the difference between a smooth migration experience and a difficult transition.   Due to a lack of migration experience, organizations often have slightly mis-configured systems.  This causes end-user dissatisfaction and often propagates the misconception that new Microsoft technologies don’t function as promised.

Unfortunately, as stated above, many companies attempt to perform this migration process internally only to end up engaging with a Microsoft Partner to essentially rollback and then perform the migration properly.  The list below is complied from our real world experience.  To follow are the top 10 problems we have encountered for both NT 4.0 Domain to Active Directory migrations as well as Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003 Migrations.

Top 10 Active Directory deployment issues:

1. Lack of understanding around multi-master directory replication and Active Directory Site structures.  In a multi-office WAN with domain controllers spread across multiple sites improper configuration of the AD site topologies can result in increased replication traffic between domain controllers across slow links.
2. Lack of understanding regarding configuration of internal DNS infrastructures to support the Active Directory environment. 
3. Improper configuration of DNS settings on Active Directory aware clients (W2K Pro, W2K Server and XP) can cause lengthy domain logins thus making the network appear slow to the end user.
4. Inaccurately configured DNS settings of the NT 4.0 PDC used for the “In-Place Domain Upgrade” can cause the upgrade procedure to Active Directory to fail or work improperly.
5. Misconceptions that Active Directory domains do not support Windows 9x and NT 4.0 workstation clients.
6. Misconception that WINS service is no longer needed.
7. Misconception that a Windows 2003 member server can be used to perform an “In-Place Upgrade” of an existing NT 4.0 domain.
8. Misconception that the In-Place Upgrade is a bad approach.
9. Misconception regarding the amount of work necessary to perform a domain migration.
10. Lack of planning prior to performing the Active Directory migration or upgrade results in unplanned downtime and or improperly configured AD domain.

Top 10 Exchange 2003 deployment issues:

1. Failure to properly clean-up existing Exchange 5.5 infrastructure prior to deploying Active Directory Connector.
2. Lack of understanding with regards to Exchange 5.5 directory integration with Active Directory.
3. Improper deployment of Active Directory Connector can lead to duplicate disabled AD accounts.
4. Choosing wrong Exchange 2003 organization setting during Forestprep step can cause improper configuration of Exchange 2003 organization resulting in the creation of a new Exchange Org.
5. Improper Exchange 5.5 permissions cause Exchange 2003 setup failure.
6. Improper configuration of Exchange 2003 Recipient Update service can cause delays in creation of mail enabled accounts with Exchange servers that sit in remote AD sites.
7. Deploying Exchange 2003 in mixed mode AD domain can lead to Public Folder access problems.
8. Client redirection issues due to immediate removal of Exchange 5.5 server.
9. Improper removal of Exchange 5.5 server from site causes issues with Outlook Free/Busy time.  Clients unable to update Free/Busy time.
10. Lack of understanding of migration approaches and what approach to take depending on their environment.  Often the incorrect choice leads to a lot of wasted time and money.

Please contact your Allin account manager for more assistance.  Depending on the size and complexity of your organization, Allin has a custom approach to get you to Windows and Exchange 2003 in a timely, cost efficient manner.