We will be upgrading the Domain Controllers (DC) for Active Directory this month. This involves newer hardware as well as a change from Windows 2003 to Windows 2008 R2.
No customer impact is anticipated (approximately 2000 users and computers are members of the labs Active Directory environment).
In this first Phase, we will still run in a Windows 2003 functional level, which means all current platforms (linux, mac, and pc) now joined to AD will continue to be supported.
We will be introducing three new physical DCs and one new VM. Once these are running well, a gradual process of demoting the current DCs will start.
We have a generator protected Data Center environment in Building 50 - which is where both a physical box and a Virtual Machine will be located. We will also replace the DC at the ALS and most likely add another to one of the labs off site locations.
After an initial analysis of our current environment, we will introduce the first new DC later next week (perhaps May 12). The entire process will take 3-4 weeks.
We also plan to take a look at industry best practices and compare to our current internal procedures, with the goal of improving security. Recommendations resulting from this review will result in additional changes during the latter part of the year.
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Charles (Charlie) Verboom AUTHOR
The first new Domain Controller will be added on Monday May 16 sometime after 1pm. For a variety of reasons, we elected to do this on an ALS shutdown day. The Second Domain Controller will be added Tuesday May 17 if all goes well.