The NT Migration Tool for NetWare assists
you in migrating NetWare Networks to NT. You can transfer volumes, users, and groups to
your NT server, that must be configured as a primary domain controller or a backup domain
controller on your network. You must also have Gateway (and Client) Services for NetWare
installed for the tool to start-up. This version supports only NetWare 3.x bindery
objects, and hence, cannot migrate 4.x trees, although it can migrate volumes and
top-level users and groups from Netware 4.x servers.
To migrate a NetWare server to NT, start up the Migration tool from
Programs/Administrative Tools/Common. You should have logged in as Administrator on the NT
server. The tool then asks you for the source NetWare server and the target NT server. You
may be asked to enter the NetWare Admin password, if you haven't already logged in.
After successfully logging in, a screen in
which both the servers are shown side-by-side would appear. Double clicking on them will
bring up their attributes, such as total volumes and files on each server. You can also
add new server pairs, or remove existing ones from the migration path.
You can configure the way you want users
and groups to be migrated to the NT server by clicking on the User Options button. This
pops up a dialog box with certain options. You can turn off the migration for users and
groups completely, or choose from the many permutations available. The Password's tab
allows you to assign the same password to all users, make the password the same as the
user name, or leave it blank. This sounded strange until we realized that NetWare would
not give up the passwords, no matter what they are.
The Users tab is used for deciding what to
do if there is already a user name in the NT server that clashes with the user name that
is being migrated. You can choose to overwrite the NT user, ignore the NetWare user, log
the error, or add a standard prefix to all such user names. Using the last option adds a
prefix, the one you specify, to all user names that conflict with existing users on the NT
server. The Groups tab also contains the same options, except overwriting the NT groups
with those of NetWare's. There is also a Default tab that enables you to migrate the
permissions given to users, as well as transfer users with Administration rights on the
NetWare server to the Administrator's group in NT. An Advanced button enables the users to
move to a trusted domain, if you have set up domains.
You can create, edit, and use an option
called Mapping File. This file can be generated by clicking the Create button in the same
dialog as the options above. It creates a .MAP file that contains old names, new names,
and passwords for users and groups being migrated. You can edit this simple text file and
use it as a template during actual migration. For example, you can use a spreadsheet to
create random passwords, merge them into the mapping file, and run the migration. The
migrated users will be assigned these random passwords.
The main screen has another button for
accessing the File options. This shows you the list of volumes that are going to be
migrated, and the corresponding shared folders that will be created on the NT server. You
can remove or add volumes from this list. For adding volumes, specify the volume on the
NetWare server and the shared path on the NT server. This path is automatically created
for you. The Files button lets you choose the files that you want to transfer. You can
choose to copy system and hidden files too.
The Logging option on the main screen lets
you choose whether you want a pop-up informing you of every error and/or warning that
might occur during the migration, to verbosely log every user and group migrated, as well
as each and every file and folder copied. The last option is not recommended if you are
migrating large volumes, as it creates a huge file with details about each file and folder
migrated.
When you are finally ready, you can start
the migration. You'd better not do this during peak network traffic hours, as moving large
volumes is quite time consuming and can slow down the network drastically. A Progress Bar
displays the percentage of the job done and what it is currently doing. At the end of the
migration, you should find shared folders corresponding with the NetWare volumes, users,
and groups from NetWare on your NT server. If you have Mac users, who were using the
NetWare server on your network, make sure that you mount the shared folders as volumes for
them, otherwise they will not be able to view or access their files on the NT server.
PCQ Labs.
Reprinted from PC Quest September 1997.