NT's Migration Tool For NetWare

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.