Connecting Three Domains/Forests

> Hi. I am trying to determine the best way to connect three domains so that
> they can share resources and centralise user logons. Ideally once the
> domains are connected, it would be preferred if users could logon with one
> user account into a new parent domain/forest and gain access to their old
> domain resources as well as newly connected domains all using their new
> user account.
> The three existing domains are single domains in their own forest, they
> are all 2003 native domains/forests, Exchange is not used in any of the
> domains. Networking has been put in place between the three seperate
> networks such that they are all now connected. What I was hoping to do
> was to create a new fourth domain/forest and connect the existing three
> domains using trusts. User accounts and groups would then be created in
> the new fourth parent domain/forest and user groups would be
> modified/created in the old domains to give access to the new accounts.
> The long term plan is to slowly migrate all the resources from the three
> seperate domains into the new fourth parent domain/forest and eventually
> retire the old domains.
> Can anyone recommend if this is the best way to approach this problem ?
> Do you also have any advice on the types of trusts I would need to create
> to accomplish this ?
> Thanks,
> Alex.

> Sounds like you have a good plan to move forward. I would create a
> forest trust and then use ADMT v3 to move the objects across. I would
> use robocopy to move the data across. There is no need to create any
> new users, using sidHistory should allow you to move from the old to
> the new without any loss of functionality.
>
> Source must be nt4, 2000 or 2003
> Target must be 2000 or 2003
> First setup the dns so the two domains know of each others name space.
> http://expertanswercenter.techtarget.com/eac/knowledgebaseAnswer/0,295
> 199,sid63_gci1104911,00.html
>
> Then establish a trust between the two forests (I'm assuming it is a
> new
>
> forest)
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/library
> /ServerHelp/7929b0c4-efe1-409c-99e3-efe9815f426d.mspx
>
> http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/7929b0c4-efe1-4
> 09c-99e3-efe9815f426d1033.mspx?mfr=true
>
> Finally you can use the migration tool:
> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6F86937B-533A
> -466D-A8E8-AFF85AD3D212&displaylang=en
> Webcast
> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6F86937B-533A
> -466D-A8E8-AFF85AD3D212&displaylang=en
> http://www.pbbergs.com
>
> Please no e-mails, any questions should be posted in the NewsGroup
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
> rights.
>
>
>> Hi. I am trying to determine the best way to connect three domains so
>> that they can share resources and centralise user logons. Ideally
>> once the domains are connected, it would be preferred if users could
>> logon with one user account into a new parent domain/forest and gain
>> access to their old domain resources as well as newly connected
>> domains all using their new user account.
>>
>> The three existing domains are single domains in their own forest,
>> they are all 2003 native domains/forests, Exchange is not used in any
>> of the domains. Networking has been put in place between the three
>> seperate networks such that they are all now connected. What I was
>> hoping to do was to create a new fourth domain/forest and connect the
>> existing three domains using trusts. User accounts and groups would
>> then be created in the new fourth parent domain/forest and user
>> groups would be modified/created in the old domains to give access to
>> the new accounts. The long term plan is to slowly migrate all the
>> resources from the three seperate domains into the new fourth parent
>> domain/forest and eventually retire the old domains.
>>
>> Can anyone recommend if this is the best way to approach this problem
>> ? Do you also have any advice on the types of trusts I would need to
>> create to accomplish this ?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Alex.