Every business has a lot of different issues that it has to deal with during its lifetime as a company, and one of the biggest hurdles that can come up is having to do Active Directory Migration. Perhaps you don’t know what it is yet, but if you do then you know how much work it can be to go through with it. Of course, every complicated process has some methods which can be used to simplify it a lot, or at the very least somewhat reduce the pain of going through it and this is no exception. There are ways to make this painful task easier and that’s what we’ll be covering today so let’s dive straight into it.
What is Active Directory Migration?
Before we get started on simplifying things, let’s go over what this exactly is for those among us who may not know yet. To put it simply it’s the process of moving various things such as users, settings, and preferences from one Windows server domain to an entirely different one. When it’s described like that the process seems relatively simple right? It’s just a copy and paste and boom – migration done, time to grab our well-deserved coffee break.
In reality, the process is far more complex due to multiple factors at play. First of all, when migrations such as this are done they aren’t just a 1-to-1 replica of the originals. Most of the time there will be a list of changes that need to be made during the process as it’s easier to change things then instead of doing so after everything is set up. You also have to take into account the fact that there is an incredible number of things that need to be transferred as every item has dozens or more attributes which were meticulously set up to be perfect for that company and each needs to be transferred.
Planning is key
The most important and basic thing that you need in order to succeed is a solid plan. Make sure to write down everything to the tiniest details. This means covering everything from the order of transfer if it will be done in bursts, any changes that people want to be made, and anything else that you believe can be helpful to you. Things are highly unlikely to go 100% according to your plans, but that’s okay as this way it will be easier to notice mistakes and fix them faster.
Another reason why a plan is so beneficial is the fact that it basically ends up working as a template of what you’re trying to achieve. The end result should look as close to your plan as possible and of course, it would be impossible to know if you got everything right if you didn’t have something decent to compare it to. All of the best experts on migrations agree that a solid plan is the thing that will have the most positive impact on your operations and is something that is all but necessary.
Communicate with your teams
Oftentimes issues arise during migrations because requests from teams are received long after their respective users and other tools have already been migrated. To keep this from happening and to keep yourself from having to edit everything in their team once again we highly recommend checking in with the teams and telling them ahead of time to prepare any requests that they may need so you can sort them out on time.
Clear communication will also allow you to more easily assemble your plan, more due to tackling each group in the company one by one and having a relatively streamlined path, instead of having to do so randomly which could end up causing problems. And of course, at the end of the day we have to remember that socialization, in general, is good for us, so some communication with colleagues we may not converse with all the time could do us good in general.
Conclusion
Active directory migrations are no simple tasks, but we hope that everything we’ve laid out for you in this text is helpful and will allow you to more easily go through them. With undertakings on such a large scale as transferring all of the info of a company from one server to another it’s impossible to avoid errors and hurdles which is why you need to remain calm and keep a cool head at all times. It’s a tall order, but since when was anything good ever easy?