Active Directory, 4th Edition

Chapter 18. Upgrading to Windows Server 2008

The process for upgrading to Windows Server 2008 from Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 Active Directory is relatively straightforward. If you’ve completed the upgrade from Windows 2000 to Windows Server 2003, you should have all the skills necessary to embark upon upgrading to Windows Server 2008. If not, we recommend that you review the previous two chapters on upgrading to Windows Server 2003 as we will not be rehashing the content already covered there.

The goal of this chapter is to provide an at a glance overview of the new Active Directory features you will be able to leverage as you begin and complete your migration to Windows Server 2008. We will also discuss the upgrade process with specific attention to the additional steps necessary to deploy new Windows Server 2008 features.

New Features in Windows Server 2008

While the release of Windows Server 2008 is viewed as evolutionary, there are quite a few new features that make the upgrade attractive.

Note

By “feature,” we mean new functionality that is not just a modification of the way it worked in Windows Server 2003. In this sense, a feature is something you have to use or implement explicitly. Functionality differences with Windows Server 2003 are covered in the next section.

We suggest you carefully review each of these features and rate them according to the following categories:

• I would use the feature immediately.

• I would use the feature eventually.

• I would never use the feature or it ...