Why are you still running NT 4?

Maybe I’m missing something, but it doesn’t seem that it would be all that hard to transfer files from an NT 4 server to a Windows 2003 Server.

Maybe I’m missing something, but it doesn’t seem that it would be all that hard to transfer files from an NT 4 server to a Windows Server 2003.

But evidently, Redmond thinks that the reason some of you still have NT 4 servers on your network is that you just haven’t figured out how to move the files to that brand spanking new 2003 edition of the Windows Server. In fact, Microsoft has created new tools and white papers to help you make the move.

One clue to the company’s thinking might be the name it has applied to the collection of documents – “The Solution Accelerator for Consolidating and Migrating File and Print Servers” (see link below). It’s an “accelerator.” Evidently, in Microsoft’s view, you’re taking far too long to migrate off of that old NT 4 platform so it wants to explain to you – one more time – why making that move is a good thing.

As the overview says, the set of tools and guidelines “details the benefits of consolidation and migration and provides technical information, recommendations, processes, build notes, job aids, test scripts, and a well-documented and tested process for consolidation and migration.”

Are there any of you who don’t understand the “benefits” of migration? Could we have a show of hands of those who would have migrated sooner, but they didn’t know how to transfer files?

In a story (link below) by Network World Senior Editor John Fontana, Microsoft’s Technical Product Manager for next-generation file and print, Radhesh Balakrishnan, claims that: “…a sizeable amount of customers are saying, ‘Give us a tool that is good enough.’ So we provide file server migration from Point A to Point B and make sure that end users are not disrupted.”

That’s certainly commendable, but migration services were available with Windows 2000 Server and, out-of-the-box, with Windows Server 2003. It’s not a lack of tools or expertise that’s keeping those NT 4 boxes in service.

Informal surveys I’ve done over the past couple of years show that the overwhelming reason people are still running NT 4 servers is because they have applications and services that won’t run on anything newer. Until the applications are updated (or replaced), these sites have no choice but to run at least one NT 4 server.

Do you still have NT 4 servers on your network? Write to me (windows@vquill.com) and tell me why you’re still using it. We’ll publish the results in an upcoming issue.