Active Directory Migration

 

The Challenge

The client, who had recently purchased another company based in the United Kingdom, were just completing on the purchase of two additional companies in the United States and were looking to merge all the IT systems together, to provide one unified experience for all users, both sides of the Atlantic.

The client wanted one central Active Directory network, without referencing any of the company names, to avoid confusion between team members when working between sites.

The changes were to have minimal disruption to the team and be completed over the Christmas period, when the office would be closed.  

The Solution

Working with the client, an audit was conducted to get a complete picture of the network estate.  The client had a number of applications and services that relied on Active Directory, including an on-premise Skype for Business solution, multiple Microsoft SQL Servers and a number of File & Print Servers.

Using the clients existing network equipment and Internet connectivity, IPSEC VPN tunnels were established, allowing permanent communication between sites.

Leading up to the Christmas period, a new Active Directory network was designed and configured.  Group & Security Policies were then migrated to the new network, making recommendations and improvements along the way.

A number of backup/replicated servers from the existing estates were created and test migrations were conducted, to ensure all production services and databases remained online and functional after the migration.

When the client closed their offices for Christmas, all Servers, Computers, User Accounts, Group Memberships and File Shares across the four separate Active Directories were migrated and merged into the new central Active Directory network, keeping all user membership, security information and User Credentials attached, ensuring that when the users returned in January, all services would work as they did before, on the new network. 

The Result

When the company opened in the new year, all users, servers & devices had been migrated to the new network.  With representatives across all sites, users had on-hand assistance when they logged in for the first time, to ensure a smooth transition to the new network.  A week after the migration, the IT Manager and Director of the company commented how impressed they were with how smooth and trouble-free the transition went.