Those of you running your in tranets with Windows NT 4 might already be planning to migrate to Windows NT 5. Put those blueprints aside. Although my first peek at NT 5 shows some impressive improvements, the operating system is so late that it may not even arrive in 1999.

But there are things about NT 5 to enthuse over. Microsoft is aiming to make it a kinder, gentler, saner network OS. Centralized management tools, beefed up security, and enhanced directory services (called Active Directory) promise to make life with NT a bit less complicated.

Like any early beta, the NT 5 test versions I inspected had lots of bugs and crashed like mad. But through the thicket I saw lots of compelling features that could make it a winning upgrade. For example, Microsoft has replaced NT 4's squadron of administration tools with a centralized interface called Microsoft Management Console. You can do everything from adding users to configuring printers all in one place, and because of its modular design, Microsoft and third parties can add to the Console easily.

NT 4 administrators who have rightly complained about having to reboot their servers when making configuration changes can stop griping. NT 5 will allow on-the-fly changes to the server and even disk partition resizing without rebooting the server.

Are you worried that NT can't grow with your business? NT 5 is far more scalable because it adds support for multiprocessor servers. It also can manage servers with gobs of memory (up to 64GB), which is important for running massive enterprise-wide applications.

Nor has Microsoft forgotten intranet developers. NT 5 will feature COM+, a revamped Component Object Model that makes it easier for programmers to create applications for networked PCs and servers. Basically, Microsoft has bundled its Transaction Server (MTS) and Message Queue Server (MSMQ) with COM+. That means developers won't have to write e-commerce applications completely from scratch. Now they can call on COM+.

While all these new features are a leap ahead for intranet administrators, there are two big ifs to adopting NT 5: uncertainty about Microsoft's 2000 compliance and the hassle of migrating NT 4's directory services to NT 5.

Ready for Y2K Prime Time?

As it stands, NT 4 (even with Service Pack 3) is not fully 2000 compliant. At press time, Microsoft had posted a downloadable set of fixes (at www.microsoft.com/year2000) that address some NT 4 Y2K concerns, such as making the User Manager for Domains feature aware that 2000 is a leap year. This tool for managing user accounts, groups, and security policies depends on dates for account information and password expirations.

But that's hardly enough. A recent InfoWorld report (www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?980822.ehnty2k.htm) reveals that NT 4 applications (which may include financial programs, spreadsheets, and word processors) that directly access the PC's real-time clock may have date problems. In one test, NT 4 read 2000 as 0000.

Microsoft officially states that if you have NT 4 with Service Pack 3 and have downloaded and installed the four Y2K fixes on the company Web site, NT 4 is Y2K compliant with "minor" issues. How minor is unknown. As for NT 5, Microsoft insists that all new software releases will be Y2K compliant. We'll see. My advice to network managers is to keep tabs on NT 4 Y2K issues in the press and regularly check Microsoft's site for updates.

What's In a Directory?

NT's directory holds information about all the resources on your intranet, from printers to users. This makes it easier to track and manage all the objects in your network. Unfortunately, NT 4 dumps everything into the equivalent of one huge text file, which is limited to about 40,000 objects.

Enter NT 5's Active Directory, which uses a hierarchical, tree-like directory to put everything (up to 10 million ob jects) in its place, much like an organization chart. Once in place, you can modify information about users, groups, and domains and apparently change network structure. Unfortunately, Active Direc tory won't magically analyze your NT 4 network structure and convert everything for you. You have to restructure your entire network, a job that would intimidate even experienced IS types. Let's hope Microsoft adds some help when NT 5 finally ships.

Active Directory has other advantages, such as finer security control. For example, you could let your help desk reset user passwords but prevent them from adding or deleting user accounts.

Making the Move

To get a peek at future hassles, I migrated part of my NT 4 intranet to NT 5, following the guidelines spelled out at www.microsoft.com/NTServer/Basics/Future/WindowsNT5/default.asp. (My intranet consists of two NT 4 servers working as primary domain controllers; each server was backed up by two other NT servers.)

In NT 4, the primary domain controller holds the network directory information, and the backup servers duplicate this data. NT 5 still uses primary domain controllers. But it doesn't perform backups since it tracks all changes across all primary domain controllers in a process called multimaster replication.

Following Microsoft's steps, I up graded one server and left the rest running NT 4. After the upgrade, the NT 5 server wouldn't recognize the NT 4 servers on my network. According to Microsoft, NT 4 and NT 5 servers should happily coexist so you can gradually shift a network over to NT 5. Microsoft hopes to make the migration process painless by release time.

I did like NT 5's Internet-style domain naming conventions. After migrating a few more servers, I created a network tree for my faux company, Rapidbolt, with separate servers representing different departments, such as administration.rapidbolt and sales.rapidbolt.

I also tried to roll my LAN back to my NT 4 configuration. It took several hours of downtime, which would be unacceptable in a real-world setting. Microsoft expects to improve this process. It'd better!

The test versions I've inspected have the beginnings of replication support for NetWare's Directory Services and Active Directory Services Interface (ADSI). The former should make it easier to run mixed NT/NetWare networks, and the latter will let developers access network resources more easily.

So is NT 5 a must-have OS? If you're running an NT 4 network today, consider NT 5, but keep an eye on Linux and NetWare. I wouldn't abandon Linux or NetWare for NT 5. (I'll delve deeper into NetWare in a future issue.) In short, NT 5 is a sink or swim project for Microsoft. The OS is really late, really big, and still needs a lot of work. Stand pat for now, but keep your options open.

© 1998 Maggie Biggs. All rights reserved.

Maggie Biggs is a senior analyst at the InfoWorld Test Center, where she evaluates emerging application and database technologies. You can reach her at maggie_biggs@infoworld.com or care of Computer Currents.

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