Change from Unix to NT

[Goh Cheng Chuan]

Hi
We will be upgrading our software version soon, thus, we may want to consider changing unix to NT. A few of the main considerations for this change was support fr the application software on unix is problematic, prohibitive upgrading cost on unix & our limited knowledge in maintaining unix. however, the definite pluses for unix r in stability as well as reliability in terms of less virus attacks & system downtime. Any advice?

[Tim Malnati]

In many ways you have said it all. But I must question your comment regarding cost. HPUX is not cheap, but you get a lot for the money you spend, particularly when you look at support. But if the cost is as prohibitive as you say, then you may want to look at Linux as a possible alternative. The rest of the issues that you discuss are certainly a judgement call for your organization. You need to really determine what is important to your organization and go with it. Also keep in mind that NT is not really NT any more. It is somewhat pointless to perform a brand new roll out on anything less than Windows 2000, and there is a significant learning curve there as well.

[Anthony Goonetilleke · Accepted solution]

I've actually been involved a in a couple of UNIX <--> NT migrations it depends on exacty what you want to migrate.
i.e
USERS: users can be easily migrated using a program called addusers.exe on NT you can use awk under unix and convert the /etc/passwd file to a file that addusers excepts. Once you run this all your users will be setup under NT.

DATA: Fairly straight forward either yo can use the ol' backup/restore method or use Samaba or NFS to mount unix dir's and copy the data across.

I can keep going on for awhile but if you can narrow it down a bit I might be able to help more. What exactly would you like to migrate from the NT server to the Unix server?

[Stefan Schulz]

I don't agree with your point regarding the costs. You should have a look at the overall costs of UNIX and NT. I've been administrating about 120 NT Workstations in my former employment. Now i have about 115 UNIX Workstations.

As you said stability is a point. We had about 1-2 Crashes every week on every NT Workstation. Also Administration is much easier on UNIX. You can do practically every Update/Configuration on all Workstations from your office. Or even better with a script.

Also as i can logon the users Worstation i can solve userproblems faster. Therefore the user can work more effecitve. Which in fact downs the cost for a UNIX Worstation.

If you do have the choice stay with UNIX. If you need to use a specific Application only avalable on NT, you don't have choice.

Hope this helps a bit.

[Goh Cheng Chuan]

hi,
firstly, i'm impressed by the prompt & impartial replies, Great & thanks!
ok, let's get warmer on the details -> our application is an ERP package, MK Manufacturing by Computer Associates. it is an upgrade fr 8.0 to 8.1. it can run on both unix & NT. Being an administrator, the worrisome part is the downtime which we hear quite a bit.
However, we need to verify w existing MK users on claims fr CA's support staff that they hv no such complaints lately and it's been known to support 50 over concurrent users.
it is meant for only avg 25 concurrent users and a manufacturing environment. Hope these info r useful for more advice. thank you.

[Tim Malnati]

It has been a long time since I have done any direct work with CA and it was in a mainframe environment. My impression then was they know what they are doing and delivered well. I have no evperience with this application, so I really can't offer anything directly to that end. I would still verify their claims though. It's your business that suffers more than theirs if there is a problem.

Scalability is an issue that unix has a clear advantage over NT. I know there are all sorts of announcements from Microsoft that this will change later this month with the rollout of their new Win2000 products. Will they be more stable? Will they scale to the same level as unix on similar hardware? Will they be any different than previous MS products in terms of early life cycle quality? Do you want to bet your business on products that have very little if any production history? Considering the hardware that it will need, will it be any less expensive than a unix environment overall? It's still your choice, but I know where I would invest my time and money.

[Anthony deRito]

You may get some good insight from this site to help you along with your decision...

http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/