If you are doing an upgrade or migration to Windows Server 2003, you should read Chapter 7, before you finalize plans and deploy the operating system. If you are doing a new installation—perhaps, for a new business or a new location of an existing one—you have a substantial amount of additional planning to do. This extends well beyond your Windows Server 2003 systems to additional computers (clients, for a start), devices, services, applications, and so on.

The details of such a project are far beyond the scope of this book; indeed, entire books have been written on the topic. If you have to implement a network from the ground up, you might want to pick one up—the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Deployment Kit is worth a serious review.

You must plan the entire network, including areas such as the following:

This is a considerable undertaking and requires educated, dedicated staff, as well as adequate time and other resources.

Inside Out: Good news, bad news

Having the responsibility for deploying a new Windows-based network is both a good thing and a not-so-good thing.

• The not-so-good part is straightforward: It can be a staggering amount of work.

• The good thing—and it is a very good thing—is that you are starting with a clean slate and you have a chance to get it (at least mostly) right the first time. Many a network administrator would envy the chance to do a clean deployment, to start fresh with no existing problems, no legacy hardware or applications to maintain, no kludges or workarounds.

If you are faced with creating a new network, take advantage of this opportunity and do lots of research before you touch the first computer. With the abundance of technical information available, you should be able to avoid most problems and quickly resolve the few you encounter.