Astor II standoff clips and retention screws

[idata]

I have three antique Astor II chassis that I have purchased, for a project at work. The chassis did not come with the standoff clips, retention screws or rubber bumpers mentioned in the manual. This usually wouldn't be a problem, as I would pull some standoffs out of leftover parts from another server chassis. However, the Astor II chassis has square holes where the standoffs are supposed to go. First time I have seen square holes. Does anyone have suggestions on where I might find the clips, screws and bumpers?

Project I am working on might cause you to laugh, company I work for is still using NT4 for domain controllers. I wanted to create a lab with NT4 servers and run through the upgrade process. It's so much fun trying to install NT4, I broke down and purchased a few Astor Chassis and L440GX+ motherboards. I want to move beyond NT4 so much. Now I am stuck just trying to mount the motherboards.

Any suggestions? Is there anywhere I can purchase either OEM or aftermarket standoff's. screws and bumpers? I see something that might be the part at efilliate, and after a search, Wikipedia has a picture of what I am guessing might be the correct standoffs.

Thanks in advance,

Jeff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_case_screws http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_case_screws

[idata]

Well if it's just for a Lab then run it all on a piece of foam to get your tests done.

I did one NT4 - 2003 upgrade in my life and it's much easier to install a new NT4 BDC, detatch it form the network, promote it to a PDC, upgrade it to Windows 2003. Then install a fresh copy of Windows 2003 add it to the domain with the upgraded NT54 machine transfer the FSMO roles and kill the upgraded NT4 box and all the NT4 machines. That way if anything goes wrong your original NT4 machines are still in one piece.

You could very easily do this all in VMWare

[idata]

Running on cardboard right now. Not my favorite method.

Company plans was to shut down a NT4 backup domain controller (in case the upgrade is AFC), upgrade a NT4 to S2003 and so on. Hadn 't thought about what you are suggesting. Seems like it's almost the same method. What are the advantages of your method?

I would really like to be able to run through the upgrade a few times in a lab environment. I want to see what how NT4 has tattoed a few machines, and how the upgrade goes before I do the upgrade on the working network. Guess I would just feel a bit more comfortable.

Hadn't though about VMware, have to admit that's something company hasn't implemented.

Thanks,

Jeff

[idata]

Lets say you have existing NT4: PDC1 & BDC1.

Now load NT4 BDC2

Detatch it from the network and then promote it to a PDC

Upgrade it to Windows 2003

Do all your dcdiag tests

If you are happy then add it to a closed LAN with your fresh install of Windows 2003

Transfer FSMO roles

Do your dcdiag tests again.

If you are happy with the fresh Windows 2003 machine then dcpromo BDC2 out

Do your dcdiag tests again.

Shut down PDC1 and BDC1

Attach fresh Windows 2003 to the main LAN

Why this method is better is that there is no risk to your production environment until you get it working. Only at that point do you shutdown the existing NT4 machines and introduce 2003. Plus you end up with a clean Windows 2003 machine, not a NT4 upgraded one.

If you load NT4 in VMWare make sure to add a USB device otherwise the networking does not work (yeah that bug cost me a few hours).

More here: http://thevmwareguy.com/installing-windows-nt4-pdc-or-bdc-in-a-vmware-vsphere-4-vm/ http://thevmwareguy.com/installing-windows-nt4-pdc-or-bdc-in-a-vmware-vsphere-4-vm/