Managing the Migration Process

Tools and Utilities in Use

You’ll also need to develop a list of the tools and utilities currently in use and, with the vendor or creator, verify their compatibility with Windows 2000 Server and IIS 5.0. These tools might include administrative, programming, Web publishing, and client-side applications, such as Internet browsers.

Some of these tools might no longer be required after a migration; for example, if you use Microsoft® FrontPage® Web site creation and management tools, you can eliminate many other publishing tools, even if you’re running other Web servers in addition to IIS 5.0. To use all the features of FrontPage, you also need to install the appropriate Microsoft® FrontPage® Server Extensions, which are available for most popular Web servers, including those servers running on UNIX. For more information about FrontPage Server Extensions, see http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/.

Chances are that users will want to continue using at least some of their existing tools. If you’re migrating from a UNIX-based server, this could mean obtaining the Windows 2000 Server counterparts to UNIX tools. For more information about acquiring these, see the resources listed at the end of Migrating a Web Server to IIS 5.0 in this book.

You can use a checklist to help generate a list of the Windows versions of UNIX tools and utilities that you’ll need to obtain when migrating from a UNIX-based Web server to IIS 5.0. Some are available from third-party sources and from public FTP sites. You will need to port or rewrite any custom tools. Here are some items that might be on your list:

IIS Migration Wizard, if migrating from Netscape or Apache
Web content migration tools, such as FrontPage
UNIX-to-Microsoft® MS-DOS–based file copy and conversion tools, such as Mtool
Test scripts
Test tools, such as Web Capacity Analysis Tool (WCAT), the Web Application Stress Tool, and the IIS 5.0 debugger
Shell scripts used by applications during development or execution
Counterparts to UNIX daemons, as well as other utilities that perform application functions
Script interpreters, such as Perl, REXX, and TCL

In addition, you will need to generate a list of application programming tools in use, such as NSAPI, Common Gateway Interface (CGI), Perl, C++, and Java. Next, decide if you will continue supporting them. Otherwise, make the transition to ISAPI or ASP, as described in Migrating a Web Server to IIS 5.0 in this book. To help you with this list, you can use the “Tools Checklist” located in the ToolsChk.doc file on the Resource Kit companion CD.