Conducting Your Windows 2000 Pilot

Developing the Rollout Process

If one of your pilot goals is to test the rollout process, the installation team must develop, document, and test the procedures during the project testing phase. The test lab is a good place to debug problems, but the pilot provides a real-world test in which the procedures can be fine-tuned for accuracy and efficiency. Make sure the scripts and tools for automating upgrades are appropriate for the computers in the pilot environment.

As you develop procedures for deploying Windows 2000 to various types of computers, create documentation that is helpful to the installers. Your rollout documentation might include the following:

Lists of tools and supplies the installer needs.
Lists of scripts and their locations.
Backups that installers are to make before and during deployment.
Include backups of user data on client computers.
Steps for migrating to your new domain structure.
For more information about strategies for migrating to your new domain structure and the tools to use, see "Determining Domain Migration Strategies" in this book.
Steps for performing both automated and manual computer upgrades.
The manual method can be used if the automated method does not work properly. For more information about automating your installations, see "Automating Server Installation and Upgrade" and "Automating Client Installation and Upgrade" in this book.
Acceptance tests that installers are to perform during and immediately following deployment to verify that the deployment works as expected.
Operational procedures that installers and administrators are to perform (resetting permissions, changing passwords, restoring user data).
Steps for backing out if the pilot fails.