Alter-Ego Best Practices

These tips are intended to help you get the most out of Alter-Ego by reducing errors and maximizing efficiency:

• Perform a test run. Before beginning any large-scale migration, it is recommended that you migrate a small group of computers to verify the settings and authentication settings are configured correctly. If the test run succeeds, you can proceed to a full-scale migration. If you are attempting a complex migration involving numerous authentication scenarios, it is advisable to attempt a small test run for each scenario.
  
  
• Break very large migrations into smaller runs. While Alter-Ego is capable of migrating hundreds or even thousands of computers at once, this can make it difficult to track down configuration issues and cause widespread issues in the event of a systems failure which disrupts the Alter-Ego process.
  
  
• Run different migration types as separate runs. It is possible to perform numerous migration scenarios (e.g. local-to-domain migration, domain-to-domain profile migration, computer join only) as part of a single run, however this may require significant amounts of manual configuration for complex migrations. By running each migration scenario as its own smaller run you can take full advantage of the Easy Setup Wizard to easily configure your migrations.
  
  
• Ensure you have a backup administrator account. When moving computers between domains, if the domain join fails you may be left unable to login if your only administrator access was through a Domain Administrator account. It is advisable to always have a backup local administrator account through which you can login and recover the system if necessary.
  
  
• Verify network communication. Verify network communication before beginning the migration. Alter-Ego provides the ability to automatically ping each client from the console. Manually pinging all domain controllers involved in the migration from the console is also recommended, as is verifying network connectivity between a sample of clients and the domain controllers. Additional verification can be done using a network test. Review the help topic on software firewalls for other potential network issues.