SBS 2003 Migration to new hardware - How? : sbs, 2003, new, hardware, migrate

try sbsmigration.com

it has a setup process designed & tested specifically for your situation.

if you have less than 10 users, it may well be best / quickest to just Export all exchange stuff to PST files & start from scratch.

01.13.2006 at 10:34PM PST, ID: 15698922

Yes I have come across sbsmigration and "swingit" (I purchased the $200 version earlier today) but I have yet to find a direct SBS 2k3 to SBS 2k3" migration path as it all seems to be aimed at 2k to 2k3 migration (more reading required).

With 40+users the PST method and several days worth of tweaking is not very appealing so Swingit looks like being the only option to doing everything by hand, as it stands I currently have three SBS 2k3 servers standing in a line - wierd.

01.14.2006 at 12:21AM PST, ID: 15699164

Rank: Master

I'd send sbsmigration an email asking about any differences you might face.
No first (or second ) hand experience with them but others in newsgroups swear by the support they get from the guy behind sbsmigration.

01.14.2006 at 01:26AM PST, ID: 15699360

alimu:

shifted through to new SBS Topic Area --alimu/Page Editor

01.14.2006 at 06:14AM PST, ID: 15700003

Rank: Genius

wlweis123,

robberbaron is spot on (I've been chatting it up a bit too much with the Brits). Their method DEFINITELY works for hardware upgrade/migration, which is what you have going on. The methodology is exactly the same as if you were upgrading from SBS2000 to SBS2003. Look for the term "hardware replacement" -- I think that's what they use to define your scenario.

Although you've already made a good choice, I thought you may want to at least know what the other option is... it's not ghosting, as you've found out... but rather using Symantec LiveState Backup. LiveState will allow restoration to different hardware by making the necessary adjustments for configuration and drivers.

Jeff
TechSoEasy

01.14.2006 at 06:57AM PST, ID: 15700150

Thanks for the valuable input guys

I am going back in today to complete a "test" migration with Swingit, lets see how it goes.

Bill.

01.16.2006 at 04:52AM PST, ID: 15709872

Well, one whole weekend later (30hrs on-site) and no nearer to having a rebuilt SBS box but I have developed the "bare metal" disaster recovery plans.

After a couple of false starts requiring the temp DC and new DC to be re-installed a couple of times (just the first SBS installation disk), despite working line by line through the Swing It procedures eventually when I got to Disk2 (setup) of SBS on the "new" server it would not install because the logged in user (domain\administrator) was not a member of the Domain Admins ???

Before proceeding with this operation I had a full tape backup and a ghost image of the boot drive which is just as well because the old SBS installation refused to load after I removed some of the DNS/WINS references to the temp DC (maybe I was too enthusiastic here), so the original SBS boot drive was re-instated from the Ghost image (this works a treat, everyone should have an image of their boot drives, I am going to build a new server to hold just the images of all the server boot disks).

So it looks like I will be building a "new" ground-up SBS box;

Just how far can I develop this "off-line" before it has to be attached to the existing network ?
Is it possible to retain the same server names or would it be wise to have a "new" name ?
Retaining the current domain name would save a lot of work but will it present authentication issues (specifically for the remote access clients) ?
I intend to retain the same internal network IP (10.0.0.0), wise or not ?

Cheers, Bill.

01.18.2006 at 02:29AM PST, ID: 15727354

markpelt:

Why don't you run a backup and restore with SBS 2003.

This is a pretty easy and straigh forward way of migrating to new hardware.

I can send you a manual if you like.

Cheers, Mark.

01.18.2006 at 03:36AM PST, ID: 15727613

Rank: Master

must be livestate backup or similar advanced program that can detect & change to meet different hardware.

01.18.2006 at 04:32PM PST, ID: 15735034

markpelt:

Hi Robberbaron!

you can use the normal SBS backup tools to backup and restore a SBS 2003 server to a new hardware without a problem. I have done it before and it worked like a charm.

Have a look at:

http://www.smallbizserver.net/Default.aspx?PageContentMode=1&tabid=144

Cheers, Mark.

Accepted Solution

01.19.2006 at 06:27PM PST, ID: 15745759

Rank: Genius

You can only restore to new hardware if the following are the same:

SCSI controller. You can restore to a computer that has an IDE controller if the original computer had SCSI.

Motherboard chip set.

Number of processors.

Hard disk size. The new computer's hard disk should contain matching volumes the same size or larger than those on the original computer.

Drive letter of the boot partition.

Please see this for further information about that:
http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/support/articles/backup_restore_sbs2003.mspx

Jeff
TechSoEasy

01.19.2006 at 06:37PM PST, ID: 15745810

Rank: Genius

And to answer wlewis123's comments:

>>>Just how far can I develop this "off-line" before it has to be attached to the existing network ?
I'm not sure what you mean by this... since you will be provisioning TWO additional servers using the Swing method... one is just a Server 2003 as your temporary DC, and the other is the full SBS. You install just the Server 2003 portion of SBS to the temp DC as a workgroup server, not a member of the domain. So the temp DC can and should be fully installed prior to adding it to the domain.

>>>Is it possible to retain the same server names or would it be wise to have a "new" name ?
>>>Retaining the current domain name would save a lot of work but will it present authentication issues (specifically for the remote access clients) ?
>>>I intend to retain the same internal network IP (10.0.0.0), wise or not ?

Again, if using the Swing method you DO keep the same servername and IP address (although I really hope you AREN'T using 10.0.0.0 as the IP address -- and you meant that is your IP Range for the LAN). Personally, I don't like using the 10.0.0.0 range because it has too many available IP's. But that's just personal preference.

Jeff
TechSoEasy

01.19.2006 at 07:07PM PST, ID: 15745956

Well Guys;

I tried Swing and it failed (see above) depite putting a lot of effort/time into it and it is far from straightforward.

It looks like the diverse harware is going to be an issue with a std SBS backup/restore as mentioned by Mark, so my questions re; Server name, Domain name, IP's for server/network are all still unanswered as I will not be "swinging" this migration but building from scratch (I have the time), I just need to know if I can retain all the current settings on my new server without causing issues.

Yes Jeff; 10.0.0.0 is the network range, I know I should have said "10.0.0.xxx" but this is a hangover from the original SBS 4.0 installation and now everything is setup on that internal network range including the phone system, printers, fax/copier and firewall so I really dont want to change it all now if I dont have to.

One thing I have discovered over the past week is that SBS standard does not support dual Zeon P4 chips with Hyperthreading as it will only support "dual processors" SBS now thinks I have four on board, I will be purchasing SBS Premium to resolve that.

01.19.2006 at 08:35PM PST, ID: 15746317

Rank: Master

Without using swing or backup method, i believe you must use a new Computer name, & new IP. I think new domain name is recommended as well.

And then rejoin all the workstations, porting all their profiles across. Have you got roaming profiles now ?

This later is not to be sneezed at. 40+ workstations took 3 people the best part of 8 hours on a weekend. We were far from experts at the time.......

This is why the "Swing migration" was developed

01.19.2006 at 09:10PM PST, ID: 15746443

Rank: Genius

Actually SBS WILL support Dual Zeon P4's w/Hyperthreading. You'll get a warning, but you just have to acknowledge it. I have 4 such servers installed with clients. There is no difference between Standard and Premium in regards to processor limits.

If the Swing migration failed, then you should contact them and have them troubleshoot it for you. But since you now remind me that this was already upgraded from an SBS 4.0... i'd really do a clean install -- and just migrate what you can... there's probably lots of crap left over from the legacy stuff.

You really will need to use a new domain if you're doing a clean install. I've done it otherwise and it was hell getting everything to work... if it ever will. Keeping the same IP Schema would be fine but as long as you're doing the clean install, you really should switch to the 192.168.16.x range to be consistant with SBS2003.

You could download the trial of Symantec LiveState and give that a whirl since you have the time and the machine... couldn't hurt.

Jeff
TechSoEasy

Assisted Solution

01.19.2006 at 09:30PM PST, ID: 15746536

Rank: Master

the correct way to migrate user profiles on workstation... http://www.certmag.com/articles/templates/cmag_howto.asp?articleid=819&zoneid=91

I used a slightly different one and while it worked then, now has some issues (stored the user profile under a different folder in MyDocs.)

01.19.2006 at 09:48PM PST, ID: 15746612

Rank: Master

looking for something else i found http://www.mtekk.com.au/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1562

Posted: Sat May 01, 2004 4:06 pm Post subject: No you can't
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SBS2003 has specific logic inbuilt that will prevent you having two SBS2003 or an SBS2000 and 2003 server active inthe same domain for more than 7 days. After this it will shutdown your server automatically. This is by design, but they allow you to have the two servers in the domain for 7 days for migration purposes.

Regards,
Wayne Small [SBS MVP]
for all the info on Small Business Server check out www.sbsfaq.com
'------------------------------

This may allow you to keep the domain name and transfer all data from one server to another.
At the expense of more work at each workstation...

process may be
1. setup new server with new computer name and IP
2. setup new users & computers on new server using wizards
3. add server to network and copy data across
4. save each user profile at workstations
5. remove workstations from domain to a workgroup. shutdown all.

6. disconnect old server from network. enable dhcp , dns etc on new server.
7. at each workstation, login as local admin & run sbs connectcomputer to join to new server, importing profile

Lots of out-of-hours work to migrate the workstations instead of swing migrating the server. And you have to get users to transfer stuff out of my docs / my music or the saving of profiles will take forever.

Assisted Solution

02.26.2006 at 03:56PM PST, ID: 16051425

Venabili:

This question has been classified as abandoned because there are no comments in the last 21 days. I will make a recommendation to the moderators on its resolution in approximately 4 days. I would appreciate any comments by the experts that would help me in making a recommendation.

It is assumed that any participant not responding to this request is no longer interested in its final disposition.

If the asker does not know how to close the question, the options are here:
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Venabili
EE Cleanup Volunteer

03.14.2006 at 12:13PM PST, ID: 16187380

Venabili:

I will leave the following recommendation for this question in the Cleanup topic area:
Split: markpelt {http:#15735034} & TechSoEasy {http:#15746443} & robberbaron {http:#15746612}

Any objections should be posted here in the next 4 days. After that time, the question will be closed.

Venabili
EE Cleanup Volunteer

03.14.2006 at 06:04PM PST, ID: 16190487