New server data transfer issues

Gee thanks, thats encouraging!!! I also have to upgrade 3 other serverS (one at another site) to W2K3 and install new hardware in existing servers and create the software HA setup (SteelEye's LifeKeeper) and implement volume shadow copy and move my existing lto drive to a new server!!  Sounds like I have a more than one weekend project here!!!!  

The reason I'm trying to do this is that there have been many shortcuts built that are in the form of \\wtecfs01\shared\production\files\blah.txt and I really really don't want to suddenly come in Monday and have the new file server be \\NewBox and crash the phone system w/ complaint calls to me!!!  All my scripts (they are very few) should be ok and as you said, very easy to change.  What about a crossover cable and direct attach the nics ( I will have gigabit in both!!!) and then using robocopy??  Could I set the new box up w/ the other ones name then?  I can have some downtime....what about just changing the name half way through?  Will that mess stuff up ? (the old file server is also a domain controller)  As you can tell, I'm new to this!  I'm actually a programmer that was kinda shoved into this and can't get out.  I just want to make sure I do this right.  Thanks!!!

There is another way you could do it.
Give the new machine another name and move everything to it. This includes shares etc. The structure needs to be identical, except for the machine name.

Take down the old machine (if it is a DC then it needs to be done correctly - DCPROMO out, reboot, then drop in to workgroup). Give the old machine a new name.

This leaves the old name not attached to anything.
There is a registry hack where you can get a machine to respond to another name.
It can be called "bob" but will also respond to "sue".
Voila - all shares continue to work.

It might be a good time to think about moving to AD DFS for shares instead of actual machine names. This will avoid these problems as the DFS link can be changed in one place and no one needs to know.

Simon.

Forgot the article link.
Here it is at the NTFAQ:
http://www.winnetmag.com/Article/ArticleID/14475/14475.html

Simon.

i forgot the ip change:

after you renamed the new server to the historical name, change ip of the old to a new ip.
wait for dns and ad to replicate.
change ip on the new server to the historical one.
wait for dns and ad replication.

Thanks guys, those are some good suggestions!  FYI....I will have 2 file servers and neither one will be a DC but my current file server is a DC now.

Sembee....I currently use DFS to do a partial replication of data to an off site.  It was a little flakey to get setup but I may look into it.  Then again, I only get new hardware every 3 years when our lease is up.  


It looks like robocopy is going to be my tool of choice here.  Any more suggestions from anyone??  Anyone used LifeKeeper?  Thanks!

NA,

My great concern here is that when you start renaming DC's and giving out the same IP addresses that did exist AD can become unstable.  I have seen servers added with the same name as a renamed server, 2 days after the rename, and seen things behave in odd ways.  

NTFRS Errors
Directory Service errors
DNS (active directory integrated) oddities

This is not to say that you can not go that way, I am just saying that you should be very careful to make sure AD and NTFRS have ahd time to shake out.

Todd

Toadias....Good points, and that was some of my concerns.  I think I may demote this weekend and rename and upgrade next weekend.  That should give things time to work out.

how many domains / dc's / sites we are talking about?
how long did you set the replication intervals?
but its allways a bad idea to change a dc's ip to anothers servers ip.
you can add a netbios/dns alias for the fileservername instead. pointing to your dc's realname.
that should do it untill the server is online again :)
changeing the dc's ip will result in a name resolution delay, as many clients have to change their dns servers. (if you have configured a second dns)