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Local User Migration to Central Domain File Server
I am working with a peer-to-peer workgroup network running a mixture of Vista and XP, and am migrating to a 2008R2 domain. Is there an easy/automatic way to migrate all the locally stored data on the 150+ workstations to a central share on the file server? It would be really helpful if the file structure was kept, and that each node's data was seperate ready to set up home folders, departmental shares etc. Would be very grateful for any tips/advice on this.
ASKER
Vikas,
Thanks very much for your input. This is a solution that I had considered, but ultimately the decision was reached that the users can't be trusted! I foresee that at some stage one of them will be unable to find a document for example, that they have failed to put in to this shared resource, and it will come back and bite me on the bum! It is my responsibility to ensure the undisrupted workflow, and frankly I can't imagine the users being that bother to ENSURE they have everything they need in that folder.
Is there anyway that a similar solution that you know of could be implemented, but performing some kind of search and capture for all *.pst, *.xls, *.xlsx, *.doc etc. etc. from the local disk of each machine, and then copying that to the shared disk, in a workstation specific folder? Perhaps using a batch or script, or even a migration tool or combination of these?
Thanks very much for your input. This is a solution that I had considered, but ultimately the decision was reached that the users can't be trusted! I foresee that at some stage one of them will be unable to find a document for example, that they have failed to put in to this shared resource, and it will come back and bite me on the bum! It is my responsibility to ensure the undisrupted workflow, and frankly I can't imagine the users being that bother to ENSURE they have everything they need in that folder.
Is there anyway that a similar solution that you know of could be implemented, but performing some kind of search and capture for all *.pst, *.xls, *.xlsx, *.doc etc. etc. from the local disk of each machine, and then copying that to the shared disk, in a workstation specific folder? Perhaps using a batch or script, or even a migration tool or combination of these?
Ok so a question right off the bat is what is a company doing with 150+ workstations in a workgroup? How are they sharing printers, data, etc? Are you migrating them to a domain and if so, what OS? As for their profiles, you could use Microsoft's user profile migration tools depending on the workstation OS. Here are links to three different tools I use based on the operating systems I am working with:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4af2d2c9-f16c-4c52-a203-8daf944dd555&displaylang=en
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=799ab28c-691b-4b36-b7ad-6c604be4c595
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e263796c-c7e4-44d6-96dd-32e821c88a25&displaylang=en
Good luck
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4af2d2c9-f16c-4c52-a203-8daf944dd555&displaylang=en
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=799ab28c-691b-4b36-b7ad-6c604be4c595
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e263796c-c7e4-44d6-96dd-32e821c88a25&displaylang=en
Good luck
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ASKER
Sosinc3,
Apologies, allow to clarify. The company is a rapid growth telecoms provider, and the number of users has expanded exponentionally to the point where they are now looking for outsource help in creating a viable business network and maintaining it. That's where I come in.
They are currently running on a micture of XP and Vista machines and have no centralised file storage, e-mail or resource sharing. Users are sharing what folders they seem to think pertinent, along with local printers to other workstations and users, and one part of the massive 'tidy up' we will be performing during the 2008 domain migration, is to capture all the user data (which as far as I can tell could be stored anywhere on the local hard disks (my docs, desktop, user created folders etc.)) and migrate to a central file store, where we can apply access rights to user, department, and global shares.
It is undecided yet as to wether these machines will be subject to a complete software rebuild, and therefore I would think that the user state migrations tools will be unuseable. Any other suggestions?
Ultimately in a ideal world I would be looking to run some kind of script or tool from one location, that will check for all file types previously agreed with the client, stick them in a workstaiton specific folder on a shared resource that can later be transferred to the file server... but I'm struggling with finding such a thing, and am wondering if I'm being to idealistic (perhaps even lazy?) and if such a thing even exists!
Apologies, allow to clarify. The company is a rapid growth telecoms provider, and the number of users has expanded exponentionally to the point where they are now looking for outsource help in creating a viable business network and maintaining it. That's where I come in.
They are currently running on a micture of XP and Vista machines and have no centralised file storage, e-mail or resource sharing. Users are sharing what folders they seem to think pertinent, along with local printers to other workstations and users, and one part of the massive 'tidy up' we will be performing during the 2008 domain migration, is to capture all the user data (which as far as I can tell could be stored anywhere on the local hard disks (my docs, desktop, user created folders etc.)) and migrate to a central file store, where we can apply access rights to user, department, and global shares.
It is undecided yet as to wether these machines will be subject to a complete software rebuild, and therefore I would think that the user state migrations tools will be unuseable. Any other suggestions?
Ultimately in a ideal world I would be looking to run some kind of script or tool from one location, that will check for all file types previously agreed with the client, stick them in a workstaiton specific folder on a shared resource that can later be transferred to the file server... but I'm struggling with finding such a thing, and am wondering if I'm being to idealistic (perhaps even lazy?) and if such a thing even exists!
ASKER
Vikas,
Thanks again... presumable you would run that using psexec and a text file of all the workgroup machine names? Luckily the client has had the foresight to ensure that all the workstations have the same local admin password!
As you've done this sort of thing a lot more recently than me, can you point me in the right direction as to where to start with the batch file?
Thanks again... presumable you would run that using psexec and a text file of all the workgroup machine names? Luckily the client has had the foresight to ensure that all the workstations have the same local admin password!
As you've done this sort of thing a lot more recently than me, can you point me in the right direction as to where to start with the batch file?
Would you mind to elaborate on your question please.
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Recently I have gone through from the same Scenario. Here is what i have done..
I Have Add one Large Storage Disk to the one of the machine in workgroup (Peer to Peer Network) and shared it. than i asked all the users to map it and create the folder of their username and save all the data to that folder.. Once everyone performed this steps. i Have a disk with identical folders of all the users with their Data.
finally, once i have migrated the environment to domain with server 2008 R2, i have added the disk to the server and copied everything to server HDD to a particular Location and mapped it to the everyones Homedrive...
Regards,
Vikas Shah