Migrating from Server 2003 x32 to Server 2008 r2
Looking for some confirmation in my upgrade plan. I have a new server box on which I have installed Server 2008 r2. The server that it will replace is a file/print server and is running server 2003. I installed the new server with a temporary name into the domain. I have restored the data files from my Backup Exec backups and I have recreated all the shares. I used the print migration tool to migrate the printers from the old to the new.
My plan is to shutdown the old server, log into the new server and change the name so that it becomes the name of the old server. At this point I will restore the latest backups so that all the data will be current.
Will this process work? This server also contains all the users redirected folders and profiles. Am I missing some critical step? Thanks in advance for your input.
My plan is to shutdown the old server, log into the new server and change the name so that it becomes the name of the old server. At this point I will restore the latest backups so that all the data will be current.
Will this process work? This server also contains all the users redirected folders and profiles. Am I missing some critical step? Thanks in advance for your input.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Know I would do it now then change it again later but if you are going to keep the same name I would advise to keep the same IP
ASKER
Thanks for the advice. I plan to pull the trigger tomorrow night. I will report back and let you know how things go.
ASKER
Well, unfortunately the server switch did not go as planned. First off, I had issues with Backup Exec 12.5 restoring the data. The restore jobs kept timing out so I had to break the job down into smaller chunks. Once that was completed I was ready to do the switch. Worked until 1am and everything seemed to be fine. I could login and I was able to login from a couple of other workstations. But when I arrived at work the next morning my phone was ringing off the hook. Some could not login, others could not access their "My Documents" or email and no one could print. I spent the bulk of the day trying to figure out what was going on. I figured it had to do with file and or share permissions but everything looked fine. So late in the day I switched back to the old server so at least the whole campus wasn't disrupted for an extended time.
I now have to figure out what went wrong. Any ideas of what I need to check?
I now have to figure out what went wrong. Any ideas of what I need to check?
Run dcdiag to check for errors. What do you mean switch back? What did you switch back? Did you keep the same name and IP address?
ASKER
When I did the original switchover I simply shutdown the old server and disconnected it from the network. I then renamed the new server to the name of the old server. I did use a new IP address for the new server. Once I renamed the server I ran ipconfig /flushdns and then ipconfig /registerdns as well as nbtstat -RR. So today when I switched back to the old server I renamed the new server, cleared the dns and then reconnected and booted the old server. It came up normally and at that time the users could login and access their files once they rebooted.
I would use the old IP address.
ASKER
I will try that. However I think it is a permissions problem. I don't think the permissions where properly set when the files were restored from the backkup. I say that because some users could see their files but could not open. They would get an "Access Denied" message when they would try to open one of them. I think I am going to try and do a restore of the permissions only and see what that does.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
After going through folder by folder I found that a lot of the file permissions were incorrect. I think this may have been because of going from server 2003 to 2008 r2. It seams the file permission are a little different in 2008. I am guessing that the permissions may not have been completely right on the old box (this is a very old server and I think it was upgraded from 2000 a few years ago). I have decided to do a slow migration instead of a replace. All the advice that was given was good. I am going to give each of you some of the points.
ASKER