googol13
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Server 2003 R2 to Server 2008 (R2) migration/Fresh start
Hello, I am looking to move off the Server 2003 R2 platform onto 2008.
The old Active Directory is very basic, lots of things not working properly, currently only using one site whereas we have 3 branches and 1 HQ. We also have no OUs setup.
It seems it would be best to just build up AD on the server 2008 box that is new hardware side by side. I will probably be importing the users at least, the groups are messed up and we will be switching to a role based access setup in the near future.
What would be the best way to do this? Has anyone else done something similar? Some ideas tossed around were to join the 2008 server to the domain, replicate, then demote the 2003, but that gets all the old stuff, which I do not want, but would be easiest solution. Another solution I suppose is to create a different domain, setup trusts between new and old, then migrate. That also isn't the greatest, but I am not sure. We are a highly operational network and need the highest uptime possible.
I can swing having to disjoin computers from old domain and join them to new domain probably, provided that is really fast.
What is best practice? What is the best solution?
Thanks in advance
The old Active Directory is very basic, lots of things not working properly, currently only using one site whereas we have 3 branches and 1 HQ. We also have no OUs setup.
It seems it would be best to just build up AD on the server 2008 box that is new hardware side by side. I will probably be importing the users at least, the groups are messed up and we will be switching to a role based access setup in the near future.
What would be the best way to do this? Has anyone else done something similar? Some ideas tossed around were to join the 2008 server to the domain, replicate, then demote the 2003, but that gets all the old stuff, which I do not want, but would be easiest solution. Another solution I suppose is to create a different domain, setup trusts between new and old, then migrate. That also isn't the greatest, but I am not sure. We are a highly operational network and need the highest uptime possible.
I can swing having to disjoin computers from old domain and join them to new domain probably, provided that is really fast.
What is best practice? What is the best solution?
Thanks in advance
ASKER
I have been looking into ADMT provided by microsoft, seems like it will handle the disjoin and rejoin domains as part of the process using an agent.
Maybe I will just accept the mess they have right now, it probably wouldn't be too difficult to clean it up properly. That way everyone including management is happy.
Definitely still interested in other ways than ADMT or just simply joining the domain then demoting the old server 2003 box.
Maybe I will just accept the mess they have right now, it probably wouldn't be too difficult to clean it up properly. That way everyone including management is happy.
Definitely still interested in other ways than ADMT or just simply joining the domain then demoting the old server 2003 box.
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I would say that if you can't do this, build the new server in a different network schema but same domain name, set everything up, create users and groups etc as you want them, add an additional IP address, then map across and replicate data lgging on with an admin logon on the old domain.
Then disjoin each workstation to a workgroup and rejoin every workstation using the new address schema.
Not really a low downtime option simply from the point of data transfer, unless your users use very discreet sets of data and you can transfer one user at a time.