Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of Tabcit
TabcitFlag for Afghanistan

asked on

Upgrade server SBS 2003 to SBS 2008

I have a SBS 2003 that is flapping and losing connectivity . I moved the 2003 box to a VMware server . I'm in the midst of upgrading the server 2003 to server 2008. The SBS 2008 is asking me for a attend file? In my experiance I have found that the Ms way is never easy and are questions that I can never figure out. I have been browsing the answers here and i saw a 200 migration tool from 2003 to 2008 . Can this be true? What is the name of this app?

This is a server with under 30 users but all of the users are administrators and the server is mission critical.

Not sure the rules but a quick response would be very much appriciated
SOLUTION
Avatar of Cliff Galiher
Cliff Galiher
Flag of United States of America image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Actually the Microsoft migration procedure is very easy and works great. I have used answer files for 2003 to 2008 migrations several times successfully. I would use the answer file any day before looking into 3rd party tools for this particular process.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
I agree - MS works fine if you follow carefully.  But you've said something contradictory:

all of the users are administrators and the server is mission critical.

How can the server be mission critical when any user who gets annoyed with the company or gets a virus or just accidentally does something they shouldn't can bring the server down?

Among the changes you need to make is RESTRICTING users to rights required for doing their jobs and nothing more.  If you use an app that requires admin rights, look into upgrading the app and/or alternate solutions such as making the user a power user or admin ONLY on their system.

Further, if this is so highly critical, I would suggest either hiring a pro who has done this multiple times before OR use the sbsmigration method since they offer support and the method ensures that you can easily backup and restart if you need to.
Avatar of Tabcit

ASKER

Thank you all for some great answer I was wringing this post late at night when I meant administrators I meant that in a literal sense this is a school. So I mean the director principal head master etc. one other wrinkle the new server is a vmmachine on VMware box. Instead of putting in the cd would a virtual cd program like magic iso then mount the cd work.
Last ignorant question as its AD when I bring the new serve up will the old server serve as a back up for the new one. Im leaning towards any kit because I don't want to miss any steps data etc. but from the above it seems like using MS method is the way to go. I'll try it today let evyone know how it went
No, the old server will not be a backup for the new server. There are technical and legal reasons for this, but you should be making regular backups both before starting the migration and throughout the migration process if you stretch it out over multiple days.

-Cliff
Avatar of Tabcit

ASKER

Cliff,
I have Mozy backups every night. I am under the gun to do this quickly because the old server is flapping losing its shard drives that everyone connects to. One last questions I run the file on the old server then it saves the migration file where? USB external?