Reintsalling server

Hi

We need to completely wipe off and reinstall our sbs 2003 standard dell
server. We have the server backed up daily via ntbackup.I have a few
questions;

1.If I install sbs using Dell OpenManage will it automatically take care of
all drivers disk, NIC etc.?

2. Would it suffice in terms of basic server installation to install win
2003 part of sbs and then restore from an ntbackup created backup the data
and system configuration; users etc.?

3. Is there an easy way to move across user profiles on each pc to the new
server installation?

Thanks

Regards

On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:06:51 -0000, "John" <>
wrote:

>Hi
>
>We need to completely wipe off and reinstall our sbs 2003 standard dell
>server. We have the server backed up daily via ntbackup.I have a few
>questions;
>
>1.If I install sbs using Dell OpenManage will it automatically take care of
>all drivers disk, NIC etc.?

>2. Would it suffice in terms of basic server installation to install win
>2003 part of sbs and then restore from an ntbackup created backup the data
>and system configuration; users etc.?

Are you reinstalling to the same server? If you are, I'd do a clean
install of SB (first disk only) and then apply the Windows service
pack (not SBS Service pack) that you are currently running.


>3. Is there an easy way to move across user profiles on each pc to the new
>server installation?

If you;re reinstalling to the same server then what do you need to
move on each PC? Each PC shuouldn't even be aware that you've
reinstalled the server.

If you're changing the server name, or reinstalling to different
hardware, then that's a very different scenario. Please give some
background to what you're proposing and why.



Jim


>
>Thanks
>
>Regards
>

As Jim said, more info is needed.

If you only want to reinstall, do a FULL backup to an external USB drive
using the SBS Backup Wizard (this will grab the data, Exchange, Sharepoint,
etc., as well as a System State backup for Active Directory restore).
Document your partition/drive structure (sizes, drive letters, etc.) for the
current install of the SBS server. Then pop in the Dell Server Assistant CD
and install SBS 2003 (this should take care of the drivers required during
installation). Bring the server up to the same Windows 2003 Service Pack
level it was before the wipe (should be either RTM, SP1 or SP2 - document
this before the wipe). Configure your partition structure. Then, using
NTBackup, restore the System State. After that, restore Exchange databases
and the rest of the server data. (This assumes that your partition
structure is the same as it was with the original install and that the
current Active Directory is in good shape). Your workstations should not
need to be touched (other than maybe a reboot). See the following document
for the procedures:

Backing Up and Restoring Windows Small Business Server 2003
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

If you need to reinstall but also need to make changes to the partition
structure, RAID controller, or other stuff, (or you want a completely fresh
install) we'll need more info on those required changes.

--
Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]
============================
"John" <> wrote in message
news:eFT$...
> Hi
>
> We need to completely wipe off and reinstall our sbs 2003 standard dell
> server. We have the server backed up daily via ntbackup.I have a few
> questions;
>
> 1.If I install sbs using Dell OpenManage will it automatically take care
> of all drivers disk, NIC etc.?
>
> 2. Would it suffice in terms of basic server installation to install win
> 2003 part of sbs and then restore from an ntbackup created backup the data
> and system configuration; users etc.?
>
> 3. Is there an easy way to move across user profiles on each pc to the new
> server installation?
>
> Thanks
>
> Regards
>

Hi Jim/Merv

Many thanks. The situation is that server is really horrible. It was
installed in a single card configuration with no firewall by the last
company. When I took over a few weeks ago the server had several spy ware
among other issues. I think ideally I would like not to take any system
configuration from existing server if possible and would like to manually
recreate users/computers etc after fresh sbs install. I would just need the
exchange and user data to come along. How would the process change in that
case?

Many thinks once again.

Regards

"John" <> wrote in message
news:eFT$...
> Hi
>
> We need to completely wipe off and reinstall our sbs 2003 standard dell
> server. We have the server backed up daily via ntbackup.I have a few
> questions;
>
> 1.If I install sbs using Dell OpenManage will it automatically take care
> of all drivers disk, NIC etc.?
>
> 2. Would it suffice in terms of basic server installation to install win
> 2003 part of sbs and then restore from an ntbackup created backup the data
> and system configuration; users etc.?
>
> 3. Is there an easy way to move across user profiles on each pc to the new
> server installation?
>
> Thanks
>
> Regards
>

NTBackup doesn't grab the "Help Desk" data.
I found that when I had to restore the server from tape.
For now, I just use Excel and connect to it to save the data.

"Merv Porter" <mwport@no_spam_hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:...
> As Jim said, more info is needed.
>
> If you only want to reinstall, do a FULL backup to an external USB drive
> using the SBS Backup Wizard (this will grab the data, Exchange,
> Sharepoint, etc., as well as a System State backup for Active Directory
> restore). Document your partition/drive structure (sizes, drive letters,
> etc.) for the current install of the SBS server. Then pop in the Dell
> Server Assistant CD and install SBS 2003 (this should take care of the
> drivers required during installation). Bring the server up to the same
> Windows 2003 Service Pack level it was before the wipe (should be either
> RTM, SP1 or SP2 - document this before the wipe). Configure your
> partition structure. Then, using NTBackup, restore the System State.
> After that, restore Exchange databases and the rest of the server data.
> (This assumes that your partition structure is the same as it was with the
> original install and that the current Active Directory is in good shape).
> Your workstations should not need to be touched (other than maybe a
> reboot). See the following document for the procedures:
>
> Backing Up and Restoring Windows Small Business Server 2003
> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en
>
> If you need to reinstall but also need to make changes to the partition
> structure, RAID controller, or other stuff, (or you want a completely
> fresh install) we'll need more info on those required changes.
>
> --
> Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]
> ============================
> "John" <> wrote in message
> news:eFT$...
>> Hi
>>
>> We need to completely wipe off and reinstall our sbs 2003 standard dell
>> server. We have the server backed up daily via ntbackup.I have a few
>> questions;
>>
>> 1.If I install sbs using Dell OpenManage will it automatically take care
>> of all drivers disk, NIC etc.?
>>
>> 2. Would it suffice in terms of basic server installation to install win
>> 2003 part of sbs and then restore from an ntbackup created backup the
>> data and system configuration; users etc.?
>>
>> 3. Is there an easy way to move across user profiles on each pc to the
>> new server installation?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Regards
>>

Hi John,

Ok, very different. What you're probably looking at is a Swing
Migration (www.sbsmigration.com), with a "swing" from box to same box.
This allows you to retain your full AD info, user accounts, computer
accounts etc., but also get a clean install of the OS.

There's risks involved, as you have to coy everything toa temporary
system and then wipe the original box, but the Swing Migration
methodology is very good.


The alternative is to exmerge all your exchange data to PST files, and
copy the Company Shared Folders and Users Shared Folders to another
drive, format, reinstall, then recreate user accounts and copy the
data back. However you'll also have to visit every computer and detach
them from the old domain and join them to the new domain (doing this
way, you'll need to have a new domain).


Swing sounds like the best approach.


Is that box itself of a reasonable quality/capacity? Or would this be
the right opportunity to consider replacing the hardware. If you're
going to have to "swing" then you're better doing it to new hardware
for many reasons.



Jim

On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:25:39 -0000, "John" <>
wrote:

>Hi Jim/Merv
>
>Many thanks. The situation is that server is really horrible. It was
>installed in a single card configuration with no firewall by the last
>company. When I took over a few weeks ago the server had several spy ware
>among other issues. I think ideally I would like not to take any system
>configuration from existing server if possible and would like to manually
>recreate users/computers etc after fresh sbs install. I would just need the
>exchange and user data to come along. How would the process change in that
>case?
>
>Many thinks once again.
>
>Regards
>
>"John" <> wrote in message
>news:eFT$...
>> Hi
>>
>> We need to completely wipe off and reinstall our sbs 2003 standard dell
>> server. We have the server backed up daily via ntbackup.I have a few
>> questions;
>>
>> 1.If I install sbs using Dell OpenManage will it automatically take care
>> of all drivers disk, NIC etc.?
>>
>> 2. Would it suffice in terms of basic server installation to install win
>> 2003 part of sbs and then restore from an ntbackup created backup the data
>> and system configuration; users etc.?
>>
>> 3. Is there an easy way to move across user profiles on each pc to the new
>> server installation?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Regards
>>
>