Server 2003 migrating to new hardware

Company has existing 2003 server in place running multiple services. They
have purchased new hardware and would like to migrate to the new hardware.

Is there a preferred method to migrate the old server to the new hardware,
including all services and licensing? Minimal downtime is key of course. It
is a small business and this is there only server.

I'll do the following (Note: brute force!)
1. Clone the OS partition to a spare HD
2. Plug the clone HD in the new server
3. If it hangs, HAL conflict or missing driver.
4. unplug all HD on old server and have clone HD plug
5. restart old server and install all the drivers that comes with the new
server
6. unplug clone HD with new server drivers installed
7. plug clone HD into new server again.

I did the same thing when I migrated from old raid card to new raid card.

"sboyden" wrote:

> Company has existing 2003 server in place running multiple services. They
> have purchased new hardware and would like to migrate to the new hardware.
>
> Is there a preferred method to migrate the old server to the new hardware,
> including all services and licensing? Minimal downtime is key of course. It
> is a small business and this is there only server.

Is product activation likely to come into play when migrating to a totally
new machine? (Not tried it, just interested.)

"Martin_C" <> wrote in message
news:026C0402-EA09-485A-B0E8-...
> I'll do the following (Note: brute force!)
> 1. Clone the OS partition to a spare HD
> 2. Plug the clone HD in the new server
> 3. If it hangs, HAL conflict or missing driver.
> 4. unplug all HD on old server and have clone HD plug
> 5. restart old server and install all the drivers that comes with the new
> server
> 6. unplug clone HD with new server drivers installed
> 7. plug clone HD into new server again.
>
> I did the same thing when I migrated from old raid card to new raid card.
>
> "sboyden" wrote:
>
>> Company has existing 2003 server in place running multiple services. They
>> have purchased new hardware and would like to migrate to the new
>> hardware.
>>
>> Is there a preferred method to migrate the old server to the new
>> hardware,
>> including all services and licensing? Minimal downtime is key of course.
>> It
>> is a small business and this is there only server.

it won't if it is a volume license

"Brian Cryer" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Is product activation likely to come into play when migrating to a totally
> new machine? (Not tried it, just interested.)
>
> "Martin_C" <> wrote in message
> news:026C0402-EA09-485A-B0E8-...
>> I'll do the following (Note: brute force!)
>> 1. Clone the OS partition to a spare HD
>> 2. Plug the clone HD in the new server
>> 3. If it hangs, HAL conflict or missing driver.
>> 4. unplug all HD on old server and have clone HD plug
>> 5. restart old server and install all the drivers that comes with the new
>> server
>> 6. unplug clone HD with new server drivers installed
>> 7. plug clone HD into new server again.
>>
>> I did the same thing when I migrated from old raid card to new raid card.
>>
>> "sboyden" wrote:
>>
>>> Company has existing 2003 server in place running multiple services.
>>> They
>>> have purchased new hardware and would like to migrate to the new
>>> hardware.
>>>
>>> Is there a preferred method to migrate the old server to the new
>>> hardware,
>>> including all services and licensing? Minimal downtime is key of course.
>>> It
>>> is a small business and this is there only server.
>
>

well it takes few minutes to get it activated again with a call to Microsoft.
I have 2 servers with exact same mb, cpu, ram, HD, etc It still requieres me
to activate it again on server02 when I swap the OS HD from server01 to
server02


"seth" wrote:

> it won't if it is a volume license
>
> "Brian Cryer" <> wrote in message
> news:...
> > Is product activation likely to come into play when migrating to a totally
> > new machine? (Not tried it, just interested.)
> >
> > "Martin_C" <> wrote in message
> > news:026C0402-EA09-485A-B0E8-...
> >> I'll do the following (Note: brute force!)
> >> 1. Clone the OS partition to a spare HD
> >> 2. Plug the clone HD in the new server
> >> 3. If it hangs, HAL conflict or missing driver.
> >> 4. unplug all HD on old server and have clone HD plug
> >> 5. restart old server and install all the drivers that comes with the new
> >> server
> >> 6. unplug clone HD with new server drivers installed
> >> 7. plug clone HD into new server again.
> >>
> >> I did the same thing when I migrated from old raid card to new raid card.
> >>
> >> "sboyden" wrote:
> >>
> >>> Company has existing 2003 server in place running multiple services.
> >>> They
> >>> have purchased new hardware and would like to migrate to the new
> >>> hardware.
> >>>
> >>> Is there a preferred method to migrate the old server to the new
> >>> hardware,
> >>> including all services and licensing? Minimal downtime is key of course.
> >>> It
> >>> is a small business and this is there only server.
> >
> >
>
>
>

Hello,
Use this article as guide:
249694 How to move a Windows installation to different hardware
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;249694

Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
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I believe you have solved your problem. But here I want to share this method:
migrate to a similar hardware:
Copy/Clone Windows Server 2003 system disk with best server backup software - EaseUS Todo Backup Server Edition
Migrate to different hardware:
Restore 2003 Server to different hardware with Server backup software - EaseUS Todo Backup Server - recover to dissimilar hardware