Is it possable to move a 2003 install to a new server ?

Hi,

Just trying to prep for a new(er) server that will be coming in about a week
or so. I got stuck with low end hardware to setup this network and so far, I
have a 2003 DC with Exchange on it, on a very slow, home built machine. It's
a small company with about 25 users or so(15-20 more remote). I had a falure
last week and no raid mirroring or recent backups, I would of been in hugh
trouble if I could not resolve it (thanks to Pegasus) .

So, I am getting a HP DL580. I would like to move this install over ot the
new server. It would be going from an IDE based system to a SCSI raid
system. Is it possable to get this server with all 20 applications and being
a DC over to a new server ?

This server has so many applications and settings it would take me weeks to
get everything back up and running if I have to rebuild it, I just don't
have the time for that in a day, as stuff needs to be back up asap. Down
time is not anything I can deal with here, and time is short as it is.

Is 2003 server as unforgiving as XP is for chaning systems ? (I've tried
this a few times over the years with 2000 and XP and I have always had to
rebuild the system).

Has anyone acutally done this and lived to tell about it ?

Crossing fingers that it's possable !

Thanks

 

Try Acronis True Image Enterprise Server with Universal Restore. make sure
you contact their support before you even try in test environment.

Regiards,

Emir

 

Interesting...I looked it up. It would be kind of cool if it did what it
shows....Impressive

Any other thoughts to do it with out having to spend $1200 ?

 

Can you be down for a couple of days over the weekend? It shouldn't take
that long but as you haven't done this before you may have to play with it a
while. Once you image the existing server it must stay offline or the image
won't be valid anymore. The procedure is basically as follows.

1) Make sure you have a Server 2003 CD of the same version and service pack
level as the installed version. If your media isn't the same service pack
level you will have to slipstream a service pack onto new media.

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/ar...aming-Windows-Service-Packs.html?printversion

2) Familiarize yourself with the new server. In particular the SCSI
controller, drive setup, and RAID setup. Setup any RAID arrays but don't
worry about partitioning yet. Make sure you have a floppy disk with the
SCSI/RAID drivers on it.

3) Backup the old server and verify the backup.

4) Do another verified backup.

6) Image the old server, I prefer to use a USB hard drive large enough to
hold images of all the drives in the server. You need to use an imaging
product that can boot from removable media and do the imaging offline. I use
Acronis True Image. As the imaging is done offline the workstation edition
will work fine. Whatever program you use it must work with the SCSI/RAID
controller in the new server. You should contact the imaging software tech
support before purchasing anything to confirm it will work with the your
hardware. You should also test boot the new server with the boot media for
the imaging software and confirm it sees the RAID arrays before you image
the old server.

7) Deploy the images to the new server. This will create all the needed
partitions. You will probably have to resize the partitions to suit the new
server. Don't boot the server after the images are deployed. This is very
important, don't try to boot from the deployed images.

8) Boot from the Server 2003 CD and perform an in place upgrade. You will
need to use the F6 option during the boot to add the SCSI/RAID drivers from
the floppy you created earlier.

http://search.support.microsoft.com/kb/816579/

9) Boot the new server, bring it online and test it. If things aren't right
shut it down, bring up the old server, and try again next weekend.

 

In

NB: I think you need to make sure all the Exchange services are stopped when
you do this....

 

In

Of course, I don't know what the 20 applications you're running, are - but
perhaps the best place for them is not your DC/DNS/Exchange/file/print
server in the first place. It doesn't sound like your company has the
inclination (or the budget) to get another server for application serving
such, as this, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Imaging can be fabulous, but the server products aren't cheap, imaging isn't
foolproof, and I'm kind of old-fashioned. If the basic Windows/Exchange
server install & migration themselves weren't that time consuming, could you
really *not* get the whole job done in a single weekend? Again, I don't know
what these apps are, but I can't even imagine software that would take weeks
to install / configure and I'd be uninclined to run it!

If you were to ignore the custom app stuff & just deal with a reinstall
(presuming you aren't using SBS), you could:

1. Install W2003 on the new server & patch it
2. Join the existing domain
3. Install DNS, and then run DCPromo to make it a domain controller
4. Make it a global catalog server and transfer the FSMO roles
5. Install Exchange 2003 (into the existing admin group), patch it to SP2
(hope you're on that, on your original) and move mailboxes, and replicate
public folders (make sure they are rehomed & you have removed them from the
old server)
6. Move all your data - even NTBackup can do this, backing up & restoring
the shares & security settings as well
7. Reinstall whatever custom apps you have on the new box

Then you can

8. Test - first with a single workstation, and then open *all* users'
mailboxes in Outlook on their machines, so it finds the new Exchange server
automatically (old server must still be up at the time)
9. Remove the first Exchange server - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822931
10. DCPromo the first DC to remove it from the domain.


Just my $.02.

 

The server is shut down and booted from the imaging software boot media so
yes Exchange is stopped

I do agree with your next post though. It may be better to just do a clean
install to the new server and migrate stuff over.

 

In

As Emily Litella said....never mind. ;-)

 

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"

It's not like your telling me something I already know. This has been a
battle with me for a while. Getting a new server is big in my eyes (it's not
even new, it's used but, newer). Time will tell but, as of now, this is what
I get stuck with.

It's worth a shot for a temp fix but, still thinking about what I can do. I
was looking for options.

I could not agree more, just worried about downtime on old apps. This might
be the way I go after all is said and done. Just didnt' want to have to go
this route, as this old server, has everything running on it, so perfectly,
almost no red events in the logs on boot up, I just didn't want to let it
go....

 

Thanks, something I will look over. This looks almost exactly what I am
looking to do.

 

I forgot one last step.

10) Create a system environment variable (devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices =
1), open the Device Manager, and remove the old hardware that will be
showing up as greyed out devices, particularly any old network devices that
no longer exist.

http://hacks.oreilly.com/pub/h/3105

 

I just performed this procedure on a SBS 2003 server that had a hard drive
going bad so I decided to move it to newer hardware. It took about four
hours to move it to the new box and get everything working after the move.
The only glitch was the WINS server was getting errors and wouldn't start
after everything was done. I had to uninstall then reinstall the WINS
server. Everything else moved over with no problems.