Advice on SBS2003 port

[Ivo Van Hoovels]

Hi, my HP NetServer E200 with only 768MB of memory is getting old. I want to move my SBS2003 system to a new platform: HP ML101G2 with Adaptec S-ATA RAID controller. On the E200 I have a IDE system disk.
How would I have to proceed to port the SBS2003 system to the ML101, I want it to start (of course) and therefore to recognise the Adaptec controller. I like Windows but porting is not easy. Please give me some suggestions. Thanks, Ivo

[Steven Clementi]

Ivo:


First thing I would do it drop the new controller card into the existing system so that windows can load up drivers for it and such. You may want to connect up a few drives to it and configure RAID just to make sure it is working.


What software are you using on the system? Exchange? SQL? File Services? all three?


Steven

[Colin_29]

My experience is to start again with a new domain and run the two in parallel for a migration period. Recreate the users manually if there are not too many, otherwise use scripting, use EXMERGE to move the mailboxes, backup the SQL databases and restore to the new server and move the flatfile data manually.

Using the same user names and passwords will allow you to communicate with both servers at the same time.

This is a real pain if you have a lot of client PCs as you will need to move them between domains and copy the user profiles.

[Ivo Van Hoovels]

Two SBS servers don't speak to each other, and I've been through the Exmerge, domain in/out work before. I really would prefer an in-line update, i.e. transfer the existing data + system to the new disks and the new server. And not touching the PCs, although I'm the only user.

I'm using all the SBS software: ISA Server, Exchange Server, Fax Server, file and print services... The server has two network cards (one LAN, one to Internet).

Thanks for the replies,
Ivo

[Colin_29]

The two SBS servers will communicate if they are on the same IP network and the administrator account passwords are the same (I've done this lots of times myself).
The bottom line is that two SBS servers cannot be in the same domain so it is not possible to do what you wish. The PCs will require moving between domains.
The only possible solution is to use imaging software although with dissimilar hardware this is unlikely to be successful.

[Craig_79]

I would do as Colin suggested. You need to install the Migration Tool Utility on the new server. It can be found on the SBS 2003 cd's. The new server needs a different name, and domain. The migration tool will do everything else. There is a procedure from Microsoft on exactly how to do SBS migrations. I have done it myself. I believe you have 30 days to finish the Migration, after that the old server has to be removed from the network.

[Terry Hutchings]

I would agree with following what Steve recommended for moving the controller to the older server and loading the driver.

What you might be able to do once this is done is to put the SATA drives on the 4 port controller in the old server and using Ghost, or some other similar application, copy the first OS install from the PATA drives to the SATA drives. If you need an array configured on the SATA controller, then this will definitely need to be done before trying to copy the data.