Migrating server 2003 to 2003 in a new server?

[bloater1963]

I'll apologise in advance if this ones been done before and I've missed it in the forums.

We are a charity ( Cumbria deaf association in Carlisle ) and need to upgrade our server ( an average home PC ) to a Compaq DL580.

We are running Server 2003 in the old server and need to migrate the whole lot across to the Compaq.

Does anyone know of a good place to look for this info or can offer advise please.

We have tried to do this already using Securecopy to get the active directory and user accounts etc across, but after getting the Compaq to assume the role as the main server it keeps loosing the role and saying it isn't the primary server!

We are only amateurs and would really appreciate a step by step guide if you know of one?

Thanks in advance.

Pete Dawson.

[bloater1963]

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update on progress and plea for help!:

We have our new server added into the domain and a trust established.

The active directory went across fine and is synchronising with the old server. It is set as a global catalogue server and the RID, schema etc have been moved across.

As far as we understand it, we now need to move the files and permissions across and then promote the new server. Could anybody offer ant further advise please. At the moment we are having to read lots of info in the server 2003 manual and try to understand it.

To be honest were struggling a bit and would really appreciate any help.

Regards,

Pete Dawson.

[InTheWayBoy]

robocopy will do that...copy the files and folders along with permissions. I don't think you can copy a folders share properties, but someone will prove me wrong

http://www.ss64.com/nt/robocopyXP.html

Here's another method:

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Windows/Articl...6252/16252.html

It's more 2000-based, but should translate well to 2003. It also looks to take care of share settings too! Good luck!

[Porn Loader]

stuff here

Good luck!

what he said ^^^^. you can't copy files w/o loosing shares and permissions (unless you have backup software aka veritas, even then im not sure if it copies the same attributes over). robocopy is an awesome tool for file server migrations.

[bloater1963]

Thanks guys, appreciate the help.

Pete.

[cluberti]

Another time where having a DFS would've helped out a bit... If you plan on adding additional servers into your domain in the future that will be fileservers, consider a domain root DFS and the file replication service (don't lose than Server 2003 manual yet!!! ). Your users will be able to access file shares on new file servers added into the DFS root without having to visit a new share (everything is stored as subfolders in the DFS root share), and the file replication service (NTFRS) can be used to synchronize files and permissions from one server in the DFS to another.

Edited December 3, 2005 by cluberti