KWSupport : SBS Migration

SBS 2008 List of Installation Errors

kwsupport — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:14:00 GMT

Microsoft has published a list of errors that you may encounter when installing SBS2008. They also include suggested resolution(s) and follow-up tasks for each error.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc546065.aspx

SBS20008 Migration Documents

kwsupport — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:15:00 GMT

For those of you who may have missed it ... new documentation for migrating to SBS 2008 is now available for viewing or download. This covers both SBS 2003 to SBS 2008, and SBS 2008 to SBS2008 scenarios.

Online Technet versions:
Migrate SBS2003 to SBS2008
Migrate SBS2008 to SBS2008
All SBS2008 Technet articles

Downloadable versions:
Migrating SBS2003 to SBS2008 (Word Doc - 77 pages)
Migrating SBS2008 to new hardware (Word doc - 58 pages)
SBS Migration & Setup (CHM file)

Happy migration!
-kw

SBS2003, SP2 and ISA 2004

kwsupport — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:40:00 GMT

As a heads up ... if you are installing SBS 2003 Premium with Windows Server SP2, your ISA 2004 installation may go belly-up. Steven Teiger just encountered such a situation: CEICW failed, and then upon restarting the SBS server, all of the ISA services failed.

According to Eriq Neale, you need to do the following steps:

1. Install SBS with SP2 (do basic setup, without ISA)
2. Disable ALL scalabale networking pieces. (Read Eriq's detail step-by-step instructions here)
3. Download ISA 2004 SP3, then install ISA 2004 followed by installing ISA 2004 SP3.

In fact, if you were to run the SBS BPA after step 1, it also identifies the scalable networking pieces to be changed.

Hope this helps!
-kw

SBSMigration Conference 2008

kwsupport — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 10:44:00 GMT

Jeff's 2008 SBSMigration Conference is set for May 9-11 in New Orleans, followed by with an optional 5 day cruise. Chris Rue has created a very nice 30 second video highlighting last year's conference.

Chris will be there. I will be there. What about you?

-kw

Why use SBS Swing Migration?

kwsupport — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 12:58:00 GMT

In the SBS 2003 Public Newsgroup, and probably most other newsgroups, we often walk a thin line when it comes to recommending 3rd party solutions and products. There are those who love Trend, and those who hate it. Same goes for anything Symantec, or Dell, or HP, or any other HW/SW vendor.

One of the solutions that is constantly recommended is Jeff Middleton's SBS Swing Migration. His process is perfect whether you are on SBS2003 and need to migrate to new hardware, or if you are on an older version of SBS, and wants to upgrade to SBS 2003 and implement new server hardware at the same time.

Sometimes our love for his solution and methodology may come across as being a paid advertisement. But I can assure you that it's not. Speaking personally, I paid full price for Jeff's Swing Migration kit, because (1) it works, (2) he deserves to be paid for his efforts, and (3) did I say it works really well? I receive no kickbacks or anything of the kind from the sale of Jeff's product. What I do get is the satisfaction in knowing that Jeff's expertise has helped you.

So, I decided I would post my own reasons for recommending Jeff's Swing Migration product. If I missed anything, please add your own comments!

1. With Jeff's approach, the current server is initially taken offline for just a few minutes while you backup the AD. You then put the current server back on line and the customer continues working and using it.

2. Meanwhile, you are now free to load, install, configure, test your new server -- all to your hearts content --- and even do it offsite, away from the office.

3. Then when you are ready to convert, you take down the old system, migrate settings, migrate data and exchange files, and bring the server back up. Voila! you're done.

4. But, the best news of all ... with Jeff's approach, you do NOT have to go and reconfigure every workstation and redo settings, profiles, etc. Nope! Once the new server is up, you turn on the workstations, and the chances are good (outisde of maytbe a printer issue here or there), the users won't even know you made a change!!

Now that's how I spell relief!

--
Kevin Weilbacher [SBS-MVP]
"The days pass by so quickly now, the nights are seldom long"

Why I Like Using "Swing Migration"

kwsupport — Thu, 24 Nov 2005 14:19:00 GMT

Jeff Middleton's Swing Migration (www.sbsmigration.com) methodology has been used successfully around the world. You can use it to simply move a current SBS installation to new hardware, or to also upgrade from sBS2000 to SBS2003 at the same time. I thought I would post what I liked about using SBS Migration:

It alows you work on the new server completely offline from the current server, allowing you to setup and configure everything without impacting users and current server. In fact, you can do it with the new server back at your office, and not at the custome site
It does require a third computer that is used to swing the AD and other required files from the current to the new system. But in my case, I used a laptop with 1GB of memory, and Virtual PC.
The current production server is only offline for a few minutes when you first copy over some files to your interim. After that, you don't touch the current server again until you are actually ready to do the cutover
The Swing process retains the same server domain name on the new server, and that's important because:
When you are done, in most cases, you do not have to go to any workstation and make any changes - no reconnecting workstations to the domain, etc.

I did my first Swing earlier this year, and when the users came in at the beginning of the week, they literally had no clue that we had swapped out servers. They logged in as normal, and began working!

Moving SBS to new hardware

kwsupport — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 15:23:00 GMT

Here's a response I provided to a recent post asking how to move an SBS server to new hardware. In this instance, the user wanted to both upgrade from SBS2000 to SBS2003, and they also wanted to move to new hardware:

There's more than one way to do a migration (moving SBS2000/2003 to new hardware), and a lot of things add into the mix --- like how many users you have on youre server, any specific applications, etc.

If it were me, given your scenario, I would SKIP any thoughts of upgrading to SBS2003 first on your current server, before migrating. Since your
current server is working fine, and you have new equipment, I might suggest taking a look at Jeff Middleton's SwingMigration approach at www.sbsmigration.com .

Here's why:
1. Your current server remains up and running thorughout the process, until the very end. That means minimal impact to your users
2. You install SBS2003 fresh on your new server. Shoot, install it 2 or 3 times to get a feel for it, test out your recovery process, etc.
3. Then once you are ready, you do a final swing, move over your Exchange database, and all user data files, etc.
4. The advantage is that there's virtually no impact to your users, or to their workstations. Literally you turn the workstations on, and sign in like
you did before. Users won't know anything has happened!

Now, the "gotcha" for all of this is two simple things:
1. You need another computer to act as an interim server. I simply used a spare laptop with 768mb of memory, for this process.
2. You've got to plow through all of Jeff's manuals, documentations and notes. ;-) Not that the process is hard, buy Jeff goes into a lot of detail so
you are not only aware of what's going on at each step of the migration, but also -- if you run into any problems, he's already addressed them!

My first swing migration was an SBS server with 20 users, and except for one printer and one shared folder permission I forgot to restore, it was completely painless to the end users. I migrated the server over a weekend. When the users came in the next week, they logged in and started working.

How to "ghost" your SBS system disk

kwsupport — Mon, 15 Nov 2004 04:33:00 GMT

A tip of the hat to Merv for this information!

A frequent question on the NG is: can I use Ghost to make copy of my SBS system drive, and if so, which version of Ghost should I use?

Merv's answer is: You can use Ghost 2003 (or later).

1. Install the Ghost 2003 software on a Win2K or WinXP workstation (not the server) and then make a set of Ghost Boot floppies using MSDOS as your operating system on the floppies (requires a MS DOS bootable disk or CD to copy the files from this to your Ghost Boot Floppies).
2. If you don't have a Win98 boot disk, try this site: http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
3. Reboot the server and make sure there are no errors in the Event Logs and that all services are started and running properly.
4. Shut down the server.
5. Install the new drive in the server as SCSI 1 (set jumpers on drive if necessary) and use Disk Management to format it (or Disk Administrator, depending on your operating system) --- do a Full format (not a Quick format) as NTFS.
6. Shut down the server
7. If the original and the new drives are vitually the same size, remove the new drive as it can be confusing determining which disk you need to image when using the Ghost DOS interface
8. Boot the server from the Ghost Boot Floppies and image the original drive to an external USB drive or a spare IDE drive in the server. *
9. Shut down the server
10. Remove the original drive and install the new drive as SCSI 0 (set jumpers on drive if necessary)
11. Boot the server from the Ghost Boot Floppies and then restore the image o the new disk.
12. Reboot and "exercise" the new drive to make sure that everything works a it should and there are no errors in the event logs.

* I find it better to use the "Partition to Image" method to create the image (selecting all partitions on the original disk) and then use the "Disk from Image" method to restore the image to the new drive. This will allow you to resize the partitions on your new drive during the restore process,
if that's desirable.

This process keeps your original drive intact in case there's any problem with the image restore.
--
Merv Porter [SBS MVP]

Overview on Jeff's Swing Migration

kwsupport — Sun, 24 Oct 2004 02:58:00 GMT

[This was posted in the public NG on 10/23/2004 by Jeff]

I have information on Swing Migration that I can send out to you if you want to visit www.SBSmigration.com to request it.

Swing Migration is a method for upgrade/migration that I've recently documented and created as a complete project package called a Swing It!! Kit. It's a set of documentation that walks you through an entire process to move the entire configuration identity from the old SBS to a new SBS or Windows server.

You get a clean server installation, but the same domain name, same server name, same AD, same Group Policies, same IP, same network paths, same user and computer accounts...and you can forklift the Exchange onto the new server without breaking single instance storage.

The work can be completed offline, meaning that you can keep your existing server running (including the Exchange) while you build the new server, and the downtime involved is only the time it takes to move an offline copy of the Exchange and the datafiles over to the new server. You can complete the entire installation of the new server, including 3rd Party apps, all in
advance of shutting down the domain. Some folks have done the entire change over with as little as 2-3 hours downtime.

Swing Migration is a process by which you can add a temp DC to you network, capture the AD information, then swing it back onto a new server and complete the installation of a new server using the previous server's identity. I have detailed information about this available for free on request at www.SBSmigration.com.

The main difference in this process and what you suggested is that you will be renaming your server if you do a DCpromo of a different box. You have namespace problems created not only in Exchange, but also for all network related issues. Swing Migration solves that.

The Swing It!! Kit that is the project reference is available in one of two versions. One is just the reference documentation, the Technician Kit includes the docs and about 10 tools that make the migration process faster, easier, and better documented. Technician Kit is $200US and the Reference Kit is $125...but the Technician Kit is clearly more popular since I've been
making them available. Both include support from me on the docs and tools in completing a swing migration project.

I will be happy to answer as many questions as I can here in the NG so that everyone can stay in the conversation. If you want purchase information or the Reviewers Technical Guide that explains the concepts and has many Q&A bits in it, ask at the information website.

I realize that the website is a little "lean" right now since it's under construction at this time...but that's almost complete ... hopefully in the next week I will have the full package of information available to browse there, or download...including secure payment and ordering option.

Jeff Middleton
www.SBSmigration.com