Upgrading from WS 2003 SBS to WS 2012 R2?

[riahc3]

I made a similar thread before but I wanted to put a diffenent scenario...

A upgrade from WS 2003 SBS to WS 2012 R2. AFAIK, you cant do that route so first you have to do WS 2003 SBS to WS 2008 R2 and then do from that WS 2012 R2.

Is this correct?

Im going to test it out on a (non networked) virtual machine in ESXi. Is this safe to do? Ill try demoting and stuff and I dont want to mess up anything as its just a test.

 

[Dahak]

Is this correct?

I would say partially, while you can upgrade/migrate to newer version of SBS, there was never really an official way to migrate off SBS to Standard. But depending on how much time you want to put into it, you would have to go to SBS2008 or SBS2011 first then to 2012

But given the age of the old system, it might be easier just to install fresh


While there was no really official way to move from sbs to standard, you could upgrade from SBS 2003 to SBS2008 or 2011

SBS2003 to SBS2008
SBS2003 to SBS2011

and then here you are steps to move from SBS2008 to standard server 2000r2
Technet link

 

[riahc3]

But given the age of the old system, it might be easier just to install fresh

Ive Heard horror novels of installing fresh....

Users, PCs, etc.....all without access.

Ideally, it would be great to start with a fresh new server and a fresh new WS2012R2. But.....a lot of questions

Do I need new user NAMES?
Do I need new PC NAMES?
Does my domain need to have a different name as well?


A LOT of doubts....

 

[Dahak]

Ive Heard horror novels of installing fresh....

Users, PCs, etc.....all without access.

Ideally, it would be great to start with a fresh new server and a fresh new WS2012R2. But.....a lot of questions

Do I need new user NAMES?
Do I need new PC NAMES?
Does my domain need to have a different name as well?


A LOT of doubts....

Well that is all planned as part of the migration. Depending on the amount of users, data etc, you can prep the new server first, add the accounts, setup the shares, printers, folder redirection, GPOS etcs on the new server, have one pc to test it to make sure all is good.

Then once all the test are fine, you can start the migration of data and the pc.

Usernames / passwords can be the same if you want
PC names can stay the same, you just remove them from the old domain, and add it to the new domain.

Domain name - for the internal domain name, yes it would have to be different.

And to add, it will take less time to do a proper new migration than trying to upgrade through 2 different versions of the os, especially if something decides not to work. Was it do to the upgrade or something else, have to spend the time trying to fix it only to need to upgrade again and if the same thing breaks or something else breaks

 

[riahc3]

Well that is all planned as part of the migration. Depending on the amount of users, data etc, you can prep the new server first, add the accounts, setup the shares, printers, folder redirection, GPOS etcs on the new server, have one pc to test it to make sure all is good.

Then once all the test are fine, you can start the migration of data and the pc.

Good tips. Ill try to follow them.

Usernames / passwords can be the same if you want
PC names can stay the same, you just remove them from the old domain, and add it to the new domain.

Thats awesome...

Domain name - for the internal domain name, yes it would have to be different.

That isnt awesome. Could you give a brief explaination on why?

Also, my current domain internally is (example) "company-name.local". Ive been recommended that I choose my internal domain the same as my external domain (or my website). So lets say my website is "companyname.com". My internal domain should be "companyname.local" Is this a good tip?

And to add, it will take less time to do a proper new migration than trying to upgrade through 2 different versions of the os, especially if something decides not to work. Was it do to the upgrade or something else, have to spend the time trying to fix it only to need to upgrade again and if the same thing breaks or something else breaks

Yup, it makes perfect sense. Also, I didnt do the WS2003 SBS so I have no idea who set that up.

 

[RFC Rudel]

You need a desing and a migration strategy that take you there, and Document the steps.

Some current configuration can influence on you desing and sure will influence your strategy.

First you need to get de current desing, roaming profiles? folder redirection? printers drivers?

A desing that will be easy to support:

No data on WS, map a share from the server, config the map on the AD user properties.
Avoid roaming profiles/folder redirection.

get the config,
do a lab test to get the fine tune procedures
implement the procedures

If you have new hardware for the server it open more posibilities (thats your lab, and can pass from lab to production) and the old server is rollback strategy.


things to keep in mind:

If you are going whit a new domain the users when they log on will have a new profile (the old remains) so if they keep data in mydocuments they will not find it.....
(user name is the SID, that wil be diferent on the new domain, but there are tools to get the user name/pasword and sid hystory to the new domain, I recomend not to complicate the migration to save some hours, go for the safe route)

No dns No AD, the clients find the domain controller using dns so if you have your test pc using the old server dns it will not find the new domain and in case it find it by netbios resolution it will not work properly.
Also the dhcpclient service on the WS register the WS ip on the dns.(that do not means that you must use dhcp)

PM all you nedd, I do migrations since nt4.










The Ideal scenario

 

[riahc3]

If you are going whit a new domain the users when they log on will have a new profile (the old remains) so if they keep data in mydocuments they will not find it.....
(user name is the SID, that wil be diferent on the new domain, but there are tools to get the user name/pasword and sid hystory to the new domain, I recomend not to complicate the migration to save some hours, go for the safe route)

This is what scares me the most, so to speak.

I have users and their profiles stored on their PCs. Once I make the new domain, even if I name them the same and same domain, they will not work because the SID is different so they will not have access to their files.

PM all you nedd, I do migrations since nt4.

Yeah Having help from a expert would be nice as I dont want any downtime. Thank you

 

[RFC Rudel]

the problem whit the users having data on the PCs is backup and users glued to specific PC.

But you must audit the network, you cant desing if dont have all the info.even if the desing is choose a simple template.

 

[riahc3]

We got a third party company to finally lend us a hand.

They told us that WS2003SBS to WS2012R2 migration is possible with no problems as long as we keep the same domain name, users, etc.....I thought the SID would change but....

 

[ArisVer]

A upgrade from WS 2003 SBS to WS 2012 R2. AFAIK, you cant do that route so first you have to do WS 2003 SBS to WS 2008 R2 and then do from that WS 2012 R2.

Is this correct?

Just came across this. It sure looks possible.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh801901.aspx

Migrate Roles and Features to Windows Server
Migration documentation and tools ease the process of migrating server roles, features, operating system settings, and data from an existing server that is running Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2003 to a computer that is running Windows Server 2012.

 

[riahc3]

Just came across this. It sure looks possible.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh801901.aspx

Does not say anything about Small Business Server.

 

[ArisVer]

It does not say anything about specific editions, including 2008, 2008R2 etc.

Time to ask at the MS forums.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home?category=windowsserver


Edit. Windows 2003 SBS is supported.

and Windows Small Business Server 2003

https://technet.microsoft.com/library/dn408633.aspx

 

[RFC Rudel]

I have made many cross forest migrations (forest=entire AD) migrating accounts ,passwords, pc accounts, exchange mailboxes etc.

the problem is that SBS2003 do not support a second DC, and at the time the Microsoft migration tools that you can use on enterprise don't work on SBS2003.

that was back in the days, and you could tweak....to change some things and migrate.
(get the sbs restrictions out)

But for a small network that was the SBS target I recommend a clean install.
If you are afraid of user data, you have a risk there and will remain


any bad config will remain (Account permission on Ad objects etc)

Migrations are tricky, and MS public documentation will present the perfect scenario...