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Moving NT Server To New Hardware

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by jkeav634 2 views

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We are currently running our NT 4.0 PDC on a compaq proliant 1600 server(Pentium 1GB) with 2 18GB HDD (raid 1). We have just purchased a new Proliant 370 xeon 2.2 with 2 36GB HDD. What is the easiest way of moving the data from the old server over to the new without losing any drive/user/data information?

14 replies

by barneyrubble318

Install NT on the new machine and create it as BDC. Once the install is done and you are sure it is on the network as a BDC, permote it to a PDC. Any other files should then just be restored from tape or copied over the network.

by rdunn

I would do a couple things, first, identify your shares - the easiest way could be to export your shares to a text file. From the command prompt, run "net share > shares.txt" - open shares.txt and this will tell you which folders you'll need to move to your new box.

If you can, you need to mimic the entire folder structure (as far as those folders that are being shared) on the new server. Are you moving them from an NT box to 2000? If so, from the 2k server, copy the folders using xcopy /o /k /e /x - mimicing your old server's folder structure. This retains the ACLs for those files (as well as file ownership), then follow this article:

http://www.windows2000faq.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=15161

This should recreate all your shares, with all permissions.

Goooooood luck. :)

by rdunn

I believe that you can follow the process that I described above, but you'll need the scopy.exe tool from the NT4 Resource Kit.

Here's some more info:
Scopy.exe copies files and directories to and from NTFS partitions with security intact.
SCOPY will not copy files to or from FAT, HPFS, or other non-secured file systems. SCOPY requires that you have Backup and Restore files User Rights on both the source and destination computers.

Parameters must be given in the order specified below.

SCOPY source destination [/o] [/a] [/s]

source Specifies files to copy.
destination Where to copy files to.
/o Copies owner security information.
/a Copies auditing information. Requires that you have
the Manage Auditing User Right on both the source and
destination computers.
/s Copies all files in subdirectories.

MS used to have this available online, but it looks like they are forcing you to buy the Resource Kit to getthe tools (or if you subscribe to TechNet, you should have it there as well).

Good luck again!

by jkeav634

We have over 100 shared directories on the server. The OS will stay with NT 4.0 for now. How can I get all of these shares and folder/share permissions over to the new machine?

by matthew

do as that first one said install it as a Backup domain controller, BDC and when done promote it to a primary sever in server manager in admin tools..

but i would use Xcopy on the resouces kit to copy the files and the permission via the network from machine to machine... faster then the backup tapes

by shmaltz

If you have a good backup program (Veritas etc.) do a full backup of your old machine. Shut down the old machine, install NT on the new machine, Install the backup program get the Tape drive to work on the new machine (or if you used remote backup up this is not necessary), create an ERD disk on this new machine, Restore everything onto the new machine telling the backup program to redirect everything, Restart the machine. If it can't boot because of different hardware, use the ERD.

by shmaltz

When you restore make sure you restore the security as well.
Don't turn on the old machine onto the same network ever again, unless the new machine fails to reboot.

by pcole11

This wasn't part of your question, but I know that a lot of folks run DHCP on their PDC's.
Make sure you review all services on the old machine before replacing it, and be sure you know how you will restore them. I forgot about shared printers once. Once. If you need to move your DHCP database to the new machine, see Microsoft article Q130642.

P

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