Upgrading NT4 Servers to W2K Servers

1. How will the server be used? (affects CPU, RAM and HD space decisions)
2. What applications will the server run? (applications like Exchange and SQL are very CPU and RAM intensive) (Exchange can eat up a lot of HD space) (Terminal Services inApplication Server mode will also need more HD space in addition to being CPU and memory intensive).
3. If any of the servers will be a Domain Controller (DC), how many users will be authenticated? Are your users using roaming profiles? (affectsHD space decisions)

Your CPU speed is probably sufficient for MOST server uses (but if you are running any CPU intensive applications, don't expect things to happen quickly). I wouldn't use LESS than 256MB of RAM (more may be needed depending onapplications being run). A basic installation of Win2K Server (plus a decent-size swap file) will take up at least 2GB of HD space.

Hope this helps.

I like tim.walsh's questions. In addition:

1. What kind of applications will I be running 1 year from now? 2 years?
2. Similar - how many users will I be supporting in that same time frame?
You want to build in some growth capacity.
4 questions is obviously too few!!

My hardware minimums (not Microsoft's) are PIII 733MHz (or equivalent), 512MB RAM (particularly if you will be running Active Directory), 4GB system partition, 5-6GB if you will be running ANY software other than Win2K (i.e., backup software, antivirus software, other server apps like Exchange or SQL). In putting together your configuration requirements, remember that hard drive space is CHEAP!!! and don't scrimp.

Hope this helps!

I found this neat artical which kinda helped me when converting check it out. It also has a link to MS which gives more detail.

http://www.winnetmag.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=8225