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Moving NT Server to new hardware

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by samg 1 view

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Will be moving our existing NT Server installation to entirely new hardware in the near future. I am thinking that the best way to accomplish this with a minimum of reconfiguration is to do a fresh NT install to the new hardware, update service packs to the existing server's level and then selectively move (import???) registry entries from the old registry hives to the new registry hives. Assuming this would be an acceptable method (any other methods are gratefully solicited), how do you import registry keys from the old install to the new? And how do you know which keys to import.

Thanks in advance for the help.

7 replies

by stillatit

In a domain environment:
Unless you have extensive software installed on the server, the main keys you want to move are in the security hive. If the old server is a PDC or BDC, install the new hardware as a BDC so that it automaticlly copies these entries. Install all of your service packs. Make sure the domain synchronizes (from server manager). If the old machine was the PDC, promote the new box to be a PDC, install whatever software you had on the old server, then shut off the old server.
If the old server was a member server, create the new server, install service packs and software, join the domain, and you are done.

If you were not in a domain environment, things get trickier. Again, start with a clean NT install, plus service packs and all software you are running. At this point you need to re-create the users which were in the security hive of the old machine. If the number is small, recreate them by hand in User Manager.
If there is a huge number, try this (but no guarantees that it works): Run rdisk on both machines. Copy sam_ and security_ from the old machine c:\winnt\repair to the new. Boot the new system with the startup disks, and choose the repair option, and restore the registry from the files in the repair folder.

Good luck.

by traffety

Want to move tons of shares to another WinNT server?
If the prospect of moving all those shares to your new server has you down, here is a simple method that will only take a few minutes. Navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Shares

Save the Key to a filename on a floppy. On the new server, navigate to the same key and save its' empty Shares key to a floppy before restoring it from the 1st server. This will destroy any existing shares on the new server. Now, restore the empty Shares key that you saved from the new server to the 1st server or delete the values manually (also from the Security sub-key). Create at least one new share on each server. This is required so explorer can refresh its' shares. In Control Panel / Services, stop and restart the Server Service. If you don't want that new share, unshare it normally.

by msgtray

I have used Symantech's Ghost program to image an entire NT PDC system from an IDE drive to a HP LC3 NetRAID (RAID-5) system. I know that this is extreemly non-conventional, but it can save an enormous amount of time while preserving every configuration. Because the kernal is different between a single processor installation and a multiple processor installation, keep that in mind when considering this solution. I am not saying that this is the only way I would accomplish the transfer. It's just an option for you to consider. It's also quick enough to try and abandon if it gives you problems.

Ray

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