New File Server - Copy data?

I'm finally at the stage where i'm moving our file server to a VM. The new file server will have a new name and IP.

I know of robocopy is that still the best way to move the files across and keep the permissions or has some new even simplier method appeared from somewhere? With the new file server having new name/ip i'm assuming once i have the files transfered just a simple procedure of changing the GPO's to point to the new locations?

Any help would be appreciated as this is the first time i've moved our file server and not something i'm looking forward to.

Thanks!!!

xcopy then update your GPO's / Scripts to suit

Whats the difference between xcopy and robocopy?

taken from here: Robocopy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quote:

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obocopy is notable for capabilities above and beyond the built-in Windows copy and xcopy commands, including the following:
Ability to tolerate network interruptions and resume copying. (incomplete files are marked with a date stamp of 1980-01-01 and contain a recovery record so Robocopy knows where to continue from)
Ability to skip Junction Points which can cause to fail copying in an infinite loop (/XJ)
Ability to copy file data and attributes correctly, and to preserve original timestamps, as well as NTFS ACLs, owner information, and audit information using command line switches. (/COPYALL or /COPY:) Copying folder timestamps is also possible in later versions (/DCOPY:T).
Ability to assert the Windows NT "backup right" (/B) so an administrator may copy an entire directory, including files denied readability to the administrator.
Persistence by default, with a programmable number of automatic retries if a file cannot be opened.
A "mirror" mode, which keeps trees in sync by optionally deleting files out of the destination that are no longer present in the source.
Ability to skip files that already appear in the destination folder with identical size and timestamp.
A continuously-updated command-line progress indicator.
Ability to copy file and folder names exceeding 256 characters — up to a theoretical limit of 32,000 characters — without errors.[1]
Multithreaded copying. (Windows 7 only) [2]
Return code[3] on program termination for batch file usage.

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It's better for scripting if only for the return codes.

This works very well, there is also a print migrator too if you need it... Download: File Server Migration Toolkit - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details

I used xcopy and moved a "section" each night, did the shared area, then the students then the staff testign each one each morning

Always use robocopy here works a treat.

I usually create my transfer files in excel (great for matching up usernames etc on disaprate systems) then save em back down to a .bat

Robocopy is the fastest and most thorough method.

Thanks for all the opinions.

I am planning on doing a year group at a time and making sure it's tested by them before i move the next lot over. Fingers crossed.

This might not be quite what you are after but you could take this opportunity to introduce DFS, using this you could configure replication to move your data, the links to your files would then be in the format of \\domain\DFSRoot\Share rather than \\servername\share.

In the future if you wanted to move the data to another location, you could add a new location in as a target for replication and once you are sure the replication has taken place you could update the dfs share pointer to the new location. When users machines look for the data they will automatically be pointed to the new target.

I've always used robocopy for stuff like this.

I tend to copy the files to the new server the weekend before (using a sheduled task) and then do another copy when I'm ready to migrate. If you use the right switches robocopy won't copy the unchanged files so it hardly takes any time.

If you use DFS bare in mind it'll make you're path names longer. We use it and we had a odd issues where staff had used ridiculously long directory names in the shared area.