Migrate Server....

[mcnallyfc]

Have a rather urgent problem in that our main site server has run out of warranty from RM and is getting on.

 

We need to look at replacing the server asap and I want to investigate best way to do this. Bearing in mind though that the server is the forest root and we have just started term so not ideal!

 

Is there software available that will be able to clone the server to a potential new server with new hardware?

 

I have read Acronis True Image Enterprise can do something similar? have others done this? if so what did you use and how did it go?

[dwhyte85]

If your new server has Hyper-V you can do this and mount an image, although I've had a few issues with 2003 server on Hyper-V.

 

I wouldn't like to bet my car on it though, you can convert Hyper-V images too into other formats, again, really wouldn't want to do it with something as important as that - i did it with a print server and had the other as a backup!

 

http://wss.citrictechnology.com/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=13

 

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/8054/how-to-turn-a-physical-computer-into-a-virtual-machine-with-disk2vhd/

 

Of course, you're going to need somewhere to save it to when you do it.

Edited September 6, 2010 by dwhyte85

[mcnallyfc]

If your new server has Hyper-V you can do this and mount an image, although I've had a few issues with 2003 server on Hyper-V.

 

I wouldn't like to bet my car on it though, you can convert Hyper-V images too into other formats, again, really wouldn't want to do it with something as important as that - i did it with a print server and had the other as a backup!

 

Converting a Physical Machine to a Hyper-V Virtual Machine (P2V) - Citric Blog

 

How To Turn a Physical Computer Into A Virtual Machine with Disk2vhd - How-To Geek

 

Of course, you're going to need somewhere to save it to when you do it.

 

Nice idea, and useful for potential future issues but not sure i'd want to try it with the forest root!

[p858snake]

Are you just running RM machines or the actual RM network package?, I vaguely remember reading someone mentioning that it doesn't clone/image properly.

[mcnallyfc]

Are you just running RM machines or the actual RM network package?, I vaguely remember reading someone mentioning that it doesn't clone/image properly.

 

We are running RM Netwok package

 

Plan though is to move to Vanilla in future

[jamesfed]

RM would charge a tone to do the migration from the existing server to a new one (of theirs) if you are looking to go Vanillia I'd say check into some of the Virtual Machine options - maybe get a new server with plenty of RAM and run Hyper-V (or something simlar) on it?

[mcnallyfc]

Yeah RM want a lot!

 

Any other server and the plan would be to try and get approval for a well spec'd new server, get hyper-v etc installed and convert to a vhd and have them virtual.

 

Just very worried by prospect of virtualising the forest root. Ideally want to clone the machine to the new hardware and update the IP address so its identical and so no one notices changes. Also means we can keep the old server there as backup in case anything goes wrong.

 

Has anyone run a 2008 r2 server housing a virtualised forest root running server 2003?

[dwhyte85]

Yea... I'm guessing it can be done and may work, but if it doesn't after you take your old server out of use is when i'd be scared.

 

Is the old server not at all upgradable?

[jamesfed]

Yeah RM want a lot!

 

Any other server and the plan would be to try and get approval for a well spec'd new server, get hyper-v etc installed and convert to a vhd and have them virtual.

 

Just very worried by prospect of virtualising the forest root. Ideally want to clone the machine to the new hardware and update the IP address so its identical and so no one notices changes. Also means we can keep the old server there as backup in case anything goes wrong.

 

Has anyone run a 2008 r2 server housing a virtualised forest root running server 2003?

 

Nothing new there then

 

We used System Centre Virtual Machine Manager to do an offline conversion of our Server 2008 DCs into Virtual Machines just a few weeks ago onto Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition (with Hyper-V) and it went off without a glitch.

I can't speak for Server 2003 but the network adapters migrated over fine as did every other setting we could find.

[mcnallyfc]

Nothing new there then

 

We used System Centre Virtual Machine Manager to do an offline conversion of our Server 2008 DCs into Virtual Machines just a few weeks ago onto Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition (with Hyper-V) and it went off without a glitch.

I can't speak for Server 2003 but the network adapters migrated over fine as did every other setting we could find.

 

 

Thanks James

 

So your happy with having your DC's on the virtualised setup?

 

What spec is your server and what os and virtualisation software are you running on it?

[jamesfed]

Thanks James

 

So your happy with having your DC's on the virtualised setup?

 

What spec is your server and what os and virtualisation software are you running on it?

 

We still have another DC which isn't virtulised (just in case) but have two that are running inside VMs now.

 

Our server is a HP DL165 G7 with a 8 core processor, 12GB of RAM and 4 hard drives in RAID0+1.

Its running Server 2008 R2 Enterprise edition with Hyper-V (could use just plain old Hyper-V server if you don't have the licences).

 

System Centre Virtual Machine manager was very very useful in converting the DCs, it just boots them into Windows PE and copies the data over (offline migration).

[mcnallyfc]

Hi all

 

Still looking for different solutions to this.

 

RM want 2k to migrate the server - their plan is to take a snapshot image (presumably with a ghost like product), then restore system drive using restoration to dissimilar hardware process, then perform Windows OOBE to make sure all drivers etc are present, then restore all data drives to newly created dynamic drives. Finally installing IIS 6, all RM web stuff and all updates and hotfixes.

 

Now to me it sounds similar to what i used to do when creating images for different hardware on XP (W7 much easier with MDT and injecting drivers) - ghosting a source image up, putting it on new PC with different hardwar, then booting onto OS CD and running a repair. When they say using OOBE to install the drivers are they running a sysprep /oobe before taking the snapshot to ensure the OOBE runs at boot up?

 

Now i had no problem doing all that on desktops but little unsure that this is a good idea for servers? If this is a normal process with servers and works well then thats fine. If out of term i'd be happy to rebuild from scratch but it needs to be a exact clone for now.

 

Any input would be appreciated

[jamesfed]

I'd say at the very least get RM to push down the price, ultimately though your best bet is to make the server a VM - its easy to migrate over and the OS doesn’t even notice the difference.

If your not comfortable doing it yourself then RM offer (for a fee) VMWare however if you have a schools agreement you might want to seriously consider Hyper-V/System Centre.

[mcnallyfc]

I'd say at the very least get RM to push down the price, ultimately though your best bet is to make the server a VM - its easy to migrate over and the OS doesn’t even notice the difference.

If your not comfortable doing it yourself then RM offer (for a fee) VMWare however if you have a schools agreement you might want to seriously consider Hyper-V/System Centre.

 

I have contacted RM to negotiate the price a bit - also asked them the options of purchasing our own server and paying them to do the rest.

 

I'm still unsure on how to proceed though - im caught between wanting to future proof the server but also the needs to replace this asap.

 

I'm also unsure whether to go down the VM route - we dont have schools agreement so could work out expensive for Hyper-V/SC.

 

The option im seriously considering is purchasing a good spec server i.e. DL360 G7 etc with 4gb of RAM (having potential to upgrade the ram if we go VM in future) and getting RM in to migrate the old server across with all their software etc. Then if we do go Vanilla in future we have the server we want and that can run VMs etc with the ram upgrade.