Servee Upgrade

[chekmate1984]

We are upgrading our server next week.

 

from server 2008 small business edition to server 2008 r2

 

the school has 600gb of data!!!

 

c drive is windows

 

d and e is data

 

obviously i would need full backup.

 

whats best way to do full backup of the server? to a external HDD? and fast due to time constraints?

[irsprint84]

Dont ypu have a separate backup server? how do you normally do backups? what services are on this server? and why are you upgrading it as you sound a small place? 2008 r2 is great but it sounds like you dont have a backup system in place, if you did I would for example I would create your new server, do a full backup of old and restore backup to new server

[chekmate1984]

I have taken over from a previous IT company, they only had 160gb of tandberg tape in place. When the server has like 600gb and backup never worked!!!

 

due to some limitations of small bnusiness server 08 its best we rebuilt server. School has online backup and does full backup via that but wasnt sure if thats safe to restore via that.

 

Thay have qnas box in ordeer for future backups which should arrive sometime next week.

 

Its a primary school so just one server that does everything, no extra servers

[irsprint84]

well before you even attempt a upgrade wait till backups are 100%! online backup of 600GB must be quite large

[3s-gtech]

A bare metal backup to USB would not be a bad idea certainly. Will still take a while!

[chekmate1984]

Thanks I have just got it working, current OS is small business server 2008, after rebuild would be 2008 R2

Current D: is 700gb after rebuild 500gb

 

Would D: backup from old server and old config restore ok to new server with new d: config?

 

I have only done backups on windows server

[ToyHeartsFan]

Have I read this correctly, you are just installing a new OS on the existing server you aren’t adding a new server? You’re intending to wipe the OS and start again setting up dhcp / AD etc from scratch, reinstalling all of the software and rejoining the workstations to the new domain? I think most people would add a new server as a second DC and demote the old one after all the services / data had been moved.

 

Just an idea! But could you leave the data on the D:\ drive where it is and just setup shares / permissions again after the new OS is installed? Any software you have on the server would also need reinstalling because you would loose all the registry entries and any services they installed would be missing. You still need an onsite (tested backup) because if it goes wrong it will take forever to download all that data from your offsite backup (that’s assuming that the offsite backup isn’t just a selective backup i.e. your MIS data).

 

You should be able to restore the data on D: ok but by config do you mean shares, permissions and services? Those are part of the system state and I’m not sure of the implications of trying to restore the system state from a 2008 business server onto a 2008 R2 server.

 

I thinks it’s far more complicated than you think especially as it’s your only server and probably hosts your MIS database. If they have support from their LEA etc then I would give them a ring before you jump into the deep end as it could go horribly wrong.

[chekmate1984]

Have I read this correctly, you are just installing a new OS on the existing server you aren’t adding a new server? You’re intending to wipe the OS and start again setting up dhcp / AD etc from scratch, reinstalling all of the software and rejoining the workstations to the new domain? I think most people would add a new server as a second DC and demote the old one after all the services / data had been moved.

 

Just an idea! But could you leave the data on the D:\ drive where it is and just setup shares / permissions again after the new OS is installed? Any software you have on the server would also need reinstalling because you would loose all the registry entries and any services they installed would be missing. You still need an onsite (tested backup) because if it goes wrong it will take forever to download all that data from your offsite backup (that’s assuming that the offsite backup isn’t just a selective backup i.e. your MIS data).

 

You should be able to restore the data on D: ok but by config do you mean shares, permissions and services? Those are part of the system state and I’m not sure of the implications of trying to restore the system state from a 2008 business server onto a 2008 R2 server.

 

I thinks it’s far more complicated than you think especially as it’s your only server and probably hosts your MIS database. If they have support from their LEA etc then I would give them a ring before you jump into the deep end as it could go horribly wrong.

 

Hi yep its new os in exisiting server as server is only 1 year old, but previous guy set up server with just 20gb C: and its now full!!!

 

But yep i was thinking keep D: in tact too. but just to be in safe side i wanted a full backup so incase the partitions go wrong i will have a backup...

 

we have done this before on numerous schools and within week so it would be ok. The admin machines we are just going to disjoin from domain then add back to domain. all other machines will have full rebuild. The school uses online based MIS so theres no problems with MIS. I am aware the shares and permissions are on system state, but even if the data is restored i can look at recreating shared and its permissions.

[ToyHeartsFan]

Hi yep its new os in exisiting server as server is only 1 year old, but previous guy set up server with just 20gb C: and its now full!!!

 

But yep i was thinking keep D: in tact too. but just to be in safe side i wanted a full backup so incase the partitions go wrong i will have a backup...

 

we have done this before on numerous schools and within week so it would be ok. The admin machines we are just going to disjoin from domain then add back to domain. all other machines will have full rebuild. The school uses online based MIS so theres no problems with MIS. I am aware the shares and permissions are on system state, but even if the data is restored i can look at recreating shared and its permissions.

 

Reminds me of when I had an RM Server replaced at another school the RM tech was quite insistant that more than 20GB for C:\ would impact on performance, thanks but i would rather my server still worked when MS release their next SP / batch of security updates; I cant remember what size I opted for but it was 50-100% more than they wanted to use.

 

If its a small school you should be ok but doing it this way for us would be a nightmare - 3 form entry primary so over 700 kids + all the staff and loads of software it would take weeks to reinstall everything again.

 

If your server is that new any chance its got an Esata port? that would be the fastest way of transfering data or you could drop in an ESata / USB3 card if its got a free slot on the mobo. USB2 will do but you will max out the transfer rate of the port so wont get max performance from an external hdd.

[AdamToone]

Have you fond a solution for your backup on the servers?

[Roger_vfcss]

Hi

I use Disk-to-Disc-to-tape backup stratergy.

Limited on budget so reuse old quad core server with gigabit nic, external 2Tb usb for our 1.5Tb of data, these drives work well and are CHEAP then backup to tape with LTO tape drives.

Roger

[Roger_vfcss]

Using virtual svr's I set up OS partition with 100gb so plenty of space for 'growth', we had svr's set up by third parties with 20gb OS partitions, had to migrate all in end!