Copy User Shares from 2003 to 2008R2

[penfold]

I need to copy all the user home folders we have from a Windows2003 server to a new 2008R2 box but I need to do it and keep and the shares & permissions. I've used Robocopy before to keep permissions, but I've never done it for shares. Any suggestions on how I can do it please?

[3s-gtech]

Robocopy can copy the files fine, but I think you'll have to recreate the shares themselves. You could also use DFS-R, setting both the old and new servers as replication members for the same shares. Given time, all the file will sync across, and you can just turn off the old server as a member. Again, sill need to actual shares setting up. I don't know of any way of actually copying the share and sharing permissions - are they very complex?

[elsiegee40]

When we did this move, we backed up to 2003 and recovered from backup to 2008... You get the permissions back this way.

[DMcCoy]

Or if the files are in the same path you can export the registry key for the shares, just tidy a little to keep the ones you want. Merge it in and restart the server service. Best to remove the system ones (ipc, print etc) before the import.

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\LanmanServer\Shares

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\LanmanServer\Shares\Security

[penfold]

@DMcCoy - I had read about exportiing the reg keys, but the existing server has home folders spread across 2 physical disks and I want to bring them all under 1 disk on the new server so wasn't sure if it would be possible without having to modify the reg keys.

[Duke5A]

How are the shares setup? Typically, the way to set them up is to allow everyone RW on the share, and control it at the file permissions level. How I would set it up is like this:

 

-StaffFolders
    +TeacherA
    +TeacherB
    +TeacherC

 

On the top level directory StaffFolders, share it with RW access to everyone and only give file level access to administrators. Finally, at the teacher name level, give the teacher modify access to the folder and contents. Teachers can be mapped to their specific folder by \\server\StaffFolders\TeacherName. Now you only have one share to deal with and permissions can be copied over by robocopy. Since staff doesn't have file level read access on the top level they can't browse higher than their own home folder.

Edited December 17, 2012 by Duke5A