SBS 2003 to Windows Server 2012 Std

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rosco

Gawd
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I am going to be doing a much needed upgrade at a office taking them from SBS 2003 to Windows Server 2012 Std. This should be more simple than most as they use it is a domain controller, and file/print server. No Exchange, sharepoint, etc.

They do have one program that uses SQL on the server but I already have a plan for migrating that over.

So, do you guys have any recommended document on how to do this migration? Seems like I can mainly treat it as Server 2003 to Server 2012 and just leave the SBS components out but wanted to check with you guys.

Thanks!
 
I believe you have to cleanup Exchange from the domain, I used the package from sbsmigration.com when I did my migration (SBS2003 to 2008R2)
 
I hope your not going to be doing an in place upgrade. Will it will be on a new piece of hardware? If so the migration will be very easy and we can help.
 
Does exchange have to be cleaned up if we aren't going to be using exchange moving forward? Everyone uses Google apps for email.

The Server 2012 box is a brand new server. Not an in place upgrade.
 
New box = easy peasy. When you promote 2012 to DC, then you just transfer the authoritative FSMO roles and you can either leave 2003 in place as a backup or demote from DC so it's just a fileserver or whatever. If you are comfortable with command lines, ntdsutil is a lot faster than navigating the snap ins for FSMO. Dunno about exchange cleanup. Since our clients have cloud based email as well, that was never considered.
 
So, would these two sets of instructions do the trick:
Step-By-Step: Adding a Windows Server 2012 Domain Controller to an Existing Windows Server 2003 network
and
Step-By-Step: Active Directory Migration from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2012 R2

This one seems to have all the instructions in one but is targeted at 2003 to 2008 not 2003 to 2012:
Migrate Server 2003 to 2008R2 Active Directory and FSMO Roles | Zwiegnet Blog

Plus, none of those are SBS 2003 to Server 2012 but again, we're not really concerned about transferring over any extra SBS roles. So, as long as their are no gotchas I have to worry about due to that I think I am OK following a SBS 2003 to Server 2012 set of instructions.

This one covers SBS 2003 to Server 2012 but it's the essentials version of 2012, not standard.
Migrate Windows Small Business Server 2003 to Windows Server 2012 Essentials

So, I guess that's what I'm looking for help with. Lots of instructions but nothing that applies EXACTLY to my situation.

Thanks for the help so far!
 
Last edited:
OK, I'm just about done with the migration. We used login scripts to map network shares mainly. Would I be better off trying to move that over or mapping drives using group policy?

I was going to use the login script to re-map the network shares over to the new server.
 
rosco said:
OK, I'm just about done with the migration. We used login scripts to map network shares mainly. Would I be better off trying to move that over or mapping drives using group policy?

I was going to use the login script to re-map the network shares over to the new server.
Click to expand...
I prefer GPP's to login scripts for everything if possible. This may also be a good time to set up DFS and consolidate shares and make things more presentable. You should really only have 1 mapped drive + user home drive. Plus, DFS will make future migrations easier because you just update DFS with the new share location and remove the old. That means not have to bother adjusting mappings.
 
Anybody know an easy way to get rid of the SBS2003 WSUS policy that carries over to new 2012 servers after a migration?

I always hated that policy that insisted on using WSUS and not letting workstations do their own updates.
I was able to disable and uninstall WSUS, but could never get that policy turned off for some reason.

Any new workstations joined to the domain still get "Admin managed updates".

Migrated several SBS2003 servers to new 2012 servers and still get the stupid SBS2003 WSUS policy.

.
 
You should be able to unlink the wsus policy in the gpo console.
While you're in there, if your not using them, you can unlink the other sbs policies that migrated over.
Note, unlink, not delete, just in car 6 months down the road you find it was needed for something.
Make a reminder to delete them in January 2017,lol
 
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