Windows 2000 SBS Upgrade Path

[Party2go9820]

I know there are some seriously smart Microsoft people here so help me out. We've got a MS 2000 Small Business Server which is working great. We are using the ISA, and Exchange portions, but not the SQL. (Its on another dedicated server)

The problem is within the next year we will out grow the licence maximums of both 2000SBS (50) and 2003 SBS (75?) so we will need to move to seperate Server 2003, Exchange 2003 and ISA 2004 boxes which I have no problem with.

My question is thus - is there a way to atleast salvage my current AD setup and Exchange mailboxes without having to re-create them by hand?

Any help would be apreciated!

 

[Darkstar850]

There is a migration pack from Microsoft that does this. However, I think it is pretty expensive, somewhere around 2k.

 

[SJConsultant]

You have two options here.

Option one - hope you can find a vendor who has the SBS 2000 Transition pack available as MS no longer provides it.

Option two - if the SBS 2000 Transition pack is not available, you will need to upgrade to SBS 2003 Premium *and* purchase the SBS 2003 Transition Pack.

Either option will allow you to break out the server software into their own respective systems , however keep in mind if you decide to move any server software to it's own box, you'll also need to buy a base OS license for each box.

Transition Pack FAQs

 

[ccarrigan]

I would suggest a migration. It's a couple step process, and I suggest buying the tools and the guide, but for a quick overview:

Use a temp server (i use VMWARE and my laptop) and install W2k3
Add to domain
Make DNS and DC
Make GC
Wait for replication
Manually remove old objects
Do all above steps with new server, named same name as original
(go from DC1 to TEMP1 back to new DC1)
Forklift Exchange

I've done this about 10 times now. Pretty easy process and you get to keep server names and AD. http://www.sbsmigration.com/

But the advanced kit, the tools make it nice (printers and folder shares). Last time I did this it took me an afternoon for a SBS2k with Exchange with 20GB and data store of 40GB. Email me if you have any questions about it, these guys are really nice and provide great support.

 

[Party2go9820]

I would suggest a migration. It's a couple step process, and I suggest buying the tools and the guide, but for a quick overview:

Use a temp server (i use VMWARE and my laptop) and install W2k3
Add to domain
Make DNS and DC
Make GC
Wait for replication
Manually remove old objects
Do all above steps with new server, named same name as original
(go from DC1 to TEMP1 back to new DC1)
Forklift Exchange

I've done this about 10 times now. Pretty easy process and you get to keep server names and AD. http://www.sbsmigration.com/

But the advanced kit, the tools make it nice (printers and folder shares). Last time I did this it took me an afternoon for a SBS2k with Exchange with 20GB and data store of 40GB. Email me if you have any questions about it, these guys are really nice and provide great support.

Forklift Exchange? Do elaborate.

Thanks for the help guys - looks like I've got some reading to do.

 

[ccarrigan]

Forklift Exchange? Do elaborate.

Thanks for the help guys - looks like I've got some reading to do.

Um, let's see. You take the database, back it up with Exchange aware software (to purge files), copy the remaining files (2 .edb and 2 .stm) over to the new server with the new exchange and start it. It sometimes needs modifying of the organization name and such, but there's a utility. And you do have to set the store to allow restores.

I don't check on here much, but feel free to post here and i'll look for the email from them or email me with any questions. Glad to help.