Server Upgrade from NT4/Exchange 5.5 to Small Business Server 2003

[Frito]

Okay, I've got one hell of an upgrade coming and I wanted to run my plan by you guys first to see if there's anything bad I might have missed and of course to ask for suggestions.

Here's the old server named ADMIN
NT 4.0 Exchange 5.5
Running on an old P3 550 with SCSI 13 Gig drive.

The New server (which I would also like to name Admin)
Dual Athlon Opteron 246's. With Twin Sata Raptor's.

Since I have no idea how to migrate the data from Exchange 5.5 to SBS server I'm going to just try an upgrade on existing OS.

I'm going to switch one of the BDC's to PDC temporarily since ADMIN is the PDC.

Then I plan to ghost the SCSI drive onto the SATA (I'll leave the details out since it's very long and boring)

Then get that drive image running on the Dual Opteron board. Then try and run SBS install procedure which should at least carry over the userinfo and with any luck grab convert the Exchange data.

Then once it's all done hook it back up to the network then make it PDC again.

Any glaring flaws in my plan?

 

[mikecel79]

A SBS2003 upgrade is not supported for what your trying to do. For one thing SBS 2003 uses Exchange 2003. You can't upgrade a Exchange 5.5 server right to Exchange 2003. You need to migrate your mailboxes to it. The other thing is that SBS 2003 won't upgrade an NT Server. It will only upgrade Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2k3 Server, and SBS 2000 Servers.

Also upgrading a BDC using SBS 2003 I don't believe is supported. Even if it is, you'll end up with a new domain. The best thing to do is take a BDC offline and store it somewhere safe. Then you perform the upgrade on the PDC so that it imports your Windows NT domain user and computer accounts.

Why are you using SBS vs Win2k3 + Exchange 2k3? If you have a multiple server environment you should be looking at Win2k3 instead of SBS 2003.

 

[Dug]

Start from scratch, don't try to migrate. It's not going to work with what you describe.
Set up the sbs2k3 on the new machine and test. Then test some more. And then it wouldn't hurt to test one more time before migrating the users over.

Here's your greatest asset : SBS forums

Since your just starting out go here: MS SBS2k3

I won't even get into ghosting scsi to sata. Let's just say it probably won't work, and there's no reason to try.

And for the question "
Why are you using SBS vs Win2k3 + Exchange 2k3? If you have a multiple server environment you should be looking at Win2k3 instead of SBS 2003."

Because sbs2k3 can probably do all the work of his previous machines and will cost a lot less. Unless he is running multiple domains with over 60-70+ users, there's no reason not to use sbs2k3.

 

[Winchester]

Mike is a smart one for this topic. He helped me alot.

There are plenty of microsoft articles etc on migrating etc. You will need to install SBS2003 on the new server then Move your mailboxes etc to it from the old one.

 

[mikecel79]

And for the question "
Why are you using SBS vs Win2k3 + Exchange 2k3? If you have a multiple server environment you should be looking at Win2k3 instead of SBS 2003."

Because sbs2k3 can probably do all the work of his previous machines and will cost a lot less. Unless he is running multiple domains with over 60-70+ users, there's no reason not to use sbs2k3.

Since he said he had BDCs and PDCs I just assumed he had a larger environment. SBS 2k3 is a great product for smaller environments with 4 or less servers and under 60-70 users like you said.

 

[mikecel79]

Mike is a smart one for this topic. He helped me alot.

Glad I could help. Hope everything is working out well for you.

I'm about to start another large migration inside our company. Combining 8 NT domains and 5 AD domains into a single forest.

 

[Dug]

I'm about to start another large migration inside our company. Combining 8 NT domains and 5 AD domains into a single forest.

That would give me an ulcer.

 

[mikecel79]

It won't be that bad.....I hope.