Hi, We are trying to migrate our MS windows file servers from Windows 2003 to Windows 2008 R2. We are looking at different ways to do this. We have a new server and the data will have to be migrated over to the new server which will be connected to our SAN. Because a bunch of legacy applications we have to keep the hostname and the IP address the same on the new server. The easiest way to go will be: 1.) Copy the data from your old server to your new server 2.) Change the IP address on your current server 3.) Rename Current Server 4.) Change IP address on new server to the former IP address of your old server 5.) Change the name of the new server to the former name of the old server 6.) Verify copy is successful and that clients can access the data. I have test removing the server from the domain and the permissions sharing/ntfs were still there (you could see the users SID not the user) once the server was rejoined to the domain the SID were changed back to the user accounts. My concern is that if we run into problems with the new server and we want to join the old one to the domain we may be losing all the sharing/ntfs permissions. - Is that something supported? Anything to say about that? Do you guys have any other suggestion on how could we acomplish the upgrade/migration? No DFS can be implemented and the use of a CNAME will not work either (the NETBIOS name has to be same since the old legacy applications that we run need this name to access the server and not the FQDN one) Thank you

Hello, if you have to work with server renaming, to keep an old name for the bad programmed applications(often done in the past), see the File server migration toolkit: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=d00e3eae-930a-42b0-b595-66f462f5d87b&displaylang=en After migration rename and change the ip address. I suggest you test this in a LAB before doing it on production. Best regards Meinolf Weber Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.

I have used the File Server Migration Toolkit and based your description, I think it very effective with regard to the "file copy" portion of the process. You dont have to worry about files added or modified on the source while you are in the process of migrating. At the end, there is a final sync to ensure the source and target are the same.Visit: anITKB.com, an IT Knowledge Base.

For the data migration I am trying to setup the DFS replica between a Windows 2003 Standard SP2 and the Windows 2008 R2 - The DFS service is started in the Windows 2003 and The File Server Role + the DFS role service have been installed in the Windows 2008 server, also the DFS service is running there as well. The DFS name space is working. I have created the folder structure for the DFS replica between the 2 servers and the shares are accessible from both servers (each direction) The problem is that when configuring the replication I get the following error message - You must select a one target as the initial master. The first time you start replication, its content are replicated to the other targets. Targets that are not elegible to join file replication are denoted with a red X. The Windows 2003 Server will be the master and the Staging for FRS will be placed there everything seems ok but for the Windows 2008 File server (the one that contains the share that will have the replicated data) is shows up with an red X mark. I understand the W2k3 is using FRS while W2k8 uses DFS-R - Do you know if thisi s a known issue or a limitation? Basically can I configure DFS replicas between a Windows 2003 Standard SP2 and a Windows 2008 R2? Thank you.

Hello, please have a look into the different available options for FRS and DFS-R: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc773238(WS.10).aspx#BKMK_025Best regards Meinolf Weber Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.

The second question is also replied in another of your threads: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverfiles/thread/e6aa4444-6286-439a-bb65-d0a33210227b?prof=required As the purpose is to migrate data, you can try the File Server Migration Toolkit or the Robocopy mentioned in the other thread.Shaon Shan |TechNet Subscriber Support in forum |If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com