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Replacing a SBS 2003 sever with 2008 server by recreating the domain

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jjmh

jjmh

Technical User
Feb 6, 2009
1
FR
Hi,

We have a domain controller running SBS 2003 with NO exchange and NO SQL server. It is simply used as a domain controller

My aim is to have 2 domain controllers running Windows server 2008 standard and completely remove SBS 2003 and its hardware. This is for redundancy purposes and they fact that we will soon explode the 75 user limit.

The upgrade path for SBS 2003 appears to be very complicated and I was wondering if it was possible to simply RECREATE a new domain from scratch and rejoin all the clients pc to the new domain? The new domain does not have to have the same domain name.

We do not have a big configuration yet (4 printers, 40 users and 40 client PCs all in the same physical offices, 1 sbs 2003 server, 1 windows server for file sharing)
We thought also a fresh install might be a good idea if at all possible, hence the post in this forum.

This is perhaps a very simplistic way of looking at things but would it simply be a case of :

Create a new domain using Windows Server 2008 (This would be on the same LAN as they SBS 2003 server)

Recreate users
Recreate printers
Recreate DHCP scopes and DNS information
Join the file share server to new domain
Reset all file permssions on second server
Move all work stations to new domain

Any help you could provide would be most appreciated


Kind regards
 
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This is essentially just a greenfield installation. I just had to do this for a law firm because they wanted to change the domain name of their old SBS 2003 domain.

One tool you will want to use is Profile Wizard. Licensing is super cheap and the tool will save you many hours at the desktops.



I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at
Work SMARTER not HARDER. The Spider's Parlor's Admin Script Pack is a collection of Administrative scripts designed to make IT Administration easier! Save time, get more work done, get the Admin Script Pack.
 
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I think a better solution would be to join the Windows 2008 Server to the SBS 2003 domain and promote it to be a DC. Make it a GC. Then get to work migrating shares and print resources to the new server. This way you could preserve what you value, and do quite a bit less work.

When you are happy with the way things look on the new server, remove the SBS Server from the network, seize the FSMO roles on the new server and remove references to the old server by deleting it from the AD Sites and Services and then ADUC.

Doing it this way will preserve all user SIDs and permissions and make it so that you don't really have to touch the workstations at all. You can use some neat GP Client Side Extension features in Windows 2008 to remap your drives and printers, and you'll pretty much be done.

The nice thing about this method is that you can make it a more leisurely migration and not take the SBS box out of the mix until you are happy with the way the users are accessing resources on the new server. When it comes time to physically remove SBS, you won't really be using it anyway...

Dave Shackelford
ThirdTier.net
 
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I agree with you Dave but the OP also said
We thought also a fresh install might be a good idea if at all possible
Click to expand...
which lead me to believe that they may have inherent problems with their current AD.

Doing a migration will just carry that over to the new domain.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at
Work SMARTER not HARDER. The Spider's Parlor's Admin Script Pack is a collection of Administrative scripts designed to make IT Administration easier! Save time, get more work done, get the Admin Script Pack.
 
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