Clean Install of W2K Server on DC

[troybl]

OK, here is the deal. I am working with a very small network that has only one Windows 2000 server (DC). It is running Active Directory. The server currently has multiple SCSI drives. The drives have been added as necessary for more space but the drives are not RAIDed.

I would like to switch from all those SCSI drives to one large IDE drive. At the same time, I would like to do a clean install of Windows 2000 (the current install is over three years old). I would also do a clean install of other (third-party software) on the server but I am not worried about that (just stating it FYI). I want the server name to remain the same and I want the process to be seamless on the workstation end. I think I can do this over a weekend so server downtime will not be an issue (I will always have my SCSI drives to fall back to if I run into problems).

My question is, what would be the best way to do this? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Troy

 

[packdragon]

I think it would be easiest to have a whole separate box set up alongside the current DC. Install and configure that new box to how you want it, then promote it to DC. Then you could demote the original DC and reappropriate it for other purposes. Of course this is only a viable option if you have a separate newer box to work with.

- Zoe, that's ZOH-EEE, get it right please
- Just a little ol' MCP at Solien Technology
-

http://www.solien.com

 

[mgooder]

Do a backup of AD first of all and all of your users data if it is on the server. After your clean install of the OS and other software restore your AD, that way all of your users should not see a difference.

Rico

 

[troybl]

Zoe, I do not have another box to work with. It's kind of a long story but my original Compaq Proliant server failed on me (motherboard problem). I built a new server about a month ago and got the original W2K install to work with my new server (not an easy task, but I needed to get it going ASAP). Now I want to switch to one IDE drive.

Rico, I was thinking along the same lines as you. I just hope I don't run into anything unexpected.

Thanks to you both for the suggestions.

 

[dholbrook]

I do not understand what you really are trying to accomplish with this approach. How much drive space are you talking about? After all You DID say this is a small system!

It seems to me the simpler solution is to just back up one of the existing drives, then replace it with a larger size SCSI drive and restore the data (assuming you do not have the physical space to add another SCSI drive in the box).

As Zoe recommends, I also would recommend having a second DC in your system anyway, so why not just build it?

Replacing SCSI drives with IDE is not a good idea, as you are replacing several drives with a single larger single point of failure, and second, you will probably have to add another controller card (another failure point). In addition, the larger drive also means you probably will need a new backup tape system that will handle the larger drive volume (you DO HAVE A BACKUP SYSTEM, RIGHT?) on a single media.

Once your new system is functioning as a DC, you automatically have a backup of the AD, so that becomes a moot point.

Additional info would help.

HTH

David

 

[troybl]

David, the answer to most of your questions is cost. We are on a low budget. We want to get away from SCSI because of the cost and headache. A second DC is not an option for this network. The server I built has built in IDE RAID hardware and I plan to buy two IDE drives and mirror them.

 

[dholbrook]

Ok, but why are you going to remove the existing drives? (you did not asy how many there are). Your input does not say you need more space as much as you want to add a mirror for redundancy. Don't be penny wise and pound foolish.

The cost for a single additional large SCSI versus the cost of two large IDE drives should not be much different (but you have not said how big these drives are either). You can also mirror the existing drives to the new SCSI drive for reliability, if needed, and this can be done with system software if you do not have a SCSI Raid card. If there is room for an additional drive, then you could also span the drives to create a larger volume, if that is the issue. Why discard the inventory you have already paid for?

Adding more drives does not take away the problem of how do you back these drives up. That too, is huge part of the cost, as the cost for a large (100 GB+ ) tape drive is not cheap, but will be essential to your system survival. Can also be done with a smaller tape system if you are willing to stand by and swap tapes. Still will run $1000 to $2000 for a DDS4 system plus the tapes (about $10-$15 per 20/40 GB tape)

It does not appear you have considered your time cost to do all the rebuild, data transfer and testing eihter, as well as down time if it does not work correctly. You already said you had problems building the system and getting WIn2k to work, so what makes you think it will be any different (and maybe worse) when you go to rebuild it agan from scratch? Sounds like you ran into compatibility issues with hardware already, and you are using the same hardware again (except for the SCSI drives), plus new additional hardware that you have not tried before.

Good luck on what ever you decide to do, but without GOOD backups, you are headed for a disaster, and larger drives = larger disaster(READ = MORE COSTLY)!

HTH

David

 

[troybl]

It doesn’t sound like you have priced IDE vs. SCSI drives in a while. The steps that I have been talking about taking here are for two reasons: 1) for preventative measures (the current windows install is on it’s last legs and some of the drives are getting old) and 2) for cost issues (now and in the future). The cost of IDE drives keep falling rapidly. Prices for SCSI drives, on the other hand, drop slowly. I don’t see this trend changing. I can buy two 120 GB IDE drives for less than one 20 GB SCSI. I have not made up my mind what I will do with the existing SCSI drives, but I assure you that they will not go to waste.

As far as backups, we are looking at only backing up data and not the entire drive. I don’t want to spend the time trying to explain the whole situation, but there is a lot of data on the server that doesn’t change (but it takes up a lot of space). We keep backups of that data but don’t have to keep backing it up on a regular basis (only any new files). Yes, there is other data that changes on a regular basis and that data gets backed up regularly. So, even though we have a lot of hard drive space, we only have to back up a small percentage of it at a time. And, yes, we have tested our backup system to make sure that it works. I realize that our situation is not the norm, which is why I didn’t want to get into the specifics.

As far as “problems” that I had “building the system and getting W2K to work” , I only had problems getting the existing W2K install to work in the new box (completely different hardware). That is different than having compatibility issues with the hardware.

 

[Seaspray0]

How about Installing the new IDE drive into the current server. Mirror the operating system to it. Edit the boot.ini on the new ide drive to point to

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000

Install this drive as your master on the first controller and adjust the bios to boot from the ide, and unplug the scsii drives. It might work. It'll give you an error that the mirror is no longer good, but you can break the mirror.

 

[troybl]

Seaspray, that would probably work except that I want to do a clean install of Windows 2000 server (and the thrid-party software on the server).

 

[steveNY]

You can replace the drives and restore from backup as mentioned earlier, however, it depends on what you want your "new" environment to look like (same partitioning, directory structures, dns config, etc...)

If you are in a small environment (50 users) then you could probably reconfigure everything and test over a weekend with selective restores and manuall placement of users and data.

If you are in a larger environment (300+ users) then get some new hardware, add it to the domain and transfer the data accross. (I would recomend you do it this way ,even if temporary).

Check out the following microsoft webcast and referring recovery document for info on disaster recovery.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;325560

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/administration/fileandprint/recovery.asp