Limited (No) Downtime 2K3 Migration Advice Needed

[kaoboda]

I am the systems administrator for a non-profit organization. I have two identical Dell PowerEdge 1550 servers, both running Windows 2000 Advanced Server. We have just recently subscribed to a Microsoft licensing program, and with it came Windows 2003 Enterprise. So obviously, we plan on upgrading.

For the sake of ease, my two servers are called ServerA and ServerB. Both servers were domain controllers in my domain (I recently demoted B). Since I do not have the privilege of having a test lab, nor can I be without the server for any extended period of time, my migration to Windows 2003 Enterprise seems like it is going to be a tricky one.

ServerA servers as the domain controller, housing AD and running SQL Server, Great Plains and Exchange.

ServerB also functioned as a domain controller, but did not run any applications. The tentative plan is to use ServerB as the box that gets 2003 first, then install and migrate data over to it so it may become “ServerA,” so I can then take ServerA down and move it to 2003 without having any downtime.

Does this sound like a feasible plan? If not, what would be a better course of action?

 

[jrbarnett]

If your systems are mission critical, and you cannot afford downtime or have a spare to keep all network services running, I would only upgrade if 2K3 has new features that would be useful in your environment, from the perspective of you as an admin the people that you support.

Just because you have the ability to upgrade doesn't mean that you have do.

John

 

[kaoboda]

John,

While that is my theory too, my CEO is a "we paid for it, so it better be used" type of guy. I have no choice in the matter. But thanks for your words... at least lets me know someone else thinks like me.

Jason

 

[Jpoandl]

In such a small environment, it would be easier to just perform an inplace upgrade to Windows 2003 as compared to the complexity of performing a migration.

The best starting point is to make sure that your backups are running complete and successfully. An upgrade, is relatively easy compared to a migration. And if you have a good backup/restore plan, you will have a nice safety net...just in case things don't go as planned.

With a migration, you may have to repoint all of your desktops to the new domain. This can be a real pain. Also, in a migration, you will have to install DNS and active directory over again. This means that you will have to migrate the user accounts, reset passwords, yadda, yadda , yadda.

An inplace upgrade will be much easier....just my thoughts...

Joseph L. Poandl
MCSE 2003

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