I'm currently involved in a project that requires migration of legacy NT 4.0 Server images to new hardware. So far, we are using a similar approach to the "lobotomy" method where we install and configure a fresh image of NT 4.0 Server (SP6a) on the new hardware, restore the legacy image from tape using a duplicate image of the newly installed OS that has been copied to a separate folder (WINNT.SOS in this case), then copy the following six files from SYSTEM32 of the newly installed system over to the restored legacy system:
Ntoskrnl.exe, Hal.dll, Kernel32.dll, Ntdll.dll, Winsrv.dll, Win32k.sys
Then, we copy the SYSTEM (not software) registry hive from the newly installed system over to the restored system. We are finding that this is necessary in order to avoid an inaccessible boot device BSOD during kernel mode. This method has worked successfully in regards to migration of the PDC, but has an issue with the application server we are testing. We have found that since installed application services are located in the SYSTEM hive (HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services), that the restored system is lacking application services (such as Siebel) as they are not defined in the system hive from the newly installed NT 4.0 image that we copied over to the restored image. We are attempting to export the missing keys from the production system and will import those into the restored system for testing. This will likely work, but we need to determine a more efficient method of doing this (we don't want to go searching for services on each machine targeted for migration manually).
I think the key here is to import the proper Compaq SCSI driver registry key into the system targeted for migration just BEFORE the system is backed up for migration so that when the system is restored on the new hardware, the registry already points to the correct SCSI driver. We're not sure, however, exactly what registry keys deal with the Compaq SCSI driver to that we can export them from a configured system for importation into the legacy system.
If these registry keys that pertain to the Compaq SCSI driver can be identified (we called Compaq and they weren't much help in this area) then we can "pre-seed" the legacy system with these keys before backing the legacy system up for migration to new hardware. If anyone knows exactly what keys we need to export in this case, it would be most helpful. Or, if there is another approach we should be taking, we would appreciate being enlightened. Thank you.
