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Production Environment to Test Environment

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Enkrypted

Enkrypted

Technical User
Sep 18, 2002
663
US
We have a SBS 2003 server that I would like to replicate to a test environment. I want to be able to copy the domain (AD structure, DNS, DHCP, Exchange, SQL, Computer Name, etc) to an independent network at a different location for testing purposes. I see some places sell tools that can do this (those always make me nervous) and don't really have the budget for buying them. What is the best way to go about doing this?

Enkrypted
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Hi Enkrypted,
As these are totally seperate networks and domains, then the easiest way will be to take one of your backups of your SBS server and restore it to new hardware.
You'll need to restore in DSRM (Directory Services Restore Mode) as this is a dc. have a look at this artile, it's pretty good:


Hope this helps

Paul

Paul Thomas
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They will be identical domains but not located within the same network. The test will be setup at an offsite location so i can test on it (yet still be able to login with production machines to check things)

Enkrypted
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The hardware in the machines are different. Will the link above still work? From the notes in the document it said it probably won't.

Enkrypted
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You may hit some issues if the hardware are different. When I say issues, I mean server 2003 may moan a little that certain drivers or pieces of hardware aren't in place, but all you can do is try. I've recently restored a backup of a Dell poweredge server running SBS 2003 into a virtual server on VMware Workstation.
what I would do if I were you is:

1) build your test server to sbs 2003
2) Either take a copy or make a note of the contents of boot.ini
3) boot into DSRM, run your restore of C: and System State
4) DON'T REBOOT your server after the restore - but open up the restored boot.ini file and compare it to the one you've copied form the clean install. If they are different make sure the restored version is changed to rflect the copied version. This ensures that when the server reboots after the restore it doesn't look in the wrong partition for Windows (if it does, you have to start again!)
5) Reboot

Good luck

Paul Thomas
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Yeah I already have base SBS installed on the test environment machine, nothing else has been installed or anything. I will give that a try. Thanks for the info!

Enkrypted
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