Restoring Windows 2000 System State data to Windows 2003 1

[NewNetworkAdmin]

Hi,

I am soon going to embark on upgrading our email server from Exchange 2000 on Windows 2000 Advanced Server to Exchange 2003 on Windows Server 2003. I don't have a new box to install Windows 2003 onto so I've bought new hard drives just in case I need to go back to the old system.

I plan to Install Windows server 2003 on the new disks and then install Exchange 2000 with the disaster recovery option that should get all the mailbox info back from Active Directory. Once this has completed I will do an in-place upgrade from Exchange 2000 to Exchange 2003.

Anyway, the question for this forum is as follows: If I take a System State backup from my Windows 2000 Advanced Server can I restore this to the new Windows Server 2003?

Any suggestions on how this plan might be better executed are very welcome.

Thanks in anticipation

Andy

 

[mrdenny]

I would assume not. The registry's for Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 are different (not to mention all the other information in the system state).

If you need to go this route, install Windows 2000, restore the system state, then upgrade to Windows 2003, then install Exchange.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000) / MCTS (SQL 2005)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

http://www.mrdenny.com

 

[NewNetworkAdmin]

MrDenny, that would be a much better idea. However, I cannot upgrade Windows Advanced Server 2000 to Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition. The setup wizard says that it is not supported.

Do you know of any way to convert a system state file from Windows 2000 to Windows 2003? Or is this just dreaming now!?

 

[58sniper]

That's not going to happen. You'd be better off doing a swing migration using a high end workstation for a while.

Pat Richard, MCSE(2) MCSA:Messaging, CNA(2)

 

[NewNetworkAdmin]

Well, I tried restoring a Windows 2000 System State Backup to a Windows Server 2003 system and my advice is simply DON'T DO IT!!! The restore seemed to go ok and it asked to reboot. I rebooted the server and got an error as it was booting. It took me hours to get the system back using a combination of the Windows Server 2003 CD, Windows 2000 Server CD, doctored XP boot disks and the System State backup that I had.

Anyway, I've learnt my lesson and won't try that one on the email server. I'm not certain how important the System State data is for this upgrade (obviously the system state data is extremely important to Windows!). I'm contemplating trying the upgrade process as described in the original post but without restoring the System State Data. Does anyone have any experience / thoughts on this?

P.S. I'm going to do it this weekend so any last minute thoughts are very welcome.

Andy

 

[NewNetworkAdmin]

Hi all,

Just thought I should upgrade this post in case anyone else is interested...

The email server upgrade went surprisingly well! I did the following:

1) Backup all Exchange server databases and log files (this should really be done the night before as our 16GB email database and 13,500 log files - 82GB in total took anout 6 hours to copy across a 100Mbps network!!).

2) Remove the hard drives and replace with new ones.

3) Install Windows Server 2003 and patches and give the computer the same name and IP address as the old one but do not join the domain.

4) Delete the old copmuter account from Active Directory.

5) Join the domain.

6) Install Exchange 2000 with the /DisasterRecovery switch.

7) Install all Exchange 2000 service packs with the /DisasterRecovery switch.

8) Copy the databases and log files back again.

9) Do an in-place upgrade from Exchange 2000 to Exchange 2003.

10) Apply all Exchange Server 2003 patches.

There were a few tweaks along the way such as the Exchange 2003 CD didn't think that Exchange 2000 Service Pack 3 was installed so I had to re-install Service Pack 3 without the /DisasterRecovery switch. I also had to re-install the Active Directory connector before it would allow me to upgrade to Exchange Server 2003 because it was an old version.

All in all it went well and we are now running on Exchange Server 2003 on a Windows Server 2003 installation.

I hope this might help someone else in the future.

Andy

 

[58sniper]

Yikes. I hope you've backed things up so that those log files got flushed!

Pat Richard, MCSE(2) MCSA:Messaging, CNA(2)
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[markdmac]

I'm still trying to figure out how the heck you got Exchange 2000 to install on an Windows 2003 machien, that isn't supposed to be possible!

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

 

[NewNetworkAdmin]

markdmac, there were warnings about compatibility issues when I installed Exchange 2000 as well as when I installed Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2003 SP1. I ignored these as I didn't really intend for any of these to actually run. They were a means to an end - the end being Exchange 2003 SP2.

58sniper, Can you explain what you mean? Our exchange mailboxes are backed up nightly by ArcServe but I'm not sure why the log files would be flushed or why you would necessarily want them flushed (unless doing this again!!). To be honest, I don't really know what the logs here are used for. Any explanation welcome.

Thanks for your input guys

Andy

 

[markdmac]

Transaction logs are used for replaying messages that have not been commited to the database. If you do a full backup then the messages are commited and the logs are no longer used. You would want to delete them as they can fill a hard drive quickly and are not needed once the messages have been committed.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

 

[NewNetworkAdmin]

Thanks for the explanation Mark. When you say "If you do a full backup then the messages are commited and the logs are no longer used" I presume that this backup would be an internal Exchange backup? i.e. When ArcServe has backed up the mailboxes, Exchange won't necessarily know that this has happened and therfore won't purge the logs.

How would you do a backup that would purge the logs. I know this sounds like a question that I really should know but as we use ArcServe with no problems, I've never needed to find out.

 

[markdmac]

I assume that similar to veritas you need to have an Exchange add in for your Arcserve. Otherwise have NTBackup backup the store to a file and back that file up with your Arcserve while excluding the Exchange files themselves within Arcserve to minimize the storage hit.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

 

[NewNetworkAdmin]

Mark,

Sorry for the confusion - we do have an Exchange add in that allows ArcServe to back up each mailbox - and restore it etc. It seems that Arcserve doesn't purge the logs when its finished backing up. This is obviously an ArcServe issue and something I would need to ask them about.

Thanks for all your helpful posts - have a star.

Andy

 

[markdmac]

Yes, as long as you are doing a backup of the Exchange Information Store (and not individual mailboxes) then it should clear the logs.



I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

 

[NewNetworkAdmin]

Mark,

That could be it. When backing up we do a brick level backup of the mailboxes not the Information Store.

Andy

 

[markdmac]

With 2003 there is little need to do that. Exchange Backup is for Disaster Recovery, not the recovery of the occasionally deleted email.

Rethink how you approach Exchange. If you accidentally delete a user you can relink the mailbox to a new user. If a user accidentally (permanantly) deletes mail they can use the Recover Deleted Items option to pull them back.

For doing the Recover Deleted Items I recommend you use the Dumpster Always On option in Outlook to ensure mail deleted from any folder (not just deleted items) is available.

I wrote a script to set that up.

'==========================================================================
'
' NAME: DumpsterAlwaysOn.vbs
'
' AUTHOR: Mark D. MacLachlan , The Spider's Parlor
' URL: [URL unfurl="true"]http://www.TheSpidersParlor.com[/URL]
' COPYRIGHT (c) 2005 All Rights Reserved
' DATE  : 10/12/2005
'
' COMMENT: This script and more are available in the Admin Script Pack 
'          [URL unfurl="true"]http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript[/URL]
'
'
'    THIS CODE AND INFORMATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF
'    ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED To
'    THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR FITNESS FOR A
'    PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
'
'    IN NO EVENT SHALL THE SPIDER'S PARLOR AND/OR ITS RESPECTIVE SUPPLIERS 
'    BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY
'    DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS,
'    WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS
'    ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE
'    OF THIS CODE OR INFORMATION.
'
'==========================================================================
on error resume next
Dim path
Set WSHShell = Wscript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
path = "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options\"

WSHShell.RegWrite path & "DumpsterAlwaysOn","1","REG_DWORD"

If err then
	msgbox "Error Encountered"
else
	msgbox "Dumpters Always On Setup Sucessful"
End if

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript