upgrading from NT4 to 2003

[Sisco22]

Hey everyone. What is the best way to upgrade from NT4 to 2003? I have an old server that we are currently using now, and i just built a new server to put 2003 on. What would be the best way to do this?

 

[Seaspray0]

Read the help files located in the server 2003. There is also a deployment guide on the CD in the extra folder. It will list several methods on upgrading to 2003 and provides step by step instructions. It also lists steps you should take should you be running exchange or RAS. If you wish to maintain the integrity of your domain, I would suggest putting NT server on the new machine as a BDC, upgrade its role to PDC, then upgrade to 2003 on the new machine.

A+/MCP/MCSE/MCDBA

 

[lifegard2]

I found this page to be VERY helpful:

http://www.networkclue.com/os/Windows/server/nt-2003-migration.aspx.

I used it about a week or two ago to go from NT to 2003.

Essentially, build a old PC up as an NT BDC, promote it to a PDC, remove it from the network, and run an in-place upgrade on it. If everything goes bad, you can just promote your old PDC (now a BDC) back to a PDC and no harm no foul.

The article is pretty high-level, for more detailed instructions on an in-place upgrade, Microsoft's site has plenty of data and whitepapers available.

One thing to note, if you are upgrading Exchange to 2003, make sure your hard drives can handle it. I goofed and put Exchange 2003 on a SATA RAID. The RAID couldn't do disk writes fast enough to keep up. If this applies to you, check out Google for "IOPS" and "Exchange 2003".