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Windows 2008 R2 Server Migration to new Hardware

Tags:
  • Hardware
  • Windows Server 2008
  • Business Computing
  • Servers
Last response: in Business Computing
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November 18, 2013 2:33:50 PM

I have a server that is in need of an upgrade and I am unsure how to migrate the server to new hardware (CPU, Motherboard and Memory). It would be easier to migrate/move the server instead of a new install because of some of the roles this server does.

Roles: DHCP Server, DNS Server, Active Directory Domain Services, File Services, Print and Document Services

The server runs two RAID 1 arrays (1 for system drive and 1 for data storage) using the onboard Intel ICH7R SATA RAID (Core 2 Era board). The data storage uses DFS to copy the information to two other buildings within our network to create another level of redundancy.

Question: What would be the easiest way to migrate/move this server to the new hardware without having to reinstall Windows 2008 R2? The new motherboard will be based on the Intel C204 chipset and will also use the onboard SATA RAID. This solution does not have to be done immediately but would need to fit in a days’ time since that is all the downtime I can have.

More about : windows 2008 server migration hardware

November 18, 2013 4:44:26 PM

Vastly simplified version: Install the OS and configure the new server as a backup domain controller, transfer the roles and data from the old server, and if the old server was the primary DC, promote the new one and demote the old one to member server before decommissioning.
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November 18, 2013 5:09:14 PM

There are two options that I see here. The first would be following the steps as described above by Ex_Bubblehead. Install a fresh installation, set up and install all the roles, join to the domain, promote to domain controller, demote the old server, etc. It's a lot of work, but it can be done that route.

The other option would be to utilize some form of system imaging software that is hardware agnostic. This means it creates a system image which can be recovered to dissimilar hardware. I don't know of any free software like this, only paid options. But ideally I'd suggest finding some software that can convert your physical system to a virtual system. Don't run all those directly on the hardware, because you run into this exact same issue if you choose to upgrade again in the future, or have to replace out hardware due to failure. Leverage the advantages of virtualization and convert your current system into a virtual machine, run that within Windows Server Hyper-V. Your licensing should already include the ability to run one Windows VM within Hyper-V so you don't need to purchase any additional licensing for that part.

If you want to try it beforehand, you can always convert your physical to virtual to a .VHD file, and then create a Hyper-V virtual machine on any computer running Windows 8 Pro or download a trial of Windows Server 2012 for running Hyper-V as a trial to see if everything spins up and runs good.
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November 19, 2013 11:25:40 AM

choucove said:
There are two options that I see here. The first would be following the steps as described above by Ex_Bubblehead. Install a fresh installation, set up and install all the roles, join to the domain, promote to domain controller, demote the old server, etc. It's a lot of work, but it can be done that route.

The other option would be to utilize some form of system imaging software that is hardware agnostic. This means it creates a system image which can be recovered to dissimilar hardware. I don't know of any free software like this, only paid options. But ideally I'd suggest finding some software that can convert your physical system to a virtual system. Don't run all those directly on the hardware, because you run into this exact same issue if you choose to upgrade again in the future, or have to replace out hardware due to failure. Leverage the advantages of virtualization and convert your current system into a virtual machine, run that within Windows Server Hyper-V. Your licensing should already include the ability to run one Windows VM within Hyper-V so you don't need to purchase any additional licensing for that part.

If you want to try it beforehand, you can always convert your physical to virtual to a .VHD file, and then create a Hyper-V virtual machine on any computer running Windows 8 Pro or download a trial of Windows Server 2012 for running Hyper-V as a trial to see if everything spins up and runs good.


You can't create an image of the domain controller and bring it back like that. It will hose everything up.
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November 19, 2013 11:32:30 AM

Lowdown said:
I have a server that is in need of an upgrade and I am unsure how to migrate the server to new hardware (CPU, Motherboard and Memory). It would be easier to migrate/move the server instead of a new install because of some of the roles this server does.

Roles: DHCP Server, DNS Server, Active Directory Domain Services, File Services, Print and Document Services

The server runs two RAID 1 arrays (1 for system drive and 1 for data storage) using the onboard Intel ICH7R SATA RAID (Core 2 Era board). The data storage uses DFS to copy the information to two other buildings within our network to create another level of redundancy.

Question: What would be the easiest way to migrate/move this server to the new hardware without having to reinstall Windows 2008 R2? The new motherboard will be based on the Intel C204 chipset and will also use the onboard SATA RAID. This solution does not have to be done immediately but would need to fit in a days’ time since that is all the downtime I can have.


With different hardware you're pretty much out of luck. The best way of doing this is to stand up a new server, join it to the domain, add all the roles/features you need and migrate settings from the old server to the new server.

If you are familiar with clustering, you could create a cluster for the file shares and let that handle migrating everything over for you.

In your case, a single node cluster would be ideal in many cases. Since you are only upgrading to Win2k8R2, you won't get a lot of the benefits that Win12/R2 offers for these core services.

DFS/r Distributed File System would make managing your file server much easier in case the name changes and new hardware.

I would highly recommend putting some thought into this and bouncing questions around prior to making your upgrade. It may be worthwhile to keep your old hardware around running the domain controller and use the new hardware for all your other services (file server), or make them both domain controllers if needed.

What you want to avoid is the headache of a future upgrade and/or expanding the environment. You want to future-proof yourself and if you take advantage of a lot of the technologies inherit to Windows Server, you can make future upgrades seamless.

DFS for file servers.
Win12 Server for DHCP clustering
Clustering for File Server/Printer Management

DNS will be easy because when you promote your new hardware to a domain controller and install DNS, it will replicate DNS over for you.

From there, you will use DCPromo to demote the 'old' domain controller to a member server and if you want, remove it from the domain. Either way, you will still need to use NTDSUtil to remove the DC artifact from AD after the demote.

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November 19, 2013 2:13:12 PM

riser said:
choucove said:
There are two options that I see here. The first would be following the steps as described above by Ex_Bubblehead. Install a fresh installation, set up and install all the roles, join to the domain, promote to domain controller, demote the old server, etc. It's a lot of work, but it can be done that route.

The other option would be to utilize some form of system imaging software that is hardware agnostic. This means it creates a system image which can be recovered to dissimilar hardware. I don't know of any free software like this, only paid options. But ideally I'd suggest finding some software that can convert your physical system to a virtual system. Don't run all those directly on the hardware, because you run into this exact same issue if you choose to upgrade again in the future, or have to replace out hardware due to failure. Leverage the advantages of virtualization and convert your current system into a virtual machine, run that within Windows Server Hyper-V. Your licensing should already include the ability to run one Windows VM within Hyper-V so you don't need to purchase any additional licensing for that part.

If you want to try it beforehand, you can always convert your physical to virtual to a .VHD file, and then create a Hyper-V virtual machine on any computer running Windows 8 Pro or download a trial of Windows Server 2012 for running Hyper-V as a trial to see if everything spins up and runs good.


You can't create an image of the domain controller and bring it back like that. It will hose everything up.


I apologize, I didn't realize that cloning a system from physical to separate physical hardware (utilizing the proper software) would cause the domain services to not function properly. Mainly because I've done it. Sure it's a nightmare - and one of the big reasons why I recommend virtualizing - but it worked for when we did it. Granted, that was just once, and it was a small domain network, but hopefully that's not really the option anyone wishes to use. Perhaps in this specific scenario it wouldn't work. I would suggest trying to do a Physical to Virtual conversion of the system to create a new virtual machine before I would recommend trying to do a clone to dissimilar hardware. Even then I'd probably say the best bet would be to set up the new server, install all the necessary roles, join to the domain, migrate, etc.
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