Best way to replace a physical server

stoofa

stoofa

stoofa

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Bad title - but let me explain further.
We have a rather old file server that needs replacing (Server 2008). It's no longer under warranty and houses a vast percentage of the company's data.
Let's just call this machine "server1".
We effectively need to setup a new server and get all of the data copied across to it and then rename the server so that the new one is also called "server1".
There is a lot of data to copy and permissions need to be retained.

Speaking to my Linux administrator he tells me there is something called "Rsync" that would allow me to in effect sync up the data over the 2 servers over a period of time. Then I'd choose a cut-off time, down the old server, rename the new one and off we go.
Does anything similar exist for the Windows world to make sure that permissions are retained?
Any suggestions on the fight tools for this job?

Cheers.
 
Do you not have a backup that you could restore that would also restore permissions?

Also, does it do any tasks such as Active directory, DNS, DHCP Etc?
 
Yep robocopy under windows will sort you out, assuming you are going to be putting a windows based OS on it

Edit: before deciding you need a server with disks attached to it, consider if you will need any other functionality (depending on your setup) - remote access/incremental syncing etc..

Would a nas be more suitable than a normal server?
 
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As others have said, robocopy will do the job.
What is the impact to the company if the existing server dies and its down for two days while you source hardware?

You should put in two servers and run dfs on them.
 
I've used Beyond Compare 3 for similar exercises, tick the keep NTFS permissions box and you're sorted.
 
MS have a free tool called the File Server Migration Toolkit.

You configure the job and it will do an initial background copy (so you can do this during business hour if it doesn't kill performance). Then you finalise the job, which turns off the old file share(s) and copies any files which have been updated (so out of hours).

Then you just need to update drive mappings as needed eg manually / login script / GPO.

There's a nice walk through here
 
Thanks for the posts - just a little update.
Current server is 2008, will be using 2012/R2 on the new one.
Current server is physical, the new server will be virtual (this will actually have its storage on a SAN.
Will look at the options given - ta.
 
Another vote for file server migration tool. It will do everything you want it to do painlessly. If you have a lot of data to transfer you can stage it first, so that the impact on performance is minimal.

Edit: if you're virtualising it is even easier. Make sure the server partition is on a separate vmdk/vhd when you convert it. Export the shares, build a new server with just c drive, attach the data disks to the new server, join it to the domain with the old server name/ip, and simply import the shares. Should take no more than an hour from install to completion.
 
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I guess you could also use DFSR to migrate it to the new server. You could then move users to point to the DFS links which will future proof yourself for hardware/server migration in the future or decide to an additional fileserver.
 
What you want to do while this process is going on is to create a CNAME such as FS01 pointing to Server and repoint everyone's drive mappings to that, so when you are ready to go with Server 2, change the CNAME over.

This way down the line gives you much more flexibility on drive shares, migrations etc
 
Other than files shares is there any other particular reason why you want to keep the same server name?

Migrating the CA over normally requires the same name to be used unless you start from scratch. DFS is probably the best root and especially when upgrading makes life so much easier later on.
 
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