HELP! server migration

Cooners

Cooners

Cooners

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Joined
15 Dec 2003
Posts
396
Hi

I'm in a bit of a panic, my boss wants me to migrate an old Server 2008 to the new server 2012 we've put in on Tuesday, the server is all in place and we are going to do this remotely from our office. I've never done this before, can somebody please give me an idiots guide to doing this as it''s in a school and I really don't want to **** it up, if possible please avoid powershell as I hate that thing with a passion, I'll learn it soon but this is my first real IT job and I just haven't got time to sit down and learn what seems like a giant backwards step right down.

Many Thanks
 
If it's going to be on a domain, and you don't want to use Powershell at all, then good luck with that.

Summary:

- Back up everything
- See what the 2008 Server does.
- Make the 2012 Server do each thing, without breaking any thing.
- Turn off or disconnect the 2008 Server.
- See what breaks (i.e. test everything), then fix it.

Easy.
 
Last edited:
Ok I've just nipped on and had a look at what roles and features it is running:
AD DS
DHCP
DNS
File Services

If I have to use power shell then so be it, sooner or later I'm going to up up against a core installation anyway so might as well get used to it, was just hoping to avoid this time as it's my first one and wanted to stick to what I knew (GUI).

Many Thanks
 
Cooners said:
Ok I've just nipped on and had a look at what roles and features it is running:
AD DS
DHCP
DNS
File Services

If I have to use power shell then so be it, sooner or later I'm going to up up against a core installation anyway so might as well get used to it, was just hoping to avoid this time as it's my first one and wanted to stick to what I knew (GUI).

Many Thanks
Click to expand...

Easy peasy without any powershell required :)

There's guides on the net you can search for for this entire task to be honest.

and if you do want to use server core then there's looooooads of guides for that which will take you through it all step by step. Best off using the GUI first time around though :)
 
Assuming there is more than just one server, check what server holds the FSMO roles and migrate them if necessary. Have you already added the 2012 server to the domain, installed AD DS and extended the AD schema etc?

If you are moving files then beware of anything which had referenced UNC paths on that server once it's decom'ed.
 
NightShadow said:
extended the AD schema etc.
Click to expand...

Interesting fact: none of the other server OS's in the past did it previously but 2012 will actually update the schema for you during the promotion of your first 2012 DC if you haven't already done it :) (obviously you can still do it manually though if you wish)
 
Ok thanks for the help. I just tested everything on my home server and all seems good, there were just so many guides up there and I was worried I would miss something. It's extra worrying as we have no access to the building until the school reopens so the first chance I'll get to test anything will be once there open again!
 
Just to let you all know, I've finished this up today and like you guys said it was quite easy barring the file migration which turned into a pig after file migration toolkit and robocopy BOTH refused to copy the files, until I ran robocopy from the source server then all was good. Gave it a test run on a VM I set up (no access to the laptops the school uses this week) and everything seems to be good so I just wanted to say thank you for the help :)
 
Just curious, but was the reason/business requirement behind the need to upgrade from Server 2008 to Server 2012 in your case?
 
It was a school, they got some much needed funds for new hardware including a new server, we were going to install 2008 r2 but when we logged onto there volume licencing account they had a key for server 2012 so we decided to use that instead.
 
Cooners said:
It was a school, they got some much needed funds for new hardware including a new server, we were going to install 2008 r2 but when we logged onto there volume licencing account they had a key for server 2012 so we decided to use that instead.
Click to expand...

Depending on which VL programme they are on, that might just mean that you'll need to pay MS at the end of the year for it...
 
I know everyone one has to learn at some point, but your boss shouldn't be asking you to do jobs that your under qualified to do without guidance or help. Especially if there is user data involved.
 
Oh don't get me wrong he hasn't totally left me to it, if I get stuck I can ask for his help and I run most things by him before I do it if i'm not 100% but I'm trying not to constantly be asking for help and sometimes I just lack a bit of convidence talking to you guys about it helps me out. Anyway it's all done now and I'm feeling confident I can do this in the future with no hassle. Like I said the 2012 thing was just because thats what they had a licence for.
 
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