Replacing 2 PCs in an Existing Network (SBS2003)

Avathar77 · 27 Jan 2012 at 10:47

There are 12 OLD PCs(Windows 7) in the network with a server running Small Business Server 2003 R2.
Have to replace 2 of them at a time with new PCs(Windows7).

Have to keep the same user accounts and settings in those new PCs as the OLD ones do.

I want to check if there is a specific way of doing this?

sidethink · 27 Jan 2012 at 12:37

IIRC SBS2003 has a Connect PC Wizard. Once you attach the new PC to the network and boot up you browse a web page on the server and it steps you through a migration and joins you to the domain. ( http://connect/ )

I would advise testing this obviously to make sure it meets your requirements.

Avathar77 · 28 Jan 2012 at 01:20

Is that "http://(servernamehere)/connectcomputer"?

bremen1874 · 28 Jan 2012 at 02:04

Doesn’t the SBS2003 connection wizard install client software that doesn’t play well with Windows 7 UAC? I’ve added the last few Windows 7 machines to the SBS2003 domain I deal with manually to avoid this.

The connection wizard isn’t going to migrate any settings from existing client machines anyway. It does have options for migrating existing local user account data to user domain accounts, but that’s not going to help in this case.

Is the user data redirected to the server, and are you using group policy for the client configuration?

Avathar77 · 28 Jan 2012 at 11:34

bremen1874 said:
Doesn’t the SBS2003 connection wizard install client software that doesn’t play well with Windows 7 UAC? I’ve added the last few Windows 7 machines to the SBS2003 domain I deal with manually to avoid this.

The connection wizard isn’t going to migrate any settings from existing client machines anyway. It does have options for migrating existing local user account data to user domain accounts, but that’s not going to help in this case.

Is the user data redirected to the server, and are you using group policy for the client configuration?

User data is is going to be redirected in the new PCs, group policy has been already applied.

How do you manually add PCs to SBS2003?

bremen1874 · 28 Jan 2012 at 16:54

Sorry, I was getting myself confused about SBS2003 connection wizard and Windows 7. There’s no longer any need to manually add PCs to the domain.

There is a minor issue that causes a UAC prompt during every logon. By default there’s login script (SBS_LOGIN_SCRIPT.bat) configured in every user profile which calls a setup.exe that triggers the UAC. As you’re already using Windows 7 PCs on the domain one of the workarounds must be in place.