Upgrading Domain Controller -- 32 bit Win Server 2003 to 64 bit Win Server 2008

phuschnickensphuschnickens Beverly Hills, Michigan Member
edited November 2011 in Science & Tech
Researching for a possible OS upgrade of our DC which is currently running Win Server 2003 32 bit. Looking at upgrading to 64 bit Win Server 2008 R2. I'm aware that this will involve a clean install but I'm a little baffled how to go about this since this is to be an in place upgrade (no new hardware). I've done a migration of a DC once from one box to another but don't have a clue how to do that without having two different servers booted at the same time.

I'm sure this is documented somewhere, just having trouble finding it. Can anyone lend a hand?

Thanks in advance!

Comments

  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited November 2011
    Having been in your shoes a couple times. This is the ways I've done it in the past.

    The first time I did it I just deleted the server and recreated a brand new one with the same domain, recreated all the users etc... Fortunately it was a small shop, only about 20 users and nothing really complicated - but that was about 8 years ago when in general systems were less complicated.

    The second time I did this. I took a spare computer that we had and installed windows 2008 hypervisor on it (but vmware works just as well). Then I converted the physical server to a virtual server running on that spare computer.

    Next I did the clean install and configuration of the OS on the existing server. Then added it to the domain, prepped it promoted it and demoted the old one and removed it. Then it's a matter of rebooting all the machines in the network to make sure they are finding and connecting to the new DC.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    kryyst wrote:
    The second time I did this. I took a spare computer that we had and installed windows 2008 hypervisor on it (but vmware works just as well). Then I converted the physical server to a virtual server running on that spare computer.

    Next I did the clean install and configuration of the OS on the existing server. Then added it to the domain, prepped it promoted it and demoted the old one and removed it. Then it's a matter of rebooting all the machines in the network to make sure they are finding and connecting to the new DC.

    This is what I would do and lies well within best practices.
  • phuschnickensphuschnickens Beverly Hills, Michigan Member
    edited November 2011
    kryyst wrote:
    Then I converted the physical server to a virtual server running on that spare computer.

    Okay cool. Sounds simple enough. Do you mind explaining this part a little more? Assuming I use VMWare, which VMWare product do I need? I'm guessing it's some sort of bare metal virtualization type software. I'm also guessing that the process of converting the physical server to a virtual server involves imaging the physical server with VM (do I need VM installed on the physical server?) then getting that image on to the spare computer with the virtualization software running?

    Am I on the right track?

    Thanks guys. Happy T day.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited November 2011
    You are on the right track. The key element though is that the second computer has to support virtualization at the hardware layer (most newer computers support this in the chipset) for either vmware esxi or windows 2008 hypervisor to work.

    Going the vmware route
    http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere-hypervisor/overview.html
    http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/

    You don't need to install anything on the source machine, that is done as part of the conversion process.

    That's all the software you need. Install vmware esxi get it up and running. Then on say your computer you run the p2v converter the source being the dc server and the target being the esxi box. Run it (takes awhile) and when it's finished. You should be able to log onto the VM'd server through RDP. Then you will need to play around with the network adapters to set it back to the old server's IP - make sure the old server is powered off at this point. You should be able to then reboot a computer and ping the old server which is now running in the VM.
  • phuschnickensphuschnickens Beverly Hills, Michigan Member
    edited November 2011
    Okay, I'm actually in the process of converting the server using VMWare Workstation on to a slave drive. I was planning on moving the slave drive to a spare pc which is running XP then using another installation of VMWare workstation to boot the VM'd server and go from there. I figured if I could just set the static IP of the original physical server I'd be all set. Sounds like I actually need ESXI or Windows Hypervisor to make things work, though. Also, the spare is just an old box I have laying around from approximately 2005 so I'm not very confident that the chipset will support virtualization at the hardware layer.

    Just to confirm, my current plan of migrating via VMWare Workstation is a no go, right?
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited November 2011
    Vmware workstation can run the image. It's whether or not all the supporting software can handle it. Though it'll be taking a big performance hit since it's not running bare metal. Also you could run into a weird situation where the machine is booted first before the DC is live then booting the DC. It could create some weird authentication issues potentially.

    Also - and I was just thinking of this. If your DC box is also your DHCP server you need to make sure that whatever hardware it's running on is also a static IP in the right subnet.
  • phuschnickensphuschnickens Beverly Hills, Michigan Member
    edited November 2011
    Funny story (it's actually not that funny at all):

    I was looking up specs on every computer I have in my possession or have access to to find one that supports virtualization. PC1 - no, PC2 - no, PC3 - no... I was about to give in when I realized that I have a computer at my old house (moved a 6 months ago but still in the process of moving my stuff) that I haven't used in a year or two. So I looked up the specs... PC4 - yes! I decided that using PC4 I would be able to run esxi and solve the worlds problems. And then I realized that since this box has been sitting for a couple years and has a better CPU, BIOS options I want, RAID support, 2 large hard drives, etc etc... Basically I'm just going to be doing the standard transfer from one box to another... no VM needed.

    Sorry to put you through the cycles but I imagine someone with my former challenge will stumble on this thread at some point and benefit.

    Thanks again kryyst for helping once again.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited November 2011
    Glad you got it sorted out in the end even if you didn't have to do the whole VM route. I'd suggest you do Raid 1. You want reliable redundancy over i/o on a DC box. Couple settings you may want to consider, again general stuff since I don't know your environment.

    But in the bios make sure that you set the power options to stay off after a power failure and not return to last state. Then rely on a UPS to keep it up. But what you don't ever want to run into on a DC (well any computer in general but DC/Exchange in particular) is a situation where a power failure event causes the DC to lose power, then come back on and then lose power again before rebooting. That can trash an OS in general. But in a DC it can completely confuse your environment.
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