Upgrading Domain Controller -- 32 bit Win Server 2003 to 64 bit Win Server 2008
phuschnickens
Beverly Hills, Michigan Member
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!
I'm sure this is documented somewhere, just having trouble finding it. Can anyone lend a hand?
Thanks in advance!
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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.
This is what I would do and lies well within best practices.
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.
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.
Just to confirm, my current plan of migrating via VMWare Workstation is a no go, right?
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.
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.
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.