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We're upgrading our fileserver running on Windows 2008 R2 Standard, and it's part of a Windows 2008 Domain. We would like to migrate the files over retaining all the permission and later reuse the same hostname, it's essentially a swap of hardware so it remains transparent to the users.

Our plan was to setup fileserver2 then copy the files & folders over using robocopy and then remove fileserver1 from the AD and rename fileserver2 to fileserver1. Is there anything to watch out for?

We tried to search for ways to rename the server but we only find renaming of domains. If there's a good article on this it would be helpful.

EDIT: I'm also considering swapping the server hostname, to keep the old server around for a while. The IP is also swapped, since some guys access it via IP instead of hostname.

faulty
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2 Answers2

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There is a relatively easy way to handle this in the future, but it will require some legwork now.

  1. Configure a DFS Namespace for your environment. You'll access your file server(s) through this using a path similar in format to \\domain.com\shares. This creates a static namespace that you can put one or more file servers behind.

  2. Use DFS-R (replication) to create a replication group between your old server and new server. This will replicate all files and permissions between the servers.

  3. Publish your replication group's shares to the DFS namespace you created in step 1.

  4. Configure your drive mappings, GPOs, etc to point at the namespace.

  5. Remove the old server from the replication group so you're left with a single server behind the namespace.

The advantage to using a DFS Namespace even for a single file server is that you don't have to ever fiddle with share paths again when you upgrade, move, migrate, or rename file servers.

Alternatively, Microsoft offers the File Server Migration Toolkit for this.

You can also use the built-in Send-SmigServerData and Receive-SmigServerData if you're all 2008 R2 or later.

MDMarra
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Not really. Generally, the problem people tend to run into is around permissions and shares, and just not remembering to set them all up again on the new server, or not setting them up the same way. Getting the details wrong, really. Your proposed plan sounds like it's likely to lead to that, and you need to be aware that NTFS handles permissions... not the way you'd expect when copying and moving files. This is going to be an issue if you just robocopy the files over.

Given that, my suggestion would be to use one of the Microsoft tools to do your migration for you. I think the appropriate tool for your situation would be the Microsoft File Server Migration Toolkit 1.2. If I were doing this, I'd migrate to a new hostname (call it fileserevr2, or whatever), and then handle making it transparent to the end users with a DNS alias setting oldfileservername as an alias of fileserver2, so users accessing the old file name get redirected to the new fileserver in the background.

This approach also has the advantage of keeping both servers around during the migration, so if something goes wrong you can quickly abort, and let the users keep using the old fileserver while you analyze what went wrong.

HopelessN00b
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  • Does the DNS trick work? I have memories of clients not liking this because of the mismatch but I may be remembering wrong. – Dan Feb 13 '14 at 13:31
  • @Dan I haven't had problems with it since the Windows 2000 and NT 4 days... and what didn't cause problems back then? I also can't say I've used DNS aliases extensively, so it couldn't hurt to hear from someone with more experience using DNS aliases in a Windows domain. Either way, best to test things first, and testing's going to be hard to pull off if he replaces the fileserver by cutting over to a new one with the same hostname. – HopelessN00b Feb 13 '14 at 13:35
  • @Dan if you're having XP Clients in your Environment then you have to either rename your old Fileserver or remove it from your Domain. They won't be able to resolve the ALIAS as long as there is a valid Computer Object targeting your old Server. I had this problem in past (fileserver was a NetApp), took me several days to figure it out. – Becks TibiaFun Feb 13 '14 at 14:03
  • @BecksTibiaFun it sounds like that's the plan - OP is going to move the files to a new fileserver and remove the old one... we're just wondering if putting a the DNS alias in will cause any problems for the clients. As I said, I haven't experienced any since the bad old days of Windows 2000, but that doesn't exclude the possibility... – HopelessN00b Feb 13 '14 at 14:28
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    I agree with this answer, the only thing i would add, is watch out for local users / groups. I started at a new company and they had a mixture of local / domain groups. – Eric C. Singer Feb 13 '14 at 14:49
  • @HopelessN00b thanks for the answer. I'll checkout the migration tools. I was looking to do a cut over or a swap of hostname, like you suggested to keep the old one around. It's going to be done during non working hours. Btw, AFAIK `robocopy` has option to copy permission and though I've only tested locally, not across machine. – faulty Feb 14 '14 at 01:48
  • @HopelessN00b you answer and @MDMarra are both valid, but since I end up using `Send-SmigServerData` and `Receive-SmigServerData` to transfer the file, I'm marking the latter as answer. No offence :) – faulty Feb 14 '14 at 05:26
  • @HopelessN00b As I said, a DNS Alias shouldn't cause any problem as long as you delete the Active Directory Computer Object of your old filer that has the same name as your Alias. Windows 7 can handle this without problems but Windows XP won't agree with this. – Becks TibiaFun Feb 14 '14 at 08:13