Forklift Upgrade - 4.5 to 2k3

An old friend/client has emerged from the woodwork, eager to spend year-end money on a new (but low-end) server. Good thing, since he's still running 4.5 SP6a. As I understand it, he's hardly using SBS as a server system at all, at this point. He (and his six employees) have stopped using Outlook. Their mail needs are simple, and satisfied at this point with separate POPmail accounts. Only a couple of old vertical apps remain, and I don't think these will be much problem to move over.

Five years ago, I removed dialup and FAX, took out one NIC, and put the server and the entire small ten-dot "domain" behind a SOHO router. What was left has given no problems since (or I would have heard). He backs up his datafiles manually with batchfiles, to a USB HD and to DVD on a workstation.

He's probably going to buy a low-end Dell, with SBS 2k3 and five extra CALs. What's crossing my mind is to completely bypass the approved method of migration, and just set up the new box at the IP of the old. I've never seen later SBS versions. You will sense from my questions a certain naiveté, and you'll be right. Time is of the essence here - my time and downtime. Any suggestions gratefully considered.

o Can I name the box the same, and expect things to work? The clients are 2k and XP machines, half DHCP, half fixed-IP, running that little client shim from 4.5 (forget the name - a floppy is produced, but I think that didn't work, and I had to manually install the shim.)

o There's no CAL upgrade price at this point, right? Dell wants $270-odd for five more seats.

o If this affects things, this network is wide open. There's one short password for everything, and everyone can snoop wherever he/she wants. Everyone's at high privs. He's depending totally on obscurity-through-NAT-router. Unwise, I know -- but there you have it. Can 2k3 run wide-open?

o Is there a provided way to make the new box DNS/PDC during setup, obviating the axe-murdering style of the above loony proposal? How long before he's up on the net? (The vertical apps can be down for a day while he and I reinstall and fiddle.)

.

Relevant Pages

  • RE: Cannot access companyweb
    ... to migrate from SBS 2003 to SBS2003, in this period, you can't achieve this ... 825763 How to configure Internet access in Windows Small Business Server ... By this method, you need to manually restore Exchange data, SharePoint ... Another way is to create a local profile, ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: R2 w/ISA User type account cannot use my companys internal website
    ... Alerts\Core Server Alerts ... Microsoft CSS Online Newsgroup Support ... And our product group is still reviewing the impact of the upgrade SBS ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • RE: Disaster Recovery
    ... Windows OS not only SBS. ... SBS 2003 server backup, the system state will be archived. ... If you restore the system state to a different hardware, ... Use Outlook to export the contents in the public folders to .pst files ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • RE: upgrade windows 2000 server to sbs2k3
    ... Server (SBS) 2003-based computer in an existing domain. ... an existing SBS 2000 or SBS 2003 domain controller for migration purposes. ... To install a SBS 2003 computer in an existing Active Directory domain, ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: Some Questions
    ... your SBS server to the remote POP3 server. ... if it is a POP3 connector issue or a network issue. ... Logon to one of the client workstations in the SBS network. ... = e = Restart the Microsoft Connector for POP3 Mailboxes. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)