Re: Migrate SBS 20 Backup Server and Back

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From: Jeff Middleton [SBS-MVP] (jeff_at_cfisolutions.com)
Date: 02/20/04 

Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 18:47:19 -0600

Hi Ken,

My initial advice is that the process you describe is fine to the level of
detail you described, but the level of complexity in reality is the sort of
thing I don't ever recommend to someone to try if you only plan to do it
this once. This is open heart surgery and you shouldn't try to be the
surgeon and patient for just one time at the same time. For someone who is
very good at this, you are describing probably a 8-12 hr process, depending
upon factors not really covered in your outline. I've heard folks say this
took them 3 days. If you aren't really good at this, you may find yourself
midstream on the rocks.

The exmerge step isn't required if you aren't trying to actually do any
cleanup to the mailboxes like purging them in this process. What will happen
is that the exmerge process will break all the single instance storage of
emails between users. That means that an email from Bob sent to Ted will no
longer be stored as one email, with a reference to both accounts, it will be
two emails. It may not be a crisis, but exploding this stuff just to punch
it right back in makes little sense unless you are parsing things out. For
instance, I plan to clean my own Exchange out soon with Exmerge in my
mailbox because I have a huge volume of spam I intend to clear, but I've
been evolving Outlook rules to whitelist and clean up things. Once I move
things to safe location, I will dump about 80% of my mailbox contents.

If you reinstall the SBS with the very same name, you can simply restore the
Exchange directly.

The swapping of the DC roles and such will involve more than just casual
playing in places you don't normally touch.

Me, personally, I don't see that your partition sizes are a crisis. In fact,
I would be inclined to put them back almost the same....maybe 10 or 12 G on
the first partition, but that's about it.

"Ken Sadler" <ksadler@dstincorporated.com_NO_SPAM_> wrote in message
news:Xns9493C57087C63ksadlerdstincorporat@207.46.248.16...
> Ok, here's scenario...we've got a PowerEdge
> 2500 that is running SBS/Exch2k/SQL/CRM (or should I say
> CRM is installed, because it really isn't "running"
> ...but that's another story) and provides services for
> about 20 users. Disk setup is:
> 2/36GB (mirrored) C-8GB/D-28GB
> 1/36GB E-User Data/Exchange (yes, I know that's very
> bad...but I am waiting on more drives and I do daily
> backups)
>
> I ordered 3 more 36GB drives so I can add it to the 3rd
> drive and configure it RAID5. So I says to myself..."This
> would be a great opportunity to reconfig the server with a
> better partition scheme, enable some of the nifty
> functions SBS has, and wipe away 2 years of
> install/uninstall software, etc."
>
> I am not an SBS person by trade, so this is a real
> learning experience for me, but I have been looking
> through the groups pretty heavily and I think I've got my
> plan:
>
> .5 - Backups
> 1 - Install vanilla 2k server on old wks box
> 2 - Join domain and dcpromo backup server
> 3 - EXMERGE mailboxes
> 4 - Copy User Data/Shared Data/.PST files to backup server
> 5 - dcpromo SBS box out and disconnect
> 6 - Seize FSMO roles with backup server and remove all
> traces of SBS box from AD
> 7 - Install/Config exchange and import mailboxes back
> 8 - Repeat steps 1-7 with reconfiged SBS box
>
> Does that about cover everything? Any hidden gotchas?
>
> 2 questions I have are:
>
> 1 - The domain is currently named "domain.com" and I would
> like to rename it "domain.local" When is the best time to
> do that, after siezing FSMO roles, before installing
> exchange?
>
> 2 - The backup server is a PII/450 with 384MB/ECC and 96GB
> of harddrive space over 2 IDE drives. I plan on doing the
> transfer work over the weekend so as to minimize any load
> on the server (it will basically just need to sit there
> and accept email)...shouldn't it be able to handle the
> load?
>
> Any advice or recommendations are welcome.
>
> Cheers,
> Ken

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