Re: Anyone done the SBS Migration - would be interested in starting a thread to discuss
- From: "Jeff Middleton [SBS-MVP]" <jeff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 16:41:01 -0500
Leythos,
Most people who know me know that I prioritize project support before I
think of product marketing, and that I'm not really big into trying very
hard to market Swing Migration by that comparison. I believe in the word of
success of others as how the message gets out, and that's why I'm generally
content to let Goggle provide the testimonials and word of mouth.
However, you are among those who is frequent in this group, both aware of my
work and in frequent contact with people (many posting on this thread) who
provide their opinions freely all the time here. I am humbled day after day
by the public endorsements of this concept simply because it is something
people genuinely want to talk about. People who use swing enjoy the process
more, they take on jobs they would otherwise pass.
Week after week I know there's someone here answering a post and encouraging
people to try this out and if it was something that went horribly wrong on a
regular basis, that too would be posted. Everytime anyone points a friend or
a visitor to "go see Jeff", I feel the growth in responsibility to not let
them down, not anyone....not the guy asking the question for their next
project, and not the folks endorsing the idea to try Swing Migration. I'm on
the hook for everyone who puts their word behind a recommendation. There's a
lot of people I would have to apologize to if I don't do the best job I can
with each and every person who comes to me, because there's an awful lot of
people who take the time to pass along the suggestion. I never forget this,
I can't.
So I heard about this thread and I decided to pull out one of my favorite
customer emails from the first couple months after I started
SBSmigration.com and share it. This was a private email, so you wouldn't
otherwise find it.
The thing I like so much about this story from Joe Ruskey is that he took a
big chance on the process I was offering and in that project, he took Swing
Migration to an entirely higher level. He did a job I wouldn't have
"marketed" to anyone. That's the point. It's a great story because it really
is much more about his success than it is about what I have done. I believe
in the Joe Ruskeys of the world, all of those guys who can really accomplish
much bigger ideas with a spark and inspiration. Joe's job was much larger
than anything I really thought about at that time, but he proved the
principles were sound, and he did a first class job for a new customer. I
suspect that Joe is like me and he won't forget this project either.
I'll leave it to Joe to explain, you will see my point at the end of his
letter. Please note the date on the email header below, and do the math for
his work-week. I think this is the only time I have ever posted this email,
and I thank Joe again for writing to me in the first place. I keep a lot of
these sort of emails because most of the time they mean more to me than I
would get from sharing them. SBSmigration.com will be 2 yrs old in the next
week, so this is my tribute to Joe to celebrate my humble start.
- Jeff
PS...as you and I discussed offline, the project you have in mind with the
additional Exchange Server is not a problem.
-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Ruskey
Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2004 7:33 PM
To: SBSmigration.com - Jeff Middleton
Subject: RE: Windows 2000 to 2003 upgrade
Jeff,
It was a large scale implementation to knock out in the short amount of
time. I had planned on at least a week and figured the client would
still have a lot of share re-creation to do after the migration in
regards to the hundreds of user directories. They were expecting it as
well. However, as of 3 PM today, we have finished the project 1 day
ahead of schedule. That doesn't sound like a lot. However, we not
only finished the upgrade of three servers, moved the user shares and
data, tested, and configured. We were able to do their wish list that
they had hoped to get some funds for in the summer to complete. Let me
explain...
This is a school district. They recently had been having a bunch of
problems with server crashes and things just not working correctly.
They had a company came in that ran some tests and said that their
switches had taken some lightning hits(no UPS's) and that the lightning
moved across theCat5 cabling and messed up three of the servers.
The insurance company had decided that they would pay for three servers.
The school bought the three servers and since they had a week for Christmas
vacation,
they decided that this would be the opportune time to do the migration.
They called me in and I hesitantly took the project knowing that it
would take more time.
However, they assured me that if we could get the Active directory
transferred and move the data, then they would set up all the user
shares over the weekend. Since they were in a bind, I hesitantly
agreed. I knew that with the size of the network, we would be lucky to
finish everything within a week. That is when I made the posting on
the Microsoft Web site asking for direction and I believe that you
responded with your link to your website. I checked it out and after
E-mailing you a bit, I was sold.
However, I was finishing up a large 5 month project with another school
district and I had no time to download the tool and review. I ordered
the project the night before I was to begin the project. You sent it
to me and I received it the Monday morning that we were beginning. I
printed all the docs and saved the files to my laptop and I picked up
the other consultant I had brought onto the project. We had a 45
minute drive to the client that morning. During that drive, he read
while I drove. We got to the client that morning and we planned on our
layout, which was quite different than the original. We were moving AD
and DNS to different servers. We were demoting some AD Servers to
member servers, we were creating DNS with forwarders and reverse look
up zones in multiple sites. We were moving data shares to new
dedicated member file servers, etc... After a quick plan session, we
went to work. The servers(3 new) weren't even out of the box.
We unboxed and started working around 11:00 AM Monday morning. We
worked the first day until 5 PM. The next two days, we worked from 8
AM until 5 PM. Today from 8 AM until 3 PM.
As I stated earlier, we not only did everything I mentioned above which
was all we expected to get done by Friday if we worked some very long
days. We also set up Symantec AV on their file servers along with
System Console and rolled out clients. We configured it for Auto
updates and client updates via network servers. We then worked for
approximately one day on cleaning up their active directory and making
it manageable. We also set up multiple Group Polices for Computer OU's
as well as User OU's. We then set up login scripts. Today, we then
went to the multiple schools throughout the district and tested
everything. Not a single problem. We went to the other site connected
via a VPN. It had an AD server out there and replication and
everything was working perfect. We set up Antivirus up there on the
servers with the network config as well. We then went back to the main
site and set up Mac Sharing and configured all of that and got it
working. Finally, we fixed some hardware problems that they had been
having for the past 6 months with a tape drive.
So, we did all of our original planned work plus all the work contained
in the above paragraph, plus we are done 1 day early! I would have to
say that this was worth the $200! I think that the school would agree.
I don't know if you have ever worked for a school district. However,
they have very little budget and the IT staff is not very well trained
because they can't afford to pay a qualified staff member and they
can't afford to train either. A catch-22. So, this school never had a
network that worked correctly with AV, Scripts, Policies, Mac Shares,
etc. They wanted all of that, but just didn't know how or have the
money to pay to get it done.
Well, they have it now. They have over 1200 users and 500 PC's. So,
you can imagine the headaches they had with the non-working network. I
am sure that they are going to truly enjoy the benefits of what has
been done over the next few weeks.
Well, that is my story in a nutshell. Feel free to use whatever you
want for your website. You have my permission to use from this E-mail
or any other E-mails we have sent between each other. If you need
anything else or have any questions, feel free to call or E-mail.
Thanks again Jeff.
Joe Ruskey
Dependable Solutions, Inc.
(608)xxx-xxxx [withheld]
.
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