Gadgetopia

[Note: For updated information about this problem, and details of (1) a hardware migration to a new server, and (2) a same-time upgrade from SBS 2000 to 2003, check out this post from July 23, 2005.]

Well, I was in the office until 4 a.m., but I think I actually made the transition from one Small Business Server to another. Problem is, they both want to be Primary Domain Controllers, so they both can’t be on the network at the same time.

The process — was a matter of shutting down all the services on the old server, moving many GBs of data to a neutral machine (my desktop workstation), then disconnecting the old server from the network, bringing the new server online, and moving all the data over there.

After that I ran into the dreaded NT “phantom machine” problem, and I had to remove and re-add every machine from the domain.  In the process, some of the Windows profiles got reset, but all we lost were some desktop icons.  Finally, for some reason, I have two mailboxes for every user in my Exchange server.

Huge, huge, pain, but the new server is up and running and a process that took six minutes on the old one takes but 12 seconds on the new one, so I’m not complaining.