Installing new hardware

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tim
  • Start date Start date
T

Tim

I have an Active Directory server that is in need of some
hardware replacement/upgrade. Unfortunately the new
motherboard has different chipsets than the original and
I know I will have to reinstall W2kAS. My question is,
what is the best way to restore my Active Directory
information once that is done.

From what I gather, it seems as easy as using the windows
backup utility to back up the system state, install the
server on the new hardware then promote the server and do
a restore of the system state.

Is this the way to do this? Is there another way? I do
not currently have a BDC, but could promote one easily if
necessary.

I would really hate to have to completely rework all the
policies, shares, users etc.

Thanks!!
 
I would build a temporary DC and have it up and running
before you take down your main DC. Give all FSMO roles to
the temp DC and then do a DCPromo on the soon-to-be-
rebuilt DC. Rebuild your DC, add it back to the domain,
do a DCPROMO, move FSMO roles back and then demote your
temp DC. This maintains the ability for users to function
on the network and it makes the process go easily.
 
Well, this was much easier than I thought....

First, I used made an image of the machine as it stood
just before shutdown just in case everything went wrong.
Then I made the hardware change and tried to boot the
system. As expected, inaccessible boot device. So I
booted from the W2kAS CDrom. The expected behavior did
not happen, I was not able to do an in place upgrade as I
had read in KB articles was possible, so I aborted the
install and just searched some more for the answer. The
wierd thing I noticed was that for the repair install,
the CD did not recognize any windows installations, but
when I went forward to see what would happen with a full
install, it recognized the install and said it would all
be overwritten.

That got me thinking, "Why can it see the isntall but not
recognize it to uprade?".

Service Packs!!! Yes Service Packs must be the answer,
so off I went to create a SP4 slipstream install CD.
Booted from the CD and sure enough, the install routine
recognized my existing install and was able to repair the
installation, after which I had to reinstall additional
security updates and make one minor registry edit for
remote desktop to work again.

Everything is up and running and I did not have to
rebuild my entire AD or anything.

Thanks for the help folks.

Tim
 
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