Windows 2K to 2003 backup/restore problem

[Gary Smith]

Here is the scenario. We upgraded Exchange 2k to 2003 some months
ago. We then upgraded the server, Win2K to 2003. Machine is fine and
stable. Everything for the most part is peachy. The problem is that
we have outgrown the hardware. So what we have done is a full backup
using Veritas 9.1, built out a new machine (as per the recommended
directions from veritas) and then restored the data. The machine
fails to boot. Upon investigation we have found that it's because
Win2K defaulted to c:\winnt and 2003 to c:\windows.

We have ran many backup/restore scenarios but this is the first one on
an upgraded machine. Is there any advice on how to fix this problem?
A colleague mentioned that I might get away with renaming the c:\winnt
directory, running some heavy registry hacks and then modifying the
boot.ini file. Then do another backup.

Is there a tool to rename such a directory (either on 2000 or 2003).
During the 2003 setup you cannot specify the install location. I know
I can do a double install which will let me but there must be a
simpler way that I'm just missing.

TIA

Gary Smith

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Here is the scenario. We upgraded Exchange 2k to 2003 some months
ago. We then upgraded the server, Win2K to 2003. Machine is fine and
stable. Everything for the most part is peachy. The problem is that
we have outgrown the hardware. So what we have done is a full backup
using Veritas 9.1, built out a new machine (as per the recommended
directions from veritas) and then restored the data. The machine
fails to boot. Upon investigation we have found that it's because
Win2K defaulted to c:\winnt and 2003 to c:\windows.

We have ran many backup/restore scenarios but this is the first one on
an upgraded machine. Is there any advice on how to fix this problem?
A colleague mentioned that I might get away with renaming the c:\winnt
directory, running some heavy registry hacks and then modifying the
boot.ini file. Then do another backup.

Is there a tool to rename such a directory (either on 2000 or 2003).
During the 2003 setup you cannot specify the install location. I know
I can do a double install which will let me but there must be a
simpler way that I'm just missing.

TIA

Gary Smith

- What are you actually trying to restore: the OS, MS Exchange, or
the Exchange Information Store?
- Renaming c:\winnt to c:\windows is easily achieved but would be
suicidal. You would almost certainly cripple your machine, even
with registry hacks.
- You can specify the OS target location by creating the folder c:\Windows
prior to commencing the OS installation. You will then get a prompt
for the desired target folder.
- Have you considered decoupling your information store from the
OS, by keeping it on a drive of its own?

 

[Gary Smith]

We were hoping for a painless hardware upgrade. As this is the only
Exchange server in the environment I will probably build a new out and
then migrate the data OR ghost the existing image to the new drive,
boot it in the original server, set IDE and Computer to standard and
the put it into the new computer. This has worked for us in the past
on workstations. The old server is a 1.3ghz P3 with 512mb of ram.
(was originally running Windows 2K for last 4 years (since the release
of 2K). We have a large mail store and there is basically a memory
limitation that we are running into now. The new machine is running
Dual Xeon with 4GB ram.

Gary

 

[Gary Smith]

All attempts at this have failed thus far. This has raised some
concerns for our overall disaster recovery plan. There is an MS
article on the hardware upgrade
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=822945&product=exch2003.

I will be building out the new machine using the standard folder
convention. After we do the recovery we will then do some
backup/restore testing to an additional machine. We have always had
success rovering Exchange/SQL/AD on 2K and testing worked well under
2003. The only ones that have failed were machines that were upgraded
from 2000 to 2003.

Gary

 

[Gary Smith]

We followed the MS article for upgrading to new hardware and it worked
like a charm. We rebuilt the new machine with the same name, shutdown
the old box, reset the domain account for that server, added the new
machine to the domain, ran the exchange server 2003 in disaster
recovery mode, updated it to sp1 and then did the restore. When
completed everything was on the new machine just fine. We then did a
full backup, pulled the disk drives out, put new ones in, rebuilt the
box and then did the restore. Our DRP is back in operation.