File Server Migration

[SK90]

Friends, I have a virtual machine running on standalone hypervisor operating system is 2k8r2 . Hardware of the server on which this VM is running is completely outdated. This VM host file Server means thousands of shares folder and bulk no. of permissions. Now I need to migrate this file server to new hardware and demanding OS is windows 2012R2. Can we use this approach to simply copy the Virtual Hard disk from 2K8R2 VM and attach to 2K12R2 VM. Is it possible, if yes how much it's safe from data perspective, no issue with shared folders and ACL's.

What is your approach to achieve this task with zero loss? Please suggest.

[Davoud Teimouri]

I think, there is some options to choose:

1. Prepare another VM as new file server and move data to new server (If the VM is joined to domain, there is no issue about ACL)
2. Create backup from VM and restore to another host.
3. Copy/Clone VMDK file from old host to new host and then attach it to new virtual machine.

[SK90]

Davoud, which one do you think safe, time saver & reliable approach out of suggested 3 ways?

1. Prepare another VM as new file server and move data to new server (If the VM is joined to domain, there is no issue about ACL)
2. Create backup from VM and restore to another host.
3. Copy/Clone VMDK file from old host to new host and then attach it to new virtual machine.

[a_p_]

In order to provide a recommendation, you need to provide some details about the server.

• are OS, and data on the same virtual disk, or on separate virtual disks?
• do you have any applications installed on the server, which has data located on the OS partition?
• are only domain users/groups, or well known SIDs use for NTFS permissions?

In case your file system permissions are set using just common SIDs, and the data is is located on separate virtual disks, then it might be possible to add the data disk(s) to a new virtual server. Shares can be exported from the old server's registry, and imported on the new one.

An alternative would be to do an in-place upgrade from 2009R2 to 2012R2.

Options to migrate the VM to the new host are:

• use the built in migration function (in case you have vCenter Server in place)
• backup/restore
• export/import
• clone directly using ovftool

In any case, make sure that you have a backup, in case something doesn't work as expected.

André

[SK90]

Andre, My reply

In order to provide a recommendation, you need to provide some details about the server.

• are OS, and data on the same virtual disk, or on separate virtual disks? >> No, separate disks
• do you have any applications installed on the server, which has data located on the OS partition? >> No such application installed which data points to OS partition
• are only domain users/groups, or well known SIDs use for NTFS permissions? >> Domain users/groups

VM's are not part or vCenter.

[compwizpro]

My recommendation would be to build a new server and robocopy the data.  You can use the /e /copy:dats /mir switches to mirror the data and copy all the attributes over including ACLs.  As other people mentioned, as long as the machine is domain joined or using well known SIDs, permissions will copy just fine.

That way, you are only migrating the data and leaving the old OS and all the old artifacts that came with it behind.

[SK90]

Thanks Gents for sharing your expertise.