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by Andy Goodman
Well it is time to install the servers and, as promised
earlier, detail how to transfer our data from the old SBS 4.5 System to the new
SBS 2000 System. As mentioned in the first article of the series, don’t try to
do an “In Place” upgrade of the SBS 4.x Server. I have yet to see it work
completely. That is why we are having to transfer the data.
The fourth article in Andy Goodman’s Microsoft Small Business Server 2000 series focuses on installing servers and transferring data from old SBS 4.5 Systems to the new SBS 2000 System.
Servers
Installing the Servers is really pretty straight
forward. The folks at Microsoft really listened on this one. You can now pick
and choose which Servers you want to install, unlike previous versions where you
had no choice but to install everything. Of course, you have your plan (remember
you wrote it out when we started) so you know which ones you’re going to
install. Most people I’ve talked to start off with Exchange, ISA and the Fax
Server. You can always go back and add or remove servers with SBS 2000, so you’re not
locked into this decision.
After you have rebooted from the first part of the
installation (where we left off in part 2) you are presented with the option to
continue the install. Choose not to at this time, you’ll get another chance
every time you reboot until you finish. Take this opportunity to checkout the newly installed server. Make sure everything is working correctly and you
have no errors in the logs. We need a solid foundation to build on. When you’re
sure everything is good, reboot and choose to start the install. DC-promo will
run and convert the server to a Domain Controller installing Active Directory in
the process. You have nothing to do at this point but maybe have a coke. The
installation program will reboot and present you the list of choices I discussed
above. From here on it is pretty much automated, and you can relax again until
the install finishes. When it does you will be presented with a to do list.
User Accounts
Of course you add users with the Add User link on the to
do list which you can always find in the Administrators Console. You
should create all the user accounts before moving the data so the structure is
already in place. That isn’t the main reason for this section, however.
We need to talk about preparing the user accounts on the
old system for the data transfer. Now that everyone is off the system, you need
to take over control of the data. You can’t move it if you don’t have
permissions. The easiest way I have found to do this is to open a DOS box (OK,
command window) and run the following command from the root of each drive. CACLS * /e /t /c /g Administrator:F System:F
If cacls comes to a file that it can’t change the rights to it stops and displays
the file and the path so you can take ownership of it. Then you just re-run
the command again until it completes successfully. Don’t worry about messing up
the permissions of these files and folders. We are going to get rid of all those
conflicts in the next section.
Just one more thing related to user accounts we need to
take care of before moving on. You need to change the passwords on all the user
accounts to something simple you will remember like sbs+upgrade. You will need
to be able to log on as each user, and since you probably don’t know all the passwords
(and even if you do), this will simplify you life for the next few hours.
The Data Transfer
There is more than one type of data and more than one location
the data is stored in that we need to be concerned with. Of course everybody’s
layout is different, but there are some generalizations we can apply. You have a
Users Folder somewhere with sub-folders for each user. You also have
private exchange data, public exchange data and maybe an internal or
external website hosted on the SBS box. You may have some SQL data also,
although I have yet to meet anyone using SBS who does. If you are one of
the few, please make sure to check out the Microsoft KB article
Q314546 as I won’t be going into it here.
So we are almost ready to transfer, but we need a place to
transfer to. I recommend either finding a workstation with a big empty drive or
just adding one to an existing workstation. Make sure it is a reasonably
powerful system. The main thing we want to do is format this drive or large
partition using Fat32 not NTFS. By doing this we will wipe out all the old
security information and make sure it does not come back to haunt us later. All
of the SID’s on all those files will be orphaned when we move them to the new
server if we use an NTFS partition. Since Fat32 has no way to deal with
SID’s they will be discarded and we can start clean on the new SBS 2000 system.
So now you can copy all the users’ data to the temporary
partition we just created by dragging and dropping the entire users folder tree
in explorer. If you have public and private user folders, make sure you copy
them both. Don’t forget the Company folder and any custom folders you may
have created on the system. While you are at it, create a folder off the root of the
new partition called 1_pst_files which will be used later. By using this
name trick the file will show up at the top of an alphabetical list.
Next, if you have a public or private website hosted on the
old SBS box, fire up FrontPage, open the site and re-publish it (or them) to the
temporary system.
Export Personal Data
Lastly, but the one step that will cause you the most grief
with users if something goes wrong, is the Exchange Data. There is a utility for
exporting the mailboxes available on the Microsoft site, but I have had
unofficial warnings not to trust it. So we’ll do it the old fashioned way. You
may have never had to do this, so I will try to detail it for you with a number
of screen shots. You are going to need to log on to our temporary workstation as
each user (one by one) and perform the following procedure. Aren’t you glad we changed
all those passwords to the same one earlier!
1. Open Outlook, you are logged on as the user so you see
all their data.
2. Make sure you are showing the Folder List, if not, click View then
Folder List
3. Click once on the top of the tree; it will say Outlook Today – Mailbox – [(UserName)]
4. Click File, then Import and Export…
5. Click Export to a file, Click
Next
6. Click Personal Folder File (.pst), Click
Next
7. In the “Select folder to export from:”, pick
Mailbox – (UserName)
8. Make sure to check Include Subfolders
9. In the “Save exported file as:” field, set it to our handy
folder on the temporary drive and name the file with the user’s name you are
currently logged in as, and don’t forget the .pst file extension. Take the default of
Replace duplicates with items exported. That way if you have to rerun for
any reason you will have the most current data with no duplicates.
10. The window below appears with Personal Folders under
name
11. I like to change it to the User’s
Name so I don’t get
lost during the process.
12. Give the file your handy temporary password (the one
you used for all the user accounts) This will keep your users’ Exchange Data
private if someone else gets on the temporary system. Do not check the save
password box.
13. Now depending on how much the user has stored in
Exchange, the wizard will export the data.
14. You will see a number of these windows go by, one for
each folder or sub-folder. Some go by so quick you won’t even see them.
15. When it is done, you will have a file for the user you
were logged on as.
16. This sample I did of my own Exchange Data was about
614 Mb and took a little under 1/2 hour. Of course I am a pack rat.
Export Public Folders
Now if you have Public Folders with data in them, you
will need to log on as the owner of each folder and repeat this process changing
step 7 to the public folder you want to save. If you have more than one, do them
individually by the owner.
Import Personal & Public Folders
When you are ready to Import the Users Exchange Data, just
follow the same procedure for each user and each public folder changing step 5 to Import from another program or file
Finishing Up the Data
Transfer
Later when you have the rest of the server configured (the to do list),
you can fire up FrontPage again and re-publish your websites to the new SBS 2000
Server. This would also be a good time to copy back all the user’s private and
public data. Make sure you copy the data and not move it. If you copy the data
it will inherit the permissions of the user’s folder you copy it into. If you
move the data, it retains the permissions it currently has which are everyone by
default, as it is coming from a Fat32 partition.
Notes
Next time I will have some tips and gotchas to watch out
for when you configure your server.
Also coming soon, a review of
Executive
Software’s Site Keeper
Additional SBS Resources
DownHome Computers (my
company) Specializes in Small Business Server
The folks at MCP have given us a forum for SBS you can
find it HERE
A great book on SBS read the REVIEW
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