Server Upgrade Suggestions

[SKrueger]

Just looking for some opinions, suggestions, or guidelines on a server upgrade I need to do. Upgrading a Windows SBS 2003 to Server 2012 R2 Essentials. Originally I had planned on going through the migration process, but my understanding is with R2 they removed the migration wizard and the migration can get kind of complicated. While I am comfortable working with our servers I am by no means a network server engineer. We only have a small number of users however (<10) so I was considering just setting up the 2012 server as a whole new domain and setting up new user accounts. Even with moving data, recreating group policies, etc. I think that might be the easier route.

Any suggestions/comments?

Thanks

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

With that little users I would start from scratch. Easier to setup and you don't carry over any issues that may have been on the old server.

 

[KE4EST]

I agree with Scott, would be way easier to start a new set-up, with just a hand full of users.

 

[Foxbat]

Plus, your Windows 2003 is probably 32-bit, and Windows 2012 R2 server is 64-bit only. There is no direct patch from 32-bit to 64-bit in Windows World.

I would be concerned that your hardware is old enough that it may not have drivers for Win 2012 R2. I ran into this with a Gen 6 HP ProLiant server. It wasn't that old, but while the NIC was fine, there were some issues with the display and RAID.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Plus, your Windows 2003 is probably 32-bit, and Windows 2012 R2 server is 64-bit only. There is no direct patch from 32-bit to 64-bit in Windows World.

I would be concerned that your hardware is old enough that it may not have drivers for Win 2012 R2. I ran into this with a Gen 6 HP ProLiant server. It wasn't that old, but while the NIC was fine, there were some issues with the display and RAID.

I got the same problem in my office.

Upgrading the os on my server basically involves buying a whole new server