Migrating server (whs 2011) to new hardware

[Caveman]

I am in the (long, slow and painful) process of moving from WHS v1 to Whs 2011. As I have more data than spare drives I am having to take the long and painful route of copying all my data from Whs v1 (Box A) to a clean install of WHS v2 (Box B ) and finally take WHS v2 back onto Box A. I found the thread HERE which suggested I could simply take the drives out of Box B and plug them into Box A and the machine would take care of all the driver issues. The suggested procedure was:

 

1. Release license on drivepool/scanner

2. Build new system

3. Plug all the drives in and everything will be just as is

 

Being that (in my painful experience) nothing is ever that simple - has anyone successfully moved hardware this way (ie. simply move the drives piecemeal)?

Do I need to use sysprep first to generalize the hardware (I assume this forces the new machine to re-install / rebuild the drivers from scratch - avoiding conflicts?)

 

 

I'm in the process of copying all the files from WHS v1 to 2011 (2 day and change according to the estimate...) Once that's done I see three options.

 

1. Fresh install of WHS 2011 on Box A and copy all the files back again (another 2-3 days)
2. Backup the WHS 2011 install on Box B and restore it to Box A; then move the hard drives across and hope they are recognised
3. Use the system above and simply move the HDDs across from Box B to A once the copyin is done.

I really don't want an unstable build so if anyone has done this could you let me know what you did and how well it worked?

[Christopher (Drashna)]

No, you don't want to sysprep the system at all. This may (most likely) break the system and leave it in an unusable state.

 

As for moving the system disk, WHS2011 should be pretty good about it, but it may not work.

If you're using very similar hardware, then it should work. Otherwise, you may run into issues.

You can try, and if it fails, moving back should be fine.

 

Otherwise, deactivate the licenses, reinstall WHS2011 and reactivate both. Once you've done that, move the pooled disks over, and reshared the pooled locations.

 

If you're just moving the pooled disks around, StableBit DrivePool is very flexible and very resilient. It has no issue with moving disks to a new system and recognizing the pool (the only caveat is that you need to move all the disks in the pool over, or it won't know about the "other" disks). 

Once you've moved the disks over, it will recognized the pooled disks and recreate the pool automatically. You may need to run the "WSS Troubleshooter" utility to reshare the pooled folders, though.

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Utilities

 

 

 

And just to clarify, I've moved the pool around like this a few times. Also, I use a single pool between multiple VMs, and just swap the "disks" between the VMs. So, it's well tested.

[Caveman]

Thanks for the quick response - glad I decided to go with drivepool - legendary customer service swung it for me! Shortly after posting I found Shane's excellent post on migrating from WHS v1 to 2011 - typical - but TBH I have so many issues with the WHS v1 box now that I'm happier wiping what I can (2 of the drives are now critical and they are littered with CRC errors and broken / unreadable files.)

 

So - could you just idiot check my current plan for me:

 

1. Backup vital files to 2Tb sata drive (done!)
2. Remove broken drives from the WHS v1 DE pool
3. Disconnect all drives - insert new drive and install 2011
4. Reconnect old DE drives and follow the advice in Shane's post
5. Reconnect the Backup drive (with the "can't lose" data") - it's photos / documents / music - I promise I will RTFM - but is it a simple process off adding the drive to the DP and then moving the directories to the new share locations?
6. Sacrifice chicken to server gods and pray?

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Ouch, I'm sorry to hear about the drives!

 

Since I wasn't sure, if you actually are migrating from WHSv1, then you'll want to check this out:

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q5463715

This is based on Shane's post, but improvements have been made, and the guide has been streamlined.

 

 

As for #5, pretty much:

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q4142489

This is a "seeding" guide, and very similar to the other guide, but for content that isn't in a Drive Extender Pool.

[Caveman]

Fantastic - thanks for that - given the issues with the drives I have decided that a completely clean start is the way forward so I won't be using the DE->DP transfer. I am in the process of transferring the last of the non-critical data to my new 4tb drive - once that is done I will use the wiki guide you posted to add it to the new (clean) server build. I'm going to treat that as the dress rehearsal - it it works smoothly I can then use the same system to move the critical stuff!

[Christopher (Drashna)]

If you're having issues with the drives, then that may be a good idea.

 

As for the wiki, it's definitely a tried and true method. You shouldn't have any issues with it.

However, if you do, then please let us know and we'll try to help you however we can.