Advice on Upgrading MS 2003 Server

[Captain_Amazing]

Okay, Just started working with Microsoft Servers and I have been given the following challenge:

1. We need to upgrade our Server 2003 in the data centre.

2. We need new hardware, can you make some recommendations?

3. We already have a Windows Server 2012 license.

4. We also need a plan to migrate from the one server to the other. The servers will only be hosting websites on IIS and MS SQL.


Any Advice or pointers that I can research on?

 

[IguBu]

Hi,

Some of the points require a bit more than one line to answer, and I would strongly recommend getting expert skills involved, unless it's not production boxes and you are just upgrading for the sake of it.

I'll try help with a bit of questions of my own

You mention "IIS and MS SQL" - does this imply they will be " hosting " something like a public website? Reason I ask (not to sound negative) but your standard OS 2012 License, and SQL licensing is not adequate for public hosting. You need a different OS license, and a very expensive SQL license.

1. - Hardware recommendations:
I'm a fan of Dell hardware, they are simply to use, but more importantly their service on professional warranties are better than anybody. Just make sure you take out " pro support" - often changing a 3 year Next Business Day warranty to 3 Years PRO NBD is only a few rands more. If the applications are mission critical, take a 4 Hour to fix Pro Support (within 4 hours on site with you replacement part) - It is more $ though.

With regards to what hardware - there are many different options, all depends on what you are going to do on it - Running some virtualisation? (Vmware?) - only a single OS, or different ones? What about backups? If virtual, you would need some disk space to store backups (called snapshots) - and I can make recommendations of very good (and even free options) for virtual environments.

With regards to migration/upgrade - there is no upgrade path to 2012 from 2003 - so you would have to install your new OS, and manually move what you want over.

The rest of the questions cannot really be answered in more details without more info. As a short description what I would recommend:

1. Hardware: Something Like a Dell Poweredge 520 server (add 6 or 8 internal disks, Raid controller etc)
2. Software:
Use VMwares free esxi hypervisor - brilliant for small single sites, and allows you to run a few boxes on the same hardware. You can also use the trial version of vmware converter - this will allow you to "convert" the physical server and it's OS and all apps to a virtual copy - at least you have it on new hardware until you can migrate apps /websites - and you can also run the new OS on the same hardware in parallel. For Backups I would use something like Veeam. (free/very cheap for basic option)

Hope it helps!

 

[kianm]

1. We need to upgrade our Server 2003 in the data centre.

Is the current server 2003 a physical or virtual box ( most certainly physical) . My advice would be to move to a virtualised environment it's easier to work with backups are easier and you can rapidly deploy servers as needed.

To migrate to the modern versions of Windows Server 2012 it makes more sense to do a clean install. I did an upgrade sometime last year from server 2003 R2 to server 2012 and it involved fresh installs inside virtual machines and then moving the data and roles across to the new machines.

2. We need new hardware, can you make some recommendations?

As per the previous post Dell gets my vote and I also actually got a Poweredge R520 as advised. Dell support is great from their desktop to server support they are just good.

3. We already have a Windows Server 2012 license.

Is this a Foundation/Standard/Datacenter license? On the standard license you will be entitled to install 2 virtual instances of server 2012. On datacenter you have unlimited instances. See this link and get the Pdf from there that explains the licensing. If you max out your licensed virtual machines the physical machine can not be used for anything else but hosting the HyperV role. I personally would recommend the alternative Hypervisors like Vmware of Citrix's Xenserver ( all features free on the Citrix option except pro support)

4. We also need a plan to migrate from the one server to the other. The servers will only be hosting websites on IIS and MS SQL.

Is this a public hosting company or its internal servers for your compnay? Same applies as per above since you will be moving from server 2003 to fresh hardware running server 2012 you will probably need to manually move those backed up sql bak files and IIS sites. For this you might need to schedule some downtime as you migrate the hosts and ensure you have all the relevant skilled people on standby (for your IIS and SQL server)