Server 2003 Hardware Migration … Some Questions

Question

I do some IT work for a small non-profit, but I'm very much in over my head here. They have a Windows Server 2003 Standard machine that is on extremely old hardware. They need it moved to new hardware because the main HDD ran out of space to run the latest Exchange patch (yes, this is not a joke, the primary HDD on the thing is like 30 GB). The new hardware has 2003 Standard installed and their last IT person installed IIS/Appservices before quitting (leaving them where they are now).

Currently this main server that needs migrated to new hardware runs and is responsible for the following:

IIS (serves main website for organization)
Terminal Services
Exchange
Primary DC - Active Directory

So I basically need this already installed machine on new hardware to take over all the roles of this old one? (I think I'm phrasing that right).

Where should I even begin? Are there any guides or tutorials out there that can walk me through this process? I'm budgeting out tonight and all day tomorrow to get this completed and would really appreciate the help as they don't have the money to hire a consultant to perform the work for them. Most of what I have googled gives me a lot of conflicting information and/or seems out of date.

Answer 1

From a security standpoint, this is AWFUL. You should not have a terminal server on a DC OR an Exchange Server, let alone a DC AND Exchange server on the same box.

In your case, keeping security in mind, and assuming you have one additional server license, I would migrate Terminal Server to the new server and get new drives for the old. It's not best practice to have a DC that's also an Exchange Server, but it is supported.

If you only have one license and your plan is to "move" the install to new hardware, you have a problem... the first is that 2003 does not like significant hardware change - and going from an old server to a new server is usually a very significant amount of hardware change. Then there's the license issue - if you have an OEM license (most people do), then the license is legally bound to the hardware its first installed on (typically the motherboard) - you CANNOT move it to new hardware (you CAN upgrade the hard drive in the current system).

I would not advise moving forward just yet - setup a test environment and perform this a couple of times, especially if you've not done anything like this - a great way for this to cause you serious problems is to proceed without knowing what you're doing first.

In the mean time, I would suggest you take a look at this to free up space: www.lwcomputing.com/tips/static/bootdrivesize.asp

And this for getting more/appropriate Windows Licenses at a very minimal cost: www.techsoup.org

Also, it's not clear, but I get the feeling you are not using RAID on this server... I strongly encourage you to make sure it's used on the next server to protect against single disk failure.